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Understanding the Relation with Nature in the City: Biodiversity Knowledge and Environmental Awareness in a Periurban Area of Quito, Ecuador

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Sustainability, Energy and City (CSECity 2021)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems ((LNNS,volume 379))

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Abstract

The development of ecological sustainability within cities requires raising awareness among citizens of the importance of biodiversity for their daily lives. We evaluated the biodiversity awareness of high school students and their families, working with two schools in Guayllabamba, part of the Metropolitan District of Quito, Ecuador. A total of 405 people answered a survey to evaluate their knowledge about basic biological concepts, urban biodiversity and environmental awareness. People in Guayllabamba have some biodiversity knowledge, mainly for domestic or human-related species, with emphasis on those with direct human uses (food and medicine). The surveyed citizens showed a positive environmental awareness attitude, they consider biodiversity important and use it in their lives. However, we identified gaps in which environmental education should focus for clarifying concepts like “endemic”, “native” or “wild”. Ecosystem contribution of biodiversity is neither well understood. Our results point out AN utilitarian knowledge of nature that can be related to a periurban area where agriculture and farmland still have important presence, and where the daily contact with biodiversity remains. The reinforcement of biological awareness driven by environmental education may be a key component to promote environmentally friendly urban development in the area.

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Acknowledgments

To the students, their family and friends, and teachers at Unidad Educativa San Francisco de Quito and Colegio Nacional Guayllabamba. To Universidad Tecnológica Indomérica for funding. To Juan Guzmán for his help with paperwork. Special thanks to Andres Izurieta for his help with the bureaucracy at both schools, and to Yolanda Martínez for her invaluable support all along the project in Guayllabamba.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica, Facultad de Ciencias de Medio Ambiente, Ingeniería en Biodiversidad y Recursos Genéticos, and Centro de Investigación de la Biodiversidad y Cambio Climático (BioCamb), Quito, 170301, Ecuador

    Belén Morales-Espín, Flor Ortiz, Enmily Sánchez-Lara, Mónica Páez-Vacas, Kevin Muñoz-Lara, Erick Bravo-Vera, Daniela Franco-Mena, Natasha Baer, Nora H. Oleas & Ibon Tobes

  2. Laboratorio de Biología Evolutiva, Instituto Biósfera, Colegio de Ciencias Biológicas y Ambientales, Universidad San Francisco de Quito USFQ, Quito, Ecuador

    Daniela Franco-Mena

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  1. Belén Morales-Espín
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  2. Flor Ortiz
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  3. Enmily Sánchez-Lara
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  10. Ibon Tobes
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Correspondence to Ibon Tobes .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica, Ambato, Ecuador

    Manuel Ignacio Ayala Chauvin

  2. Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, Noord-Brabant, The Netherlands

    Miguel Botto-Tobar

  3. Universidad de Guayaquil, Guayaquil, Ecuador

    Angela Díaz Cadena

  4. Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas (ESPE), Quito, Ecuador

    Sergio Montes León

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Morales-Espín, B. et al. (2022). Understanding the Relation with Nature in the City: Biodiversity Knowledge and Environmental Awareness in a Periurban Area of Quito, Ecuador. In: Chauvin, M.I.A., Botto-Tobar, M., Díaz Cadena, A., Montes León, S. (eds) Sustainability, Energy and City. CSECity 2021. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 379. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94262-5_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94262-5_7

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-94261-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-94262-5

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