The Pathways to Civil Ecological Literacy

For the purpose of understanding citizens’ ecological literacy under the background of formal and informal environmental education,we conducted a questionnaire survey among both primary school students and adults visiting the protected area in order to figure out the level of their ecological literacy by analyzing the factors influencing it using correlation analysis. The results showed that the ecological literacy level of primary school students was slightly higher than that of adults, especially in ecological knowledge. The classroom education in schools is the most important way for students to develop their ecological literacy, while the environmental education outdoors is the most important approach for adults. It is also found that the outdoor environmental education is more beneficial to cultivating civil ecological literacy and should therefore be advocated.