Government environmental education programmes and campaigns (EEPCs) in Mozambique : the role of indigenous knowledge and practices

Abstract

Faced with dynamic and rapidly deteriorating environmental conditions, the government of Mozambique has embarked on environmental education programmes and campaigns (EEPCs) as a strategy for natural resource management and environmental conservation. However, there is increasing evidence to suggest that the implementation of these EEPCs in local communities are often lacking when it comes to community participation and contribution. The latter has often been cited as a major reason for the limited success of such EEPCs. To date there is little research work that explores the issues on the integration of local community Knowledge and practices, and community reactions to such environmental education programmes and campaigns anywhere in the world. Mozambique, a developing country in Africa, is no exception to this trend of ignorance. This research investigated the extent to which local knowledge and practices are integrated into The EEPCs that are implemented by the government of Mozambique. The focus was on the local community’s perceptions, engagements and reactions to the EEPCs. The study was conducted in four districts of the Nampula province in Northern Mozambique. The data were collected through in-depth interviews, documentary analysis and non-participant observations. The findings of the study showed that there is a lack of substantial involvement by the local community in all stages of the development process of the EEPCs. Furthermore, the study found evidence of partial and /or unsuccessful implementation of the projects in all four communities studied. The research concluded by arguing that without such active involvement of the local people in planning, designing, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and decision-making processes of EEPCs, the frustrations of government officials and the lack of substantial implementation of the projects in the communities that were studied should not have come as a surprise.