COMPARING KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE TOWARDS MANGROVE ECOSYSTEM BETWEEN STUDENTS LIVING IN MANGROVE ECOTOURISM AND NON MANGROVE ECOTOURISM AREA IN SERDANGBEDAGAI

The aims of this study were to compare the effect of ecotourism mangrove area and students gender on the knowledge on mangrove ecosystem and attitude towards mangrove conservation. About eighty students from public junior high schools located in mangrove ecotourism area and another eighty students from mangrove area with no ecotourism program was surveyed in Serdangbedagai district, North Sumatra Province, Indonesia. The samples were randomly selected from each school. Students’ knowledge were examined with 18 items of open knowledge test about mangrove ecosystem including knowledge about mangrove biotas, utilization and conservation towards mangrove ecosystem. While students’ attitude were collected using 20 items attitude questionnaire. The data were analyzed with Parametric t test and Two way Anova to compare students’ knowledge and attitude between those two area, assisted by SPSS v.21 and SYSTAT v.13 software packages. Results showed that students’ who were living in ecotourism mangrove area had higher knowledge score (40,20 ± 15,93) compared to students living in non mangrove ecotourism area (26,59 ± 10,54) (t= 6,371; P= 0,00). Students gender significantly affected their knowledge on mangrove ecosystem, where female students living in ecotourism mangrove area (48,36 ± 13,14) have higher score compared to male student (32,04 ± 14,33) (F= 28,175; P= 0,00) but male students living in non ecotourism mangrove area (28,72 ± 10,09) have similar score with female students (24,45 ± 10,67) (F= 3,383; P= 0,070). There is a significant effect of interaction between students location and gender towards their mangrove ecosystem knowledge (F = 29,419; P = 0,00). However students attitude towards mangrove conservation were not significantly different. Students attitude towards mangrove ecosystem between studet living in mangrove ecotourism (59,58 ± 7,320) and student living in non mangrove ecotourism area (60,66 ± 8,400) were similar (t= -0.981; P= 0.328). Students gender also significantly affected their attitude towards mangrove conservation, where male students’ living in ecotourism mangrove area (62,50 ± 7,038) have higher score compared to female students (56,65 ± 6,439), but male (58,97 ± 8,39) and female students’ attitude (62,35 ± 8,16) living in non ecotourism mangrove area were similar. There was also a significant effect of interaction between students location and gender towards their attitude towards mangrove conservation (F = 5,610; P = 0,001). This study found that mangrove ecotourism program provides education-based information, facilitates interaction between visitors with ecosystem, provides recreaction- based learning, as an efective way to maintain mangrove conserved, and provides financial benefits from mangrove- based food production. It implied the importance to develop mangrove ecotourism program in coastal area to conserve mangrove ecosystem and influence students knowledge and attitude towards mangrove ecosystem. This study showed significant effects of mangrove ecotourism program on students knowledge and attitude. This study also showed that the availability of ecotourism mangrove program significantly effects students knowledge about mangrove ecosystem. Knowledge of male students who live in mangrove ecotourism was higher than female students, while the attitude of male students was lower.