The role of social learning in fostering farmers’ pro-environmental values and intentions

Abstract

In interventions to achieve sustainability, social learning plays a prominent and growing role as a framework strategy in changing behaviors and intentions. Many interventions have been designed to achieve better performances in natural resource management, but the literature studying the effects on values and intentions is scarce. This paper studies the effects of the Local Agrarian Innovative Programme, which aims to promote sustainability, in two regions of Cuba. It is a long-term, on-going intervention in which learning, cooperation and social interactions play key roles. In this paper, outcomes and actions are considered a first category of learning (single loop learning), and subjective perceptions and intentions imply a superior category of learning (double loop learning). The data, mainly based on primary information collected from a representative sample, are analyzed in terms of differences in values and intentions, and reveal noticeable inter-regional diversity, while intervention duration appears as a decisive variable. From a policy point of view, this research calls into question the efficacy of short-term awareness projects and proposes the integration of social learning programmes when designing pro-environmental interventions.