Question

For this assignment, you will first need to identify a problem. Then you will craft a proposal that contains a solution to the problem. Your solution can fix a large problem, or it can be an improvement to an existing process or product. This will town, city, or state legislature, an organization, a college, or a company. The written proposal must contain a clear Introduction, Body, and Conclusion. The body of the proposal must contain at least one be a formal, unsol licited proposal. Your proposal can be written to a graphic. (You can choose the type of graphic that will best support your proposal). Lastly, you must use at least 3 of the special parts that differentiate a formal proposal from an informal one. The proposal must be typed, but you can choose the font, headings, etc.. Your grade will be determined by the tone, style, format, and grammar of the proposal as well as your attention to your audience. The minimum length for this proposal is 4 pages

Answer 1

Environmental protection and awareness project proposal in rural area

Introduction

In light of growing concerns over environmental problems, government has established policies and programs aimed at establishing a harmonious relationship between human activities and nature. Environmental awareness is assumed to be an important prerequisite of environmental protection, and one the most important indicators of country's current striving toward more systemic progress that takes socio-environmental relations into account. Therefore, fostering environmental awareness is of great importance to enhance the effectiveness and responsiveness of environmental management policies and strengthen public engagement. In order to improve environmental awareness, the first priority is to understand the current public levels.

Environmental awareness can be defined as the ability of an individual to understand the connection existing between:

(a) human activities

(b) the current status of environmental quality

(c) his/her willingness to take part in environment activities.

Based on such an understanding, some studies have divided environmental awareness into three components: environmental knowledge, attitude, and concern. It may be affected by a number of variables, including cognitive attitudes, life experiences, demographics, behavioral motivations, and intentions. For the purpose of our proposal, we define environmental awareness as consisting of three components: environmental behavior, perception, and attitude.

Objectives

Environmental behavior is defined as the complex of activities informed by a concern for future generations, other species, or the whole ecosystem. Environmental perception refers to the knowledge of, or feelings about, the environment, and the act of understanding the environment through our senses. It is the understanding of the environment resulting from visual, auditory, and tactile experience, and also by information disclosure. It can reflect the respondents’ degree of satisfaction with the water quality. Finally, environmental attitude refers to the emotional response of people to environmental problems, which may trigger positive action for the environment. It is assumed to relate to the core principle of environm ental awareness, and be affecte d by local institutions. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen grassroots management by making the village committee more effective for the villagers. On the other hand, providing well-reasoned, data-based, and logical messages, such as environmental management policies and plans, environmental impacts, the costs of environmental protection, and benefits from environmental protection should be effective in improving the credibility of the government. Thereby, the willingness of respondents to adopt certain management measures will increase.

Based on these three aspects, this paper addresses shortcomings in the literature mentioned above by focusing on changes in environmental awareness among rural communities and their relation to environmental management measures. In terms of behavior, we focus on methods of household garbage and feces disposal, which could cause non-point pollution by rainfall runoff, if not properly handled. With regard to perception, we analyze the perceived environmental quality of water among targeted communities. Finally, with reference to attitude, we focus on the response of communities to governmental environmental management measures and their willingness to contribute to their implementation. Besides providing evidence of changes in awareness over time, our study also seeks individual correlations between local environmental management institutions and environmental awareness. Finally, we analyze how the perception of worsening environmental pollution may alter public behavior.

Education level had a significant influence on environmental awareness in 2006, which is in line with published literature, showing a strong correlation with education. The environmental awareness of illiterate people was the lowest. Respondents with primary and middle school education had a relatively high level of environmental awareness. Compared with 2006, the environmental awareness of illiterate respondents and those with a high school education level in 2015 greatly increased. The increased importance and visibility of environmental problems resulted in people of different education levels having a relatively balanced environmental awareness in 2015.

Environmental behavior includes individual behavior in everyday life, and is measured by the participation behavior in the field of environmental protection and oversight. Among these, the daily behavior of residents is commonly deemed to be the most important feature. From 2005, due to an improvement in wastewater treatment and manure disposal, environmental behavior increased between 2006–2015. Behavior toward domestic garbage treatment deteriorated, due to a lack of management of garbage cans and classification processing. Different groups of people had different behavioral changes. There is evidence that environmental management may affect environmental behavior. The two eco-villages are equipped with facilities for sewage treatment, which contribute to the good performance of the behavior index. This is higher than for FMY, where no substantial improvement in wastewater infrastructure has been made. Men and women began to show a more balanced behavior index, with the increase in the female index and the decrease in the male index during the survey period. Older people seemed to behave better than young people in 2015. Education played a vital role in the respondents’ behavior. Compared with people with a low education level, respondents with a high school education and above had a higher environmental behavior index than those with a junior high school and below education level.

Also, the improvement of living conditions produced more waste. Although infrastructure has developed, it still cannot entirely meet the needs of local residents. Combined with the inconsistent management of infrastructure, wastewater and domestic garbage are still a major problem in rural villages. In some areas, the economic development model shifted from traditional agriculture to agri-tourism. As such, while the use of pesticide chemical fertilizer has greatly reduced, new pollution sources have emerged. Agri-tourism was identified as a main source of pollution by 6.7% of respondents. In order to safeguard the reservoir, local governments have restricted the development of in-house or refined animal production, but there are still some free-range livestock. Due to changes in the development of rural areas, livestock manure is no longer used as farmland fertilizer. However, improper disposal was a main source of pollution. The results show that the percentage of those who had no idea about the main pollution sources decreased by half, from 2006 to 2015. Answers provided in 2015 also reflect a change in major sources of water pollution, with new sources from eco-tourism facilities.

Environmental awareness is affected by formal and informal education. Environmental information is essential for rural residents to have an objective understanding of environmental conditions. Most respondents learned environmental information from different sources. The most common access was public media such as television, internet, computer, and mobile phones. Compared with a decade ago, more people began to be concerned about environmental issues through their own initiative by communicating with others or through their direct experience.

Conclusion

As previously discussed, demographics no longer are the main factors influencing environmental awareness. More attention should be put into nurturing positive environmental behavior, perception, and attitudes toward improving environment quality. This change is evident in terms of both environmental behavior and environmental perception. However, there was no significant improvement of environmental attitude. Villagers’ deeper environmental perceptions did not translate into a positive attitude toward environmental management. Respondents do recognize environmental degradation and acknowledge the need to take action to solve or at least mitigate it. However, eventually, when it comes to willingness to pay for environmental management measures, they appear to show skepticism for the government to some extent. Although all of the villages showed an improvement in terms of environmental awareness, the improvement in villages with a better environmental management (i.e., the eco-villages) was more considerable than that detected in villages with a comparatively worse environmental management (i.e., the agri-villages). There is considerable room for improvement in terms of awareness.

To improve it, local government should strengthen environmental infrastructures, and increase the disclosure of environmental information to inform people about environmental conditions and relevant policies. In order to ensure public support and participation in environmental protection, local authorities should also focus on strengthening their credibility in the eyes of local communities.