The benefits from and barriers to participation in civic environmental organisations in South Africa

Verfasser / Beitragende:
[Olivia Higgins, Charlie Shackleton]
Ort, Verlag, Jahr:
2015
Enthalten in:
Biodiversity and Conservation, 24/8(2015-08-01), 2031-2046
Format:
Artikel (online)
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024 7 0 |a 10.1007/s10531-015-0924-6  |2 doi 
035 |a (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10531-015-0924-6 
245 0 4 |a The benefits from and barriers to participation in civic environmental organisations in South Africa  |h [Elektronische Daten]  |c [Olivia Higgins, Charlie Shackleton] 
520 3 |a With growing global public awareness of a wide range of conservation and environmental issues, environmental volunteerism is increasing. In order to attract and retain volunteers, it is useful to understand what benefits they hope for as well as the barriers that hinder their participation. Here we examine the benefits from and barriers to participation in 26 conservation and environmental civic organisationsin South Africa, categorised by their primary mission as botanical, wildlife or green. Questionnaires were sent to volunteers on the mailing list of each civic organisation (and 66 responses received), supplemented with direct interviews with key staff and five focus group discussions. There were differences in the perception of benefits obtained and barriers experienced by volunteers between the three groups. Respondents from botanical and green civic organisations rated enjoyment of the task as the primary benefit, whereas the most common response amongst wildlife organisation volunteers was a higher level of life satisfaction. Lack of time was a major barrier across all groups, whilst lack of communication between organisers and volunteers was mentioned frequently by volunteers in wildlife and green organisations. The mean number of hours offered per volunteer was significantly higher amongst wildlife organisations than either botanical or green ones, but for all three, the value of volunteer contributions was, at several millions of rand annually, substantial. There was no relationship between the number of perceived benefits and the number of hours volunteered. This study indicates that motivations and barriers differ amongst volunteers, which is important to acknowledge in attracting and optimising the contributions of conservation and environmental volunteers. 
540 |a Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht, 2015 
690 7 |a Non-profit  |2 nationallicence 
690 7 |a Perceptions  |2 nationallicence 
690 7 |a Time  |2 nationallicence 
690 7 |a Value  |2 nationallicence 
690 7 |a Volunteering  |2 nationallicence 
700 1 |a Higgins  |D Olivia  |u Department of Environmental Science, Rhodes University, 6140, Grahamstown, South Africa  |4 aut 
700 1 |a Shackleton  |D Charlie  |u Department of Environmental Science, Rhodes University, 6140, Grahamstown, South Africa  |4 aut 
773 0 |t Biodiversity and Conservation  |d Springer Netherlands  |g 24/8(2015-08-01), 2031-2046  |x 0960-3115  |q 24:8<2031  |1 2015  |2 24  |o 10531 
856 4 0 |u https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-015-0924-6  |q text/html  |z Onlinezugriff via DOI 
898 |a BK010053  |b XK010053  |c XK010000 
900 7 |a Metadata rights reserved  |b Springer special CC-BY-NC licence  |2 nationallicence 
908 |D 1  |a research-article  |2 jats 
949 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |F NATIONALLICENCE  |b NL-springer 
950 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |P 856  |E 40  |u https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-015-0924-6  |q text/html  |z Onlinezugriff via DOI 
950 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |P 700  |E 1-  |a Higgins  |D Olivia  |u Department of Environmental Science, Rhodes University, 6140, Grahamstown, South Africa  |4 aut 
950 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |P 700  |E 1-  |a Shackleton  |D Charlie  |u Department of Environmental Science, Rhodes University, 6140, Grahamstown, South Africa  |4 aut 
950 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |P 773  |E 0-  |t Biodiversity and Conservation  |d Springer Netherlands  |g 24/8(2015-08-01), 2031-2046  |x 0960-3115  |q 24:8<2031  |1 2015  |2 24  |o 10531