Amenity Values of Public and Private Forests: Examining the Value–Attitude Relationship

Public values toward forests have changed since the late 1980s, from a commodity-oriented perspective toward a more inclusive (commodity and non-commodity) orientation. This study examines the influence of four indicators of population diversity (age, ethnic background, place of residence, and gender) on amenity values of forests, environmental attitudes, and forest value—attitude correspondence. Four values of public and private forests were assessed, wood production (utilitarian value), clean air (a life support value), scenic beauty (an aesthetic value), and heritage (a spiritual value). Environmental attitudes were measured using a modified version of the New Environmental Paradigm scale. Five hundred and forty-eight randomly selected residents of households in 13 states of the Southern United States participated in a telephone interview. Age and ethnic background were found to moderate the value—attitude relationship, with the strength of the association being dependent upon the type of forest (i.e., public or private) and the forest value (i.e., utilitarian, life support, spiritual, and aesthetic). Females, younger persons (less than 43 years old), and whites reported lower utilitarian values of forests than their respective counterparts. Results are interpreted within the context of an emerging post-material society, in which a biocentric orientation to forests and the natural environment may be favored more by a younger (versus older) generation and increasingly racially diverse U.S. population. Implications for managing forests using a multiple-values (versus multiple-uses) approach are discussed.     

Forest Value Orientations in Australia: An Application of Computer Content Analysis

This article explores the expression of three forest value orientations that emerged from an analysis of Australian news media discourse about the management of Australian native forests from August 1, 1997 through December 31, 2004. Computer-coded content analysis was used to measure and track the relative importance of commodity, ecological and moral/spiritual/aesthetic forest value orientations. The number of expressions of these forest value orientations followed major events in forest management and policy, with peaks corresponding to finalization of Regional Forest Agreements and conflicts over forest management. Over the time period analyzed, the relative share of commodity value orientation decreased and the shares of the ecological and moral/spiritual/aesthetic value orientations increased. The shifts in forest value orientations highlight the need for native forests to be managed for multiple values and the need for continued monitoring of forest values. Research carried out while employed by the Bureau of Rural Sciences, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry, Canberra, Australia.     

Environmental Values and Popular Conflict over Environmental Management: A Comparative Analysis of Public Comments on the Clinton Forest Plan

/ Public participation in environmental management decisions has frequently led to conflict. This paper examines the role of environmental values in fueling these conflicts, based on a data base and sample content analysis of written public comments solicited in 1994 regarding the highly contentious Clinton Forest Plan (also known as Option 9) proposed for management of federal forests in the US Pacific Northwest. The analysis considered whether those respondents favoring more versus less environmental protection than was offered in Option 9 held entirely different values, identifying which antagonistic values appeared to be most fundamental and where (if at all) values consensus occurred. It also compared values emanating from respondents within and outside the affected region, although few major differences were detected in this regard. Results suggest that strong values differences did exist among those preferring greater versus less environmental protection, in particular as concerned the extent, form, and spatial and temporal scope of justification of their positions, their ideas of forests, and the appropriate role of people in forest management. Disagreement concerned far more than purely environmental values: a major point of difference involved human benefits and harms of the proposed forest plan. Indeed, both sides' positions were overridingly anthropocentric and consequentialist-a values orientation that almost inevitably spells conflict in light of the commonly differentiated social impacts of environmental management decisions. Although public involvement in environmental management thus cannot be expected to lead to a clear and consensual social directive, the Pacific Northwest case suggests that viable environmental management solutions that take this range of values into account can still be crafted.KEY WORDS: Environmental values; Public participation; Clinton Forest Plan; Pacific Northwest     

Creating Defensible Space in the Wildland–Urban Interface: The Influence of Values on Perceptions and Behavior

We examined the effect that value orientation to forests and wildland fire management has on an individual’s decision to create defensible space around his or her residence in the wildland–urban interface. Using data from a mail-back questionnaire, respondents in north central Minnesota were clustered by basic value–laden beliefs toward forest and wildland fire management and compared across a number of perceptions and behaviors related to creating defensible space around residences. Value orientation groups differed in attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavior control toward creating defensible space. In addition, relative effects of these perceptions on intention to create defensible space differed across groups. Implications lie in (a) understanding differences in motivations and reasons for support of strategies for managing fires near the wildland–urban interface, (b) developing information designed to address the perspectives of different groups related to creating defensible space, and (c) contributing to an improved integration of land management and public concerns and interests.     

Tree Structure and Diversity in Human-Impacted Littoral Forests, Madagascar

This research surveyed human-impacted littoral forests in southeastern Madagascar to determine (i) how forest structural features, indicative of human impact, are related to total, utilitarian, and endemic tree diversity; (ii) the distribution, abundance, and demographics of tree species groups (i.e., total, useful, endemic) across the landscape; and (iii) the amount of basal area available per human use category. We also use these data to consider issues of sustainable use and how human impact may influence littoral forest tree community composition across the landscape. Within 22 transects of 400 m² each, we recorded a total of 135 tree species and 2155 individuals. Seventy-nine species (58%) were utilitarian and 56 (42%) were nonutilitarian species. Of the 2155 individuals, 1827 (84%) trees were utilitarian species. We recorded 23 endemic species (17% of the total species) and 17 (74%) of these were utilitarian species. Basal area was significantly correlated with Shannon Weiner Index values for total (r = 0.64, P < 0.01), utilitarian (r = 0.58, P < 0.01), and endemic tree diversity (r = 0.85, P < 0.01). Basal area was significantly correlated with the Simpson’s index values for the endemic species (r = 0.74, P < 0.01). These correlations suggest that endemic tree species, of high global conservation value, may be the species group most influenced by changes in forest structure. Utilitarian species constituted 84% of the total basal area. The use category contributing the highest amount of basal area to the landscape was firewood. The results presented herein demonstrate that the landscape of southeastern Madagascar, commonly perceived as degraded, retains high value for both global conservation purposes and for local livelihoods. Thus, valuable opportunities may exist for developing conservation incentives that leverage both global and local conservation needs.     

Resource availability,planning rigidity and Realpolitik in Lithuanian forest utilization

As tensions among diverse forest‐use interests in Lithuania are on the rise, this study examines the actual resource availability, the underlying planning approaches and the pertinent policy arena. Two 5‐year cycles of sampling‐based forest inventory provide accurate data showing that the overall timber harvest/increment ratio (or utilization intensity) is 61%. Utilization intensity is similar in state and private forests. It could potentially be raised to 70‐80%, with due account for environmental values. Such an increase is inhibited by rigid routines of forest management planning, involving inflexible rotation ages and cutting norms. Age‐class analysis indicates that the current planning practice counters its underlying aim of achieving a long‐term even flow of timber. According to a survey of key forest stakeholders, those who directly benefit from forest utilization have a weak position in the policy arena, the dominant powers being vested in the national forestry authorities. State forest enterprises have to follow restrictive plans from above, private forest owners are constrained by stern regulations and suffer from the bad image caused by the persistent myth of overuse in private forests. More rational management of Lithuanian forests is hardly possible without major shifts in the institutional set‐up accompanied by transformation of the professional ideology.     

LOCAL ATTITUDES TOWARD ALTERNATIVE USES OF A RESERVOIR PROJECT1

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this paper is to examine the correlates of attitudes toward alternative uses which could have been made of public resources employed to construct a multipurpose reservoir. A sample of 303 adult residents of a rural community impacted by lake construction was asked to evaluate several alternative development options which could have been implemented in lieu of the lake project. The alternative options evaluated were: rural industrialization, keeping land in agriculture and forests, improving public services, building a state or national park, drilling water wells for urban water supply, aid to small business, helping poor people, building several smaller impoundments, and private recreation development. The findings revealed the local people preferred the lake project to every option except keeping the land in agriculture and forest. Even this option was not strongly supported when compared with the lake project. Socio-demographic, attitude, and cost assessment factors were investigated using a “vested interest” perspective for hypotheses development. These findings demonstrated that costs and benefits were relatively good predictors of attitudes toward alternative development options and were supportive of the theoretical perspective advanced in this paper.     

Private Property Rights and Selective Private Forest Conservation: Could a Nordic Hybrid Policy Address a United States Problem?

Political and legal conflicts between the need for targeted private forest conservation and the continued assurance of private property rights in the U.S. presents a seemingly intractable resource management problem. Scandinavian use of habitat protection areas on private forests offers an additional tool that may be suitable for solving the historical and on-going tension found within U.S. efforts to reconcile desires to maintain lands in a forested condition while also respecting private property rights. This article presents a comparative cross-sectional policy analysis of Sweden, Finland, and the U.S., supported with a supplemental case example from the Commonwealth of Virginia. Similarities in all three countries among forest ownership patterns, use of public subsidies, and changing attitudes towards conservation are generally encouraging. Additionally, Virginia’s current consideration and development of state-wide forest policies focused on forestland and open space conservation suggests both a need and an opportunity to systematically assess the applicability of the Nordic forest reserve approach to local private forest conservation. Future research at a high-resolution, and specifically at the state level, should focus on the social and political factors that would ultimately determine the viability of a forest reserve program.     

The moist tropical forest: Its conversion and protection

Summary Though strong concern over the rapid conversion of moist tropical forests may justifiably arise from any discipline, a growing interdisciplinary tide of voices is expressing its alarm over a particularly disturbing consequence of forest alteration and destruction: the reduction of species diversity through the extinction of numerous plant and animal species. Consequently, an array of ecologists land-use planners, botanists, zoologists and conservationsts are searching for means to enhance the protection and preservation of tropical forests' biotic diversity. Management schemes aimed at achieving this particular end are being investigated, particularly by UNESCO's Man and Biosphere (MAB) Project 8 of Biosphere Reserves Projects, by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) tropical forests conservation program (UNEP, 1980) and by the World Wildlife Fund. In addition, many countries with a significant area of moist tropical forest (MTF) are beginning to pursue some form of conservation strategy. Currently Robert T. Perry is a full-time teacher of biology at a private school for a cademically gifted students in the Brooklyn area. In addition he has designed and is teaching courses in environmental chemistry and ethology to advanced high-schoolers. He is also an adjunct instructor for the City College of the City University of New York, where he is teaching graduate students in the Environmental Studies Programme. He graduated in Environmental Conservation from Cornell University, and has a Masters Degree in Environmental Biology from City University, New York.     

Environmental education research news

Summary The literature of education is replete with studies concerning attitudes and values as they exist, and the results of efforts to cause changes in attitudes in desired directions. It is clear that student attitudes toward learning are positively related to learning itself, and that student attitudes toward environmental concerns can be influenced by changes in cognitive knowledge levels. But much of the research has produced inconsistent results; much remains to be learned about precise relationships between and among attitudes/values, cognitive knowledge, and environmental activity.Compiled by John F. Disinger, Professor, School of Natural Resources, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210-1085, USA; also Associate Director, Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) Clearinghouse for Science, Mathematics, and Environmental Education (SMEAC).     

High-Biomass Forests of the Pacific Northwest: Who Manages Them and How Much is Protected?

To examine ownership and protection status of forests with high-biomass stores (>200 Mg/ha) in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) region of the United States, we used the latest versions of publicly available datasets. Overlay, aggregation, and GIS-based computation of forest area in broad biomass classes in the PNW showed that the National Forests contained the largest area of high-biomass forests (48.4 % of regional total), but the area of high-biomass forest on private lands was important as well (22.8 %). Between 2000 and 2008, the loss of high-biomass forests to fire on the National Forests was 7.6 % (236,000 ha), while the loss of high-biomass forest to logging on private lands (364,000 ha) exceeded the losses to fire across all ownerships. Many remaining high-biomass forest stands are vulnerable to future harvest as only 20 % are strictly protected from logging, while 26 % are not protected at all. The level of protection for high-biomass forests varies by state, for example, 31 % of all high-biomass federal forests in Washington are in high-protection status compared to only 9 % in Oregon. Across the conterminous US, high-biomass forest covers <3 % of all forest land and the PNW region holds 56.8 % of this area or 5.87 million ha. Forests with high-biomass stores are important to document and monitor as they are scarce, often threatened by harvest and development, and their disturbance including timber harvest results in net C losses to the atmosphere that can take a new generation of trees many decades or centuries to offset.     

Public Versus Private: Does It Matter for Water Conservation? Insights from California

This article asks three connected questions: First, does the public view private and public utilities differently, and if so, does this affect attitudes to conservation? Second, do public and private utilities differ in their approaches to conservation? Finally, do differences in the approaches of the utilities, if any, relate to differences in public attitudes? We survey public attitudes in California toward (hypothetical but plausible) voluntary and mandated water conservation, as well as to price increases, during a recent period of shortage. We do this by interviewing households in three pairs of adjacent public and private utilities. We also survey managers of public and private urban water utilities to see if they differ in their approaches to conservation and to their customers. On the user side we do not find pronounced differences, though a minority of customers in all private companies would be more willing to conserve or pay higher prices under a public operator. No respondent in public utility said the reverse. Negative attitudes toward private operators were most pronounced in the pair marked by a controversial recent privatization and a price hike. Nonetheless, we find that California’s history of recurrent droughts and the visible role of the state in water supply and drought management undermine the distinction between public and private. Private utilities themselves work to underplay the distinction by stressing the collective ownership of the water source and the collective value of conservation. Overall, California’s public utilities appear more proactive and target-oriented in asking their customers to conserve than their private counterparts and the state continues to be important in legitimating and guiding conservation behavior, whether the utility is in public hands or private.     

A Case Study of Landholder Attitudes and Behaviour Toward the Conservation of Renosterveld,a Critically Endangered Vegetation Type in Cape Floral Kingdom,South Africa

The attitudes and behaviours of private landholders toward the conservation of a highly transformed and critically endangered habitat, Overberg Coastal Renosterveld (OCR) (a grassy shrubland of the Cape Floral Region, South Africa) are described. Personal, semistructured interviews were conducted with landholders, representing 40 properties in the Overberg region, on topics such as management and utilisation of OCR, the depth of their knowledge of its conservation importance, what they perceive its value to be, and the extent of their willingness to conserve it. General attitudes toward conservation incentives and provincial conservation authorities were also investigated. Farmers more willing to conserve were younger, did not necessarily have a better education, and owned larger farms (>500 ha) with a greater amount of remnant renosterveld (>300 ha) than those less willing to conserve. Attitudes toward the OCR were largely negative, related to associated problem plants and animals and the fact that it is believed not to be economically advantageous to retain it. However, farmers are of the opinion that provision of incentives and increased extension support will provide practical positive inducements for conservation. Landholder education is paramount to prevent further transformation of critically endangered habitats. The success of private-conservation programs depends on the attitudes of landowners toward (1) the particular habitat or species to be conserved (which can vary depending on the type of land use practised and the associated benefits and disadvantages of that habitat type); (2) the conservation agency or extension officers responsible for that area; and (3) willingness of landowners to participate in a conservation program, which is influenced by landowner age, farm size, and the amount of natural habitat left to conserve.     

Relationships Between Major Ownerships, Forest Aboveground Biomass Distributions, and Landscape Dynamics in the New England Region of USA

This study utilizes remote sensing derived forest aboveground biomass (AGB) estimates and ownership information obtained from the Protected Areas Database (PAD), combining landscape analyses and GIS techniques to demonstrate how different ownerships (public, regulated private, and other private) relate to the spatial distribution of AGB in New England states of the USA. “Regulated private” lands were dominated by lands in Maine covered by a Land Use Regulatory Commission. The AGB means between all pairs of the identified ownership categories were significantly different (P < 0.05). Mean AGB observed in public lands (156 Mg/ha) was 43% higher than that in regulated private lands (109 Mg/ha), or 30% higher than that of private lands as a whole. Seventy-seven percent of the regional forests (or about 9,300 km²) with AGB >200 Mg/ha were located outside the area designated in the PAD and concentrated in western MA, southern VT, southwestern NH, and northwestern CT. While relatively unfragmented and high-AGB forests (>200 Mg/ha) accounted for about 8% of total forested land, they were unevenly proportioned among the three major ownership groups across the region: 19.6% of the public land, 0.8% of the regulated private land, and 11.0% of the other private land. Mean disturbance rates (in absolute value) between 1992 and 2001 were 16, 66, and 19 percent, respectively, on public, regulated private, and other private land. This indicates that management practices from different ownerships have a strong impact on dynamic changes of landscape structures and AGB distributions. Our results may provide insight information for policy makers on issues regarding forest carbon management, conservation biology, and biodiversity studies at regional level.     

Examining the Role of Voluntary Associations in Environmental Management: The Case of the Sam Houston National Forest

The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of voluntary associations involved in forest management. The specific areas examined in this study include organizational attributes, membership profile, attitudes toward forest-management priorities, and concerns about forest-management issues. To achieve this purpose, data were collected using a case study approach with mixed-methods (document reviews, personal interviews, and a Web survey) at a national forest in Texas, USA. Overall, the voluntary associations in this study can be described as place-based, small to moderate in scale, activity-oriented, and active groups that are adaptive to sociopolitical and environmental changes. General group members placed high importance on aesthetic, ecological, and recreation management of the national forest. In addition, this study showed five key forest management issues: (1) limited recreation access; (2) financial challenges for forest management; (3) conflict among recreation user groups; (4) inadequate communication by the United States Forest Service to the general public, and (5) sustainability of the forest. Theoretical and managerial implications of the results are discussed.     

Protected forests in Europe approaches-harmonising the definitions for international comparison and forest policy making

Comparison of forest protection between regions in Europe is extremely difficult, because there is such wide variation of strategies, procedures and constraints; the way forests have been used historically and their present closeness to nature also varies, and furthermore so does the definition of what constitutes a forest. For the European Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE) in 2003, forest protection has been harmonised into three categories for the sake of comparison: protection to safeguard biodiversity, protection of landscape and specific natural features, and protective forest functions.There is no single, uniform and universal model and no internationally agreed target with respect to the percentage of forests which should be protected. What is more important than a fixed percentage level of forested area (e.g. 5 or 10%) is that the protection network should be biogeographically and ecologically representative and accordingly distributed on a regional basis. Long-term practical experience and research have proved that conservation of different species of organisms can be assured by appropriate silvicultural management of multifunctional production forests. Consequently, the focus of debate in Europe appears to shift more and more from total protection in segregated areas to 'precision protection' and to combining protection and timber production in the holistic, integrated concept of modern management of forest areas.Advances in regional ecological planning and the growing adoption of naturalistic forest management practices have slowed the decline of the biological diversity in the multifunctional production forests. However, this fact is not yet widely and sufficiently acknowledged and appreciated. There is consequently a political and scientific need for continued study of the effects of naturalistic silvicultural management on the biodiversity of forests. Information from such research is crucially needed before new and additional protection networks and schemes are set up on a large-scale. Protection by voluntary contracts between parties is a workable model concept for European forestry based on private forest ownership. In small private forests, patches of forest worth protecting are often small and located within production forests.Forest certification can contribute to the efforts of maintaining biodiversity in multifunctional production forests and offers an instrument of independently monitoring and verifying that forests are managed according to the agreed criteria. Forest certification is not an alternative or a means of increasing forest protection, because as a voluntary process it cannot guarantee the permanence of protected areas or deal with issues of finance and compensation.     

Visual Perception of Habitats Adopted for Post-Mining Landscape Rehabilitation

The study presented here focuses on visual preferences expressed by respondents for five relatively natural habitat types used in land reclamation projects in the North-West Bohemian brown coal basins (Czech Republic). Respondents evaluated the perceived beauty of the habitat types using a photograph questionnaire, on the basis of the positively skewed 6-point Likert scale. The order of the habitat types, from most beautiful to least beautiful, was: managed coniferous forest, wild deciduous forest, managed deciduous forest, managed mixed forest, and managed grassland. Higher visual preferences were indicated for older forest habitats (30–40 years old) than for younger habitats (10–20 years old). In addition, respondents preferred wild deciduous forest to managed deciduous forest. Managed grasslands and non-native managed coniferous forests were preferred by older people with a lower level of education and low income living in the post-mining area. On the other hand, native, wild deciduous forest was awarded the highest perceived beauty score by younger, more educated respondents with higher income, living outside the post-mining landscapes. The study confirms differences in the perception of various forms of land reclamation by residents vs. non-residents, and its findings also confirm the need for sociological research in post-mining landscapes within the process of designing rehabilitated landscapes. From the visual standpoint, the results of our study also support the current trend toward using natural succession in the reclamation of post-mining landscapes.     

A study of forest values and management attitudes in the general public in Germany and Sweden: does context matter?

Based on the reasoning that contextual variations are important for understanding differences in forest cognitions, this study examined forest values and management attitudes in the general public in Germany (n = 1135) and Sweden (n = 1311) by means of a questionnaire. Results indicated that the public in both countries emphasised similar forest values, and the overall pattern was comparable for different types of forest, although certain differences based on forest type and country were evident. For example, the German public was more ecologically oriented, whereas the Swedish public was more production oriented in its forest values and management attitudes. Furthermore, ecological and various anthropocentric forest values were perceived to be quite compatible, with the Swedish respondents perceiving this to a greater extent than the German. The overall cognitive structure of forest values and management attitudes was similar in both countries, although differences were revealed, particularly regarding attitudes.     

Constituency Bias in a Federal Resource Management Agency: a Confirmatory Analysis

In a 1989 article, Ben Twight and Fremont Lyden compared the attitudes of national forest managers in the United States in 1981 with those of its major constituents to assess the extent to which the U.S. Forest Service was biased: were the beliefs and values of agency employees concerning resource management more representative of one of two major constituent groups, environmentalists and forest utilizers? The research tested Culhane's (Public Lands Politics: Interest Group Influence on the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Baltimore, Maryland: John Hopkins University Press. 1981) theory that the Forest Service occupies a middle ground in its attitudes relative to those of its environmental and utilization constituencies. They concluded that the agency did not; ideologically, district rangers were quite close to the Forest Service's utilizer constituency and relatively far from its environmentalist constituency. Given recent changes in the attitudes of Forest Services managers, the present study sought to answer the question: what do these changes reveal about the ideological position of the agency in 1981 vis a vis its position in 1990, and what are their implications for continuing concerns over the agency's representation of all interest groups? The response to survey questions of four groups—1990 district rangers and district rangers, environmentalists and forest utilizers in 1981—were combined for statistical comparison. Discriminant analyses were conducted to clarify the differences in the groups. Although the hypothesized bias of the Forest Service toward the traditional utilizer position was confirmed, the results also suggested that managers' values and attitudes had changed over the decade. The major issue underlying this bias—preservation versus utilization of resources—no longer adequately represented the agency's position, which has been fragmented into concerns with multiple issues.