Awareness raising activities in Cabo Verde
News
Tropibio/Cibio researcher participant Dr Raquel Vasconcelos worked with a local school to raise awareness about the ecological importance of reptiles on Fogo Island, Cabo Verde.
Dr Vasconcelos was part of a team made up of participants from Tropibio/Cibio, University of Coimbra, University of Aveiro, and the Vitó Project (a non-governmental organization of Cabo Verde). The team worked with around 30 students from the 9th to the 11th grade of a school on the island of Fogo to plan and film a video that alerts the local population to the importance of conserving the Endangered and endemic Vaillant's skink (lagarto chinel or lagarto de Vaillant in Portuguese), in order to reverse the long and difficult relationship between reptiles and humans on the Island. The students also answered questionnaires to assess their attitudes towards reptiles and the importance attributed to the conservation of these animals, before and after work. The results were published in the journal Science of The Total Environment.
To know more about this news, read here.
Dr Vasconcelos was part of a team made up of participants from Tropibio/Cibio, University of Coimbra, University of Aveiro, and the Vitó Project (a non-governmental organization of Cabo Verde). The team worked with around 30 students from the 9th to the 11th grade of a school on the island of Fogo to plan and film a video that alerts the local population to the importance of conserving the Endangered and endemic Vaillant's skink (lagarto chinel or lagarto de Vaillant in Portuguese), in order to reverse the long and difficult relationship between reptiles and humans on the Island. The students also answered questionnaires to assess their attitudes towards reptiles and the importance attributed to the conservation of these animals, before and after work. The results were published in the journal Science of The Total Environment.
To know more about this news, read here.
Reference:
Fonseca, C. A., Sá-Pinto, X., Dinis, H. A., & Vasconcelos, R. (2021). Shooting skinks for good: Producing a movie improves attitudes towards a threatened species. Science of The Total Environment.
(Photo: Herculano Dinis, from Projecto Vitó with Vaillant's skink - photo by Raquel Vasconcelos)