Students Awareness And Attitude Towards Land Degradation And Deforestation (in The Case Of Addis Ababa University)

The purpose of this study was to investigate university students’ awareness andrnattitude towards rural environmental degradation. To achieve the objectives ofrnthe study 289 students were selected through stratified sampling from threernfaculties in Addis Ababa University. Students were assessed using multiplernchoice awareness test and Likert type of attitude scale. The data were analyzedrnusing descriptive statistic; t-test, Pearson correlation coefficient and ANOVA. Allrnstatistical manipulations were done by SPSS 15 version for windows.rnThe result of the study revealed that generally the students found to havernmoderate level of awareness and favorable attitude towards land and forestrnresources. In the case of item by item analysis students found to have less awareness for some of the environmental issues raised in the study. Studentsrnalso have unclear stand for some of the issues raised in the attitude items.rnThe study also revealed that there was statistically significant difference inrnmean awareness score of students in terms of gender and age. It shows thatrnmale and relatively old age students found to have better awareness about thernproblem, causes, consequences and solution of land degradation andrndeforestation. In addition, statistically significant mean awareness differencernwas observed between students from urban and rural areas. This indicated thatrnstudents from rural areas had better awareness to land and forest resources. Onrnthe other hand, the mean awareness score difference between second and fourthrnyear students was significant. That fourth year students found to have betterrnawareness for land and forest resources. The ANOVA summary for awarenessrnalso showed the existence of significant mean difference among faculties andrndepartments. Thus the sampled students in Social Science College andrndepartments of PSIR and GES found to have better awareness to land and forestrnresources.rnMoreover, the analysis of attitude based on the independent variables shows thernabsence of significant difference between male and female, second year andrnfourth year students’ mean score. It was also insignificant between urban andrnrural, and age of students. Thus, male and female, second year and fourth year,rnrelatively old and young, rural and urban students found to have similar attituderntowards land degradation and deforestation. The ANOVA summary for attitudernalso did show the existence of significant mean difference among faculties andrndepartments’. Thus, the sampled students in Social Science College andrndepartments of PSIR and GES found to have more favorable attitude to land andrnforest resources. The correlation coefficient also revealed that there was arnsignificant positive correlation between environmental attitude and awareness,rnbut it is weak. This implies that to some extent awareness may lead to an initialrndevelopment of attitude which in turn may result in increasing awareness.rnGenerally integration of environmental education is a must to bring similar andrnhigh level of awareness and favorable attitude among students

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