South Africa's well-established history of formally protected areas has resulted in it becoming a global leader in resource conservation and a pioneer of new management techniques. Roughly thirty years ago, South Africa became one of the earliest countries in the world to legislatively recognise wilderness. Since the first wilderness areas were designated, use and management issues have become increasingly complex as managers strive to balance the biological and social values of wilderness areas. Consequently, it is imperative that management techniques and strategies evolve to preserve wilderness values and resources in South Africa. Wilderness visitor education and information programs are a critical part of an effective wilderness management strategy. To ensure that wilderness education and information systems are inclusive and able to evolve over time three elements are needed. A management framework must be in place to ensure that a system-wide approach is established and maintained. Once a system-wide framework is established, wilderness education and information systems can be inventoried and monitored against established management goals. This information can then be used to continually refine and improve wilderness information and education systems as they evolve through increased understanding of use and management Issues. Lastly, increased wilderness-specific research and continued testing of current research in the South African context is needed, to ensure that management strategies stay relevant and adaptive. These adaptive management strategies will serve as the foundation for wider coordination of wilderness management and research at the provincial and national levels, further developing South Africa's leadership role in protected area management in Africa and the global community. / Thesis (M.Env.Dev.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

South Africa has been witnessing an escalation in drug use amongst adolescents in high school. Thus, the main question that motivated this research was: How can a psycho-educational programme, using a selected audio-visual media resource, assist teachers and parents in an effort to prevent adolescent students’ substance abuse problem behaviour? Social cognitive theory (SCT) and self-efficacy theory (SET) were used as a conceptual framework. The study explained these theories in-depth. Adolescent substance abuse was also studied as well as programmes to address this problem. This was followed by a perusal of numerous audio-visual resources for their possible incorporation into prevention programmes. The ‘Above The Influence’ (ATI) resource was selected for the psycho-educational programme which was designed for the study. The programme was put into action during seven sessions over a period of about two months, and implemented with a group of 26 Grade 10 and Grade 11 students in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, to evaluate its relevance for adolescent substance abuse prevention. To evaluate the programme, a qualitative approach was used. The data were gathered during the programme implementation by means of in-person and online focus groups, individual interviews, written open-ended questions, observation notes and follow-up interviews some time after the programme had ended. Eleven principles were identified from the literature to evaluate the potential of the programme to be effective in preventing adolescent substance abuse. In particular the programme needed to increase adolescents’ skills related to studying, communication, peer relationships, self-efficacy, assertiveness, and drug resistance. The programme also had to employ interactive techniques and needed to address the type of drug abuse problem in the local community, for example, the ‘gateway’ substances of marijuana, alcohol and tobacco. In addition, the programme potential was evaluated in the light of SCT and SET. The findings indicated that the psycho-educational programme, using ATI as audiovisual medium, can be used very effectively by teachers to raise students’ awareness and develop particular skills that could contribute towards the prevention of adolescent substance abuse. It is recommended that the programme should be used in the long-term with repeated reinforcing sessions over time. / Psychology of Education / D. Ed. (Psychology of Education)