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.     

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 and importance of forest recreation services

This study employs the notion of environmental value orientations as an approach to examine the relationships between forest value orientations and demand on services available in the National Forest Recreation Areas in Taiwan. Data for this investigation were collected from on-site, off-site, and online surveys (n = 1919). Statistical results suggest that the authorities should highlight the role of Taiwanese forest as public property with aesthetic, historic, and cultural values, and the use of more comprehensive dimensions of environmental value orientations is warranted when using value-related variables to address natural resource management issues. The correlation evidence of service demands of tourists with different forest value orientations indicates that the authorities should focus on maintaining and improving basic services available in the National Forest Recreation Areas.     

Forests and societal values: comparing scientific and public perception of forest health

This study examines the common ground between lay people and scientists regarding forest values and definitions of forest health. With the forest at Pinery Provincial Park, Ontario, as a case study, the authors compared six ecological indicators to determine which were sensitive to the multiple impacts of visitor use, deer browsing and fire suppression. Plant cover and proportion native species were sensitive to these impacts. Sapling height was greater in low deer density areas. The authors also conducted focused discussions with local interest groups, followed by qualitative data analysis. Overall, there was good convergence between scientific and public views of forests and forest health, although this may partly be due to the groups' interest in nature and the Pinery. Subjects saw a connection between their health and the state of the global and local environment, including forests. There is a need for increased awareness in the public to the necessity of managing high deer populations in parks to protect other forest components such as biodiversity. Forest managers must consider that people greatly value forests near them for mental well being. Group responses suggested that messages explicitly linking forest benefits to human health and well being may motivate people to protect forests.     

Forests and competing land uses in Kenya

Indigenous forests in Kenya, as in other developing countries, are under heavy pressure from competing agricultural land uses and from unsustainable cutting. The problem in Kenya is compounded by high population growth rates and an agriculturally based economy, which, even with efforts to control birth rates and industrialize, will persist into the next century. Both ecological and economic consequences of these pressures need to be considered in land-use decision making for land and forest management to be effective. This paper presents one way to combine ecological and economic considerations. The status of principal forest areas in Kenya is summarized and competing land uses compared on the basis of ecological functions and economic analysis. Replacement uses do not match the ecological functions of forest, although established stands of tree crops (forest plantations, fuel wood, tea) can have roughly comparable effects on soil and water resources. Indigenous forests have high, although difficult to estimate, economic benefits from tourism and protection of downstream agricultural productivity. Economic returns from competing land uses range widely, with tea having the highest and fuel wood plantations having returns comparable to some annual crops and dairying. Consideration of ecological and economic factors together suggests some trade-offs for improving land allocation decisions and several management opportunities for increasing benefits or reducing costs from particular land uses. The evaluation also suggests a general strategy for forest land management in Kenya.The views and interpretations expressed in this article are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the World Bank, its affiliated organizations, or any individual acting on their behalf.     

Assessing conservation opportunity on private land: socio-economic, behavioral, and spatial dimensions

This study presents a method for assessing conservation opportunity on private land based on landholders' socio-economic, behavioral, and farm characteristics. These characteristics include age, gender, education, level of off-farm income, farm size, proportion of remnant native vegetation on-farm, and ecological value of native vegetation on-farm. A sample of landholders who own greater than 2 ha of land in the South Australian Murray-Darling Basin region were sent a mail-based survey about their values and preferences for environmental management (N = 659, 52% response). Cross-tabulations and ANOVA statistical analysis techniques were used to compare the socio-economic attributes across three landholder classes: disengaged, moderately engaged, and highly engaged in native vegetation planting. Results indicate that highly engaged landholders were more likely to be female, formally educated, hobby farmers who managed small parcels of land and have high off-farm incomes, whereas disengaged landholders held significantly stronger farming connections (more farming experience, family have lived on the farm for more generations). Spatial analysis revealed area-specific differences in conservation opportunity and conservation priority. In some areas, properties of high ecological value were managed by highly engaged landholders, but nearby properties of high value were managed by moderately engaged or disengaged landholders. Environmental managers therefore cannot assume areas of high conservation priority will be areas of high conservation opportunity. At the regional scale, the potential for revegetation seems most promising within the moderately engaged landholder group considering the vast amount of land managed by this group in areas of high ecological value, particularly within the less represented Mallee and Coorong and Rangelands sub-regions. We suggest that incentive schemes which purchase conservation need to be targeted at disengaged landholders; mentoring schemes led by commercial farmers highly engaged in native vegetation planting should be directed at moderately engaged landholders, and; awards programs which acknowledge conservation successes should be targeted at highly engaged landholders.     

基于价值取向的城市森林游憩服务需求研究

在调查南京城市森林游憩者的基础上,以森林价值取向为预测变量,对城市森林游憩服务需求进行了研究.研究表明,市民的森林价值取向包括生态取向、健康取向、文化取向、产品取向和消极取向五种类型;城市森林游憩服务需求则包括基本需求、拓展需求和个性需求三个层次.通过典型相关分析发现,对森林资源持“健康”、“文化”和“生态”价值取向的市民对森林游憩的“基本服务”需求明显,更重视森林的自然和文化环境保护;而持有“产品”和“消极”取向的市民,则希望森林游憩地能提供更多“拓展”和“个性”服务.在此基础上,提出了积极引导城市森林游憩者的政策建议.     

Knowledge, values, uses and management of the Araucaria araucana forest by the indigenous Mapuche Pewenche people: A basis for collaborative natural resource management in southern Chile

One of the most important endemic tree species of Chile and at the same time one of the most endangered ones is Araucaria araucana (Mol.) C. Koch, the monkey‐puzzle tree. It grows in the Andes Mountains, homeland of the indigenous Mapuche Pewenche people who depend on this tree. This paper is based on field research that investigated the ecological knowledge, uses and management of the Araucaria araucana forest by indigenous Mapuche Pewenche people based on the socio‐cultural, spiritual and ecological relationships they have with the Araucaria forest, to find out how indigenous people and their knowledge could contribute to sustainable Araucaria forest management. A Mapuche Pewenche community located in the IX region of Chile contributed to this study. Based on the analyses this paper illustrates the nature of indigenous ecological knowledge of Araucaria araucana on the one hand, and its utility in native forest management on the other. The research shows that the Mapuche Pewenche hold ecological knowledge and conduct practices to manage their Araucaria forest in a balanced way. They conserve and use forest biodiversity at one and the same time. This paper provides recommendations for sustainable Araucaria forest management and conservation strategies ex‐situ and in‐situ incorporating indigenous knowledge and scientific knowledge and for promoting a collaborative natural resources management.     

Info-Gap Decision Theory for Assessing the Management of Catchments for Timber Production and Urban Water Supply

While previous studies have examined how forest management is influenced by the risk of fire, they rely on probabilistic estimates of the occurrence and impacts of fire. However, nonprobabilistic approaches are required for assessing the importance of fire risk when data are poor but risks are appreciable. We explore impacts of fire risk on forest management using as a case study a water catchment in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) (southeastern Australia). In this forested area, urban water supply and timber yields from exotic plantations are potential joint but also competing land uses. Our analyses were stimulated by extensive wildfires in early 2003 that burned much of the existing exotic pine plantation estate in the water catchment and the resulting need to explore the relative economic benefits of revegetating the catchment with exotic plantations or native vegetation. The current mean fire interval in the ACT is approximately 40 years, making the establishment of a pine plantation economically marginal at a 4% discount rate. However, the relative impact on water yield of revegetation with native species and pines is very uncertain, as is the risk of fire under climate change. We use info-gap decision theory to account for these nonprobabilistic sources of uncertainty, demonstrating that the decision that is most robust to uncertainty is highly sensitive to the cost of native revegetation. If costs of native revegetation are sufficiently small, this option is more robust to uncertainty than revegetation with a commercial pine plantation.     

Forest Management in Northeast China: History,Problems, and Challenges

Studies of the history and current status of forest resources in Northeast China have become important in discussions of sustainable forest management in the region. Prior to 1998, excessive logging and neglected cultivation led to a series of problems that left exploitable forest reserves in the region almost exhausted. A substantial decrease in the area of natural forests was accompanied by severe disruption of stand structure and serious degradation of overall forest quality and function. In 1998, China shifted the primary focus of forest management in the country from wood production to ecological sustainability, adopting ecological restoration and protection as key foci of management. In the process, China launched the Natural Forest Conversion Program and implemented a new system of Classification-based Forest Management. Since then, timber harvesting levels in Northeast China have decreased, and forest area and stocking levels have slowly increased. At present, the large area of low quality secondary forest lands, along with high levels of timber production, present researchers and government agencies in China with major challenges in deciding on management models and strategies that will best protect, restore and manage so large an area of secondary forest lands. This paper synthesizes information from a number of sources on forest area, stand characteristics and stocking levels, and forest policy changes in Northeastern China. Following a brief historical overview of forest harvesting and ecological research in Northeast China, the paper discusses the current state of forest resources and related problems in forest management in the region, concluding with key challenges in need of attention in order to meet the demands for multi-purpose forest sustainability and management in the future.     

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.     

Forest Management Systems Evaluation: Using ISO14000

Sustainable forest management (SFM) or ecosystem management is now the stated goal of forest managers in most countries. SFM takes a longer-term, broader perspective on forest values than timber production or the narrow multiple use regimes of the past. As a result of international activities including the International Tropical Timber Organization, the Ministerial Council on Protection of Forests in Europe and the Montreal Process for temperate and boreal forests outside Europe, there are now sufficiently specific and agreed principles, criteria and indicators (C&I) to guide policy makers towards SFM. To achieve SFM requires holistic assessments of forest management systems in terms of these C&I to ensure the delivery of sustainable outcomes across forest regions. This paper focuses on the implementation of SFM as defined by the C&I, and, in particular, how to identify needed reforms in forest management systems. The paper explains and evaluates the International Standards Organization's (ISO's) environmental management systems (EMS) ISO14000/EMS approach adopted for this purpose in Australia to assess the adequacy of forest management systems. The approach was applied as a key element in the regional forest agreements prepared to meet the Australian National Forest Policy Statement. The ISO14000/EMS, in conjunction with the SFM criteria, provides a systematic approach to assessing forest management systems to reveal the adequacy of the legislative, planning, implementation, monitoring and review of all-tenure forest management as required by SFM.     

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.     

Visual Aesthetic Quality of Northern Ontario's Forested Shorelines

Only a few empirical studies on forest aesthetics have adopted a water-based perspective for observers and have investigated the perceived visual quality of forested shorelines. In forested environments with many lakes, such as the boreal forest in the Canadian Shield, individuals have greater exposure to forests from water-based rather than in-stand vantage points. This study employed the psychophysical research direction to explore the relationships between scenic beauty and biophysical characteristics of the forested shorelines in the boreal forests. Two model forms were tested. One model related the variation of shoreline forest aesthetic evaluations of near-vista views (140 m offshore) to a set of forest mensuration data. Tree size, tree mortality, conifer shrubs, tree density, amount of hardwood, and slope explained 60.2% of the variance in scenic beauty between the study sites. A second model was calibrated to test the relationship between an already existing ecosystem vegetation classification system and the aesthetic evaluations of the same forested shorelines. When the ecosystem classification was simplified to eight groups, the model explained 48.5% of variance. These models suggest that the psychophysical approach to studying aesthetics can be applied successfully to near-vista evaluations of scenic beauty. The finding that a forest ecosystem classification system is highly related to scenic beauty suggests that, at least in the boreal forest, managers can reasonably estimate the scenic beauty of forested shoreline environments from an ecosystem classification, with little need for intensive data on these sites.     

高原牧区自然生态价值的测算——以四川省甘孜藏族自治州新龙县为例

自然生态系统提供人类需要的各种服务,有广泛的使用价值,其中生态服务功能,即无形资产的价值最为重要。本文对新龙县环境的特殊性进行了分析,根据影响生态价值的相关因素,计算了新龙县天然林和天然草地的生态服务功能平均价值,并进一步计算出新龙县1999~2003年受到保护和管理的天然林和天然草地的生态服务功能价值。结果显示,新龙县天然林的生态服务功能平均价值为11837元/hm2,草地为7915元/hm2,1999~2003年,新龙县生态服务功能价值增加值占调整后GDP的比重高达65%~85%。但这部分价值长期未得到统计和合理的补偿,为实现流域环境和经济的可持续发展,建议建立国家、地方、区域、行业多层次的补偿系统,同时逐步完善市场机制。     

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     

Characterizing land-use diversity in village landscapes for sustainable mountain development: a case study from Indian Himalaya

This study aimed to analyze the ecological, socio-economic and policy implications of land-use diversity in a traditional village landscape (900–1,000 m amsl.) in the Garhwal region of Indian Himalaya. The village landscape was differentiated into three major land-use types viz., forests, settled agriculture and shifting agriculture. Settled agriculture was further differentiated into four agroecosystem types viz., homegarden system (HGS), rainfed agroforestry system (RAS), rainfed crop system (RCS) and irrigated crop system (ICS), and shifting agriculture system (SAS) was differentiated into different stages of a 4-year long cropping phase and a 7-year long fallow phase, and forests into Community Forests (CF) and Reserve Forests (RF). HGS is the most productive agroecosystem, with soil organic carbon and nutrient concentrations significantly higher than all other forest/agricultural land-uses. Farmers capitalize upon crop diversity to cope with the risks and uncertainties of a monsoon climate and spatial variability in ecological factors influencing productivity. The SAS, a land-use adopted as a means of acquiring inheritable rights over larger land holdings provided in the policies during the 1890s, is less efficient in terms of land productivity than the traditional RAS and HGS but is maintained for its high labour productivity coupled with availability of high-quality fuelwood from fallow vegetation. Dominance of fodder trees in the RAS seems to derive from policies causing shortage of fodder available from forests. Cultural norms have favoured equity by allowing hiring of labour only from within the village community and income from non-timber forest products only to the weaker section of the society. Conversion of rainfed to irrigated cropping, a change facilitated by the government, improves agricultural productivity but also increases pressure on forests due to higher rates of farmyard manure input to the irrigated crops. Existing forest management systems are not effective in maintenance of a large basal area in forests together with high levels of species richness, soil fertility and resistance to invasive alien species Lantana camara. Farmers have to spend huge amount of labour and time in producing manure, managing livestock and other subsidiary farm activities. Interlinkages among agriculture, forests and rural economy suggest a need of replacing the present policies of treating agricultural development, forest conservation and economic development as independent sectors by an integrated sustainable development policy. The policy should promote technological and institutional innovations enabling parallel improvements in agricultural productivity and functions of forest ecosystems.     

Achieving Conservation Goals in Managed Forests of the Southeastern Coastal Plain

Managed forests are a primary land use within the Coastal Plain of the southern United States. These forests are generally managed under standards, guidelines, or regulations to conserve ecosystem functions and services. Economic value of commercial forests provides incentives for landowners to maintain forests rather than convert them to other uses that have substantially reduced environmental benefits. In this review, we describe the historical context of commercial forest management in the southern United States Coastal Plain, describe how working forests are managed today, and examine relationships between commercial forest management and maintenance of functional aquatic and wetland systems and conservation of biological diversity. Significant challenges for the region include increasing human population and urbanization and concomitant changes in forest area and structure, invasive species, and increased interest in forest biomass as an energy feedstock. Research needs include better information about management of rare species and communities and quantification of relationships between ecosystem attributes and forest management, including biomass production and harvest. Incentives and better information may help commercial forest managers in the Coastal Plain more efficiently contribute to landscape-scale conservation goals.     

The role of population projections in environmental management

California and other regions in the United States are becoming more populated and ethnically diverse, and thus, ecological impacts on the wildland–urban interface are a significant policy concern. In a socioeconomic assessment focused on the geographic regions surrounding four national forests in southern California, population projections are being formulated to assist in the update of forest plans. In southern California, the projected trend of explosive population growth combined with increased ethnic and racial diversity indicates four challenges for environmental management. First, patterns of recreation use on wildlands are likely to change, and management of these areas will have to address new needs. Second, as land-management agencies face changing constituencies, new methods of soliciting public involvement from ethnic and racial groups will be necessary. Third, growth in the region is likely to encroach upon wildland areas, affecting water, air, open space, and endangered species. Fourth, in order to address all these concerns in a climate of declining budgets, resource management agencies need to strengthen collaborative relationships with other agencies in the region. How environmental managers approach these changes has widespread implications for the ecological sustainability of forests in southern California.