Azizulmanal Abdul Karim

Abdul Rahim Abdul Hamid

Abstract

Conservation Education is an essential and vital function of modern zoos today. The programme helps to increase the knowledge of wildlife conservation and public awareness. Zoo Melaka has conducted a special programme for school children, aged 10 to 12 years. Target group was chosen from various schools in Melaka in collaboration with the State Education Department. To date 20,000 students have participated in this programme since it was introduced in 1990.

A Zoo is a place where wild animals are kept in captivity and exhibited. It also plays an important role in breeding wild animals, especially the endangered species. Besides that, research was carried out to find suitable methods to increase the population in an ex-situ environment.

By providing such facilities, Zoo Melaka has created a learning ground for the public especially the young generation to increase the understanding and appreciation of wildlife conservation.

Zoo Melaka is also a resource centre for learning wildlife conservation and it acts as a living classroom with a stimulating and conducive environment for students to learn more about wild animals.

The main objective of this programme is to increase the knowledge of wildlife conservation and to enhance public awareness within the target group. It is also to create a better understanding and appreciation of wildlife and its conservation.

For the past years Zoo Melaka has been working together with the State Education Department to organise this programme. The State Education Department chooses the schools and students while Zoo Melaka provides the programme, places, educator and facilities.

The programme was conducted twice a week catering for 70 students at one time. It is fully conducted by Zoo Melaka educators. The target group involved in this programme are students from the primary school who are studying in standard 4, 5 and 6, aged 10-12 years old. They are selected from various schools in Malacca. The programme starts from 9.00 am until 12.00 noon every Tuesday and Thursday.

Table 1: Schools Involved In The Programme From 1990 - 1997

The Programme consists of 3 segments:

Lecture

Video show

Questionnaires and tour guide

Usually the students were given lecture mainly on wildlife conservation and information about Zoo Melaka. The topics includes:

Functions of Zoos

The Animal Kingdom

Biodiversity

Causes of Extinction

Law and Enforcement

To convey these messages, slide and over-head projectors are used. These programmes last for only 1 hour.

After having the lecture, the students will be shown a video documentary on Zoo Melaka. This film is very comprehensive, telling all about the Zoo. It gave a clear picture on Zoo Melaka before they continued with the next activity.

So far all the students who have attended this programme were pleased with the film. They really enjoyed the film. The video documentary was made professionally and it cost about RM40,000.00. This documentary film lasts for about 25 minutes.

This is the field activity to provide the students exposure and experience about the zoo environment. Students are given modules with questionnaires on endangered species. The modules include animals such as Sumatran Rhinos, Elephants, Orang utans, Otters and Macaws.

Before they proceed, they are divided into 5 groups. Each group will have different modules. These modules are specially designed according to the target group psychology. Through these modules, the students are not only exposed to animals in the zoo, but they can learn various subjects such English, Mathematics, Art and so on, using animals as a subject matter. This 1½ hours programme also includes tour guides. As soon as they finished the programme, they are given refreshment sponsored by the zoo management.

Recently Zoo Melaka made a survey throughout 200 primary schools in the state of Malacca regarding the Conservation Education Programme that was conducted and 120 schools has given the feedback. The method used is by sending questionnaires to various schools.

Generally, 23 schools that have participated in this programme would want to attend again while the remaining 97 schools that have not participated, have shown positive response. The results is shown in table 3 .

At the end of these programmes, students are gathered together at the amphitheater. They are given chances to make any comments on the advantages and disadvantages of the programme. Evaluation forms are provided to each of the students to encourage them to give suggestions to improve the programme.

It is hoped that this programme will contribute to the society by making the young generation more conscious and aware of the issues related to nature and the environment. Further more, it will help to enhance and increase the students’ skills and knowledge thus creating a generation with high sensitive towards wildlife conservation.