Exposure Visits and Biodiversity Conservation: Can Field Visits affect the Conservation Cognizance?

The study attempted to assess the change in students' cognizance towards biodiversity and conservation due to exposure visits. About 163 students, who visited the Institute of Forest Biodiversity (ICFRE-IFB), Hyderabad, during February and March 2023 for an exposure visit, form the respondent group. The survey schedule consisted of two components: i) a structured survey-where students were asked to respond to pre-defined questions, and ii) students were requested to do annotated drawings before and after the visit. Survey responses were subjected to statistical tests and correspondence analysis. Pre- and post-visit drawings were analyzed based on i) change in the number of components, and ii) improvement in clarity on biodiversity conservation. The students who thought biodiversity conservation was unessential before the visit have changed their perception and understood its importance. Besides, students who earlier were unconcerned about conservation, in the post-visit mentioned that they are personally concerned about biodiversity conservation. Moreover, students revealed a high level of learning and enjoyment through the visit. Correspondence analysis revealed that learning is highly associated with the level of enjoyment. Analyzing the annotated drawings indicated that there is an increase in the number of components by 1.3 units, and an improvement in the clarity about biodiversity conservation.