Attitude towards species and conservation among teacher students in Italy, Norway, and Pakistan

Given the high global rate of species disappearance due to human impacts on ecosys-tems, it is crucial to examine attitudes towards species conservation to foster futurecoexistence. This study investigated attitudes towards various species and their con-servation priorities among teacher students in Norway, Italy and Pakistan. As futureeducators, these students will play a key role in shaping the next generation’s attitudesand knowledge of biodiversity. A total of 207 teacher-education students participated inthe study by completing a voluntary online questionnaire. The questionnaire includeddemographic questions (age and nationality), five items from the NR-6 nature related-ness scale, 15 species images and a ranking task in which students ranked seven reasonsfor protecting biodiversity based on perceived importance. An invariance analysisshowed that the nature relatedness scale was not comparable among the three coun-tries. The investigation of the PCA-scores on the nature relatedness scale suggests thatthe patterns differed most between Pakistan and Norway. Pakistani and Italian studentsgenerally declared a more positive attitude towards species conservation than theirNorwegian counterparts. The intrinsic value of species and their role in ecosystemswere ranked the most important reasons for conserving species in Italy and Norway,whereas religion was ranked first in Pakistan. Given the ongoing biodiversity crisis, it isconcerning that some future educators hold negative attitudes towards protectingcertain species. Teacher education programs should place greater emphasis on theimportance of plants and invertebrates in ecosystems and promote discussions onattitudes towards species to promote coexistence.