Development and validation of a photo-based attitudes scale towards the conservation of semi-arid habitats

The biodiversity crisis is one of the most pressing problems of our time. Arid and semi-arid environments are the refuge of a very important part of global biodiversity, they provide essential ecosystem services and are extremely fragile, which makes their protection necessary. However, these habitats are often undervalued and even generate rejection among the population, which creates problems for their conservation. This all entails the need to implement educational and awareness strategies in regard to this issue. To this end, a project was undertaken with secondary school students in the southeast of Spain, the driest territory in Europe. In this work we focus on the development and validation of an instrument designed to assess the effectiveness of instruction carried out to improve attitudes towards drylands. It is a photo-based scale, an innovative instrument that poses a Likert-type questionnaire referring to each one of the habitats under consideration, whose development involved 490 participants. The standardization criteria established for selecting the photos and the criteria or attributes on which the wordings of the questionnaire items were to be based comprised two of the basic pillars of this methodological proposal. Its psychometric properties support its validity and reliability to a sufficient degree for use in educational research projects with students aged 13 to 15 in these types of semi-arid habitats. However, indications are provided showing that the scale could be applied to other ages and habitats, even on an international scale, given the extent of arid zones around the world.

Automated summary

The biodiversity crisis is a pressing issue and arid and semi-arid environments play a crucial role in global biodiversity. However, these habitats are often undervalued and rejected, requiring educational and awareness strategies to improve attitudes towards them.