The Environmental Conservation Strategies Used in Secondary Schools Align with Guidelines of United Nations Environmental Program: Evidence from a Cross-Sectional Study in a City Setting

The climate change crisis might soon be the biggest threat to global human existence if immediate action is not taken to overpower it. In Eastern Uganda, Mbale city is among the most affected areas, and the burden manifests in form of disasters such as long dry spells and floods. One of such floods in this city recently destroyed 5,000 acres of crops and homes of 5,600 people, killed over 30- and cut off clean water for 400,000 people. Schools can create environmentally responsible communities that are able to address this threat, but persistence of the burden in this area depicts unclear gaps in the roles played by these academic institutions. This study therefore examined the environmental conservation strategies used in addressing climate change and related calamities by students and staff of secondary schools in Mbale city, to unravel intervention-gaps and guide the way forward. Conservation strategies, plus factors promoting their adoption and challenges, as well as the perceptions, attitudes, awareness, and knowledge about environmental conservation and climate change were examined in a random sample of 384 secondary school students and staff. Pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaires and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) were used under the guidelines of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), supplemented with observational surveys and photography. Data was analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics using STATA version-15.0. Graphs were plotted with GraphPad Prism® version 9.0.0. Conservation strategies in schools were found to be diverse, involving mainly tree planting (N=339, 91.2%), preservation of green spaces (N=310, 83.3%), harvesting rain water and not damping wastes in water resources (N= 372, 100% each). Reuse of waste plastic bottles to fabricate dustbins was a novel observation. KIIs showed that the use of the school curriculum to support environmental conservation and climate change action was also prominent (N=12, 100%), but was not significantly different from other key strategic approaches such as incentives (χ2 = 0.992, p = 0.319), and aid from some agencies (χ2 = 3.200, p = 0.074). Interventions against air pollution were scarce. Determinants of choice of conservation measures were mostly; the school curriculum (N=381, 99.2%), costs (N= 381, 99.2%), land size (N= 352, 91.7%) and education level (N=250, 65.1%). Commonest perceptions on why conservation is vital were; to avert ecological threats (N=372, 100%), and the urge for a clean environment (N=372, 100%). Good attitudes towards conservation were in 269 (70.1%) of the participants; 48.4%, 7.8%, and 7.1% were not aware about biodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution respectively. 58.1% lacked sufficient conservation knowledge. Long dry seasons (100%), financial scarcities (94.8%), and high population (98.9%) were the commonest barriers, while low political will (N=12, 3.1%), was minimal. In conclusion, environmental conservation strategies in secondary schools in Mbale city are diverse, largely align with guidelines of UNEP, and are based on the geography, resources, policies, and sociodemographic factors. The commonest challenges were; long dry spells, financial scarcities, population pressure. Redress to these anomalies is desired to enhance the use of secondary schools as hubs for environmentally responsible communities that can address environmental crises like climate change sustainably.