Sustainable development in four Swedish communities priorities, responsibility, empowerment

The aims were to identify sustainable development priorities and perceived responsibility of sustainable development issues. Differences in opinions between politicians, officials, environmental representatives and the public in four Swedish municipalities were analysed. Sustainable development issues were perceived as more important on the global level than on the municipal and family levels. Among the most important issues on both the global and family levels were clean air, fresh water, and health, whereas decision-making, co-operation, and participation were considered most important on the municipal level. The highest responsibility for sustainable development issues was placed on governments and global organizations and the lowest on the individual. The public felt less individual responsibility and less possibility to influence than did the other groups. The correlation between importance and responsible on municipal and world levels was high but low on the individual level. The responsibility for the most important issue on the family level (clean air) was placed on governments and global organizations. An attitude change is needed to increase responsibility for issues ranked low on individual responsibility. To further raise the awareness of global sustainable development issues, an increased concentration on locally based international co-operation projects is suggested.     

How important is wilderness? Results from a United States Survey

The designation and management of federal wilderness areas has generated much controversy in the United States. The decade of the 1980s has been a difficult one for public land managers as there has been growing opposition to their traditional “conserve but use philosophy.” Public lands are to be managed for the public benefit. Unfortunately there has been little survey research to find out what the attitudes of the public are towards the management of federally designated wilderness. We report the results of a national survey of 2670 residents of wilderness counties. We found that the presence of wilderness is an important reason why 53% of the people moved to or live in the area; 81% felt that wilderness areas are important to their counties; and 65% were against mineral or energy development in wilderness areas. On some issues there was less agreement as 43% of the respondents wanted more access to wilderness, and 39% were in favor of additional wilderness with 26% undecided. There were no large differences between counties and regions despite the differences in economic and social characteristics and the historical contexts within which they evolved.     

Social and economic considerations in conserving wetlands of indo-gangetic plains: A case study of Kabartal wetland,India

The Kabartal wetland situated in the upper Indo-Gangetic flood plains in northern India is significant because of its hydrological and ecological services, and the socio-economic and cultural values that it represents. Despite being designated as a wildlife sanctuary, this wetland is under threat from anthropogenic pressures. As in the case of most wetlands, the reason is incomplete information on its ecological services and functions, breakdown of traditional management structures and the lack of appropriate and recognized property rights. Our study assesses the economic linkages between the Kabartal wetland and the local people living around it, through socio-economic surveys and Contingent Valuation Method (CVM). The major objective of the study was to determine the importance of this wetland to the local people and to give an indication of the distribution of the benefits among various stakeholders. The people in the region are poor, have low literacy levels and high dependence on Kabartal and more than 50% want that the wetland should be drained and the land used for agriculture. However, they are willing to participate in collaborative management initiatives with the state. The willingness of people to accept compensation, as an alternative to access to Kabartal wetland, regressed on various socio-economic and attitudinal parameters, gave an estimated mean value of US $27,500 per household over a period of 60 years. This value is a pointer of the total value of access to Kabartal wetland to the surrounding villagers and would be useful when decisions to compensate people for lost access to Kabartal are made.     

Issues for small businesses with waste management

Participation by small and medium enterprise (SME) in corporate social responsibility issues has been found to be lacking. This is a critical issue, as individually SMEs may have little impact on the environment but their collective footprint is significant. The management style and ethical stance of the owner-manager affects business decision making and therefore has a direct impact on the environmental actions of the business. Although adoption of environmental practices to create competitive advantage has been advocated, many businesses see implementation as a cost which cannot be transferred to their customers. After a brief review of pertinent literature this paper reports on an exploratory investigation into the issue. Results show that whereas owner-managers of small enterprises express concern regarding the environment, this does not then translate into better waste management practices.     

Safety halls--an evaluation

PROBLEM: In most countries, drivers licensing systems usually include teaching some aspects of using safety equipment (e.g., airbags and seat belts). However, there is now evidence worldwide that such education is inadequate, as indicated by, for example, the overrepresentation of young drivers who do not use seat belts. METHOD: A randomized controlled study was conducted in Sweden to evaluate the effects of visiting a facility known as a "safety hall" in combination with the mandatory skid training. The results were assessed to determine the effects of the knowledge and attitudes of learner drivers in the following subjects: airbags, securing loads, seat belts, sitting posture, speed, and tires. An experimental group and a control group comprising 658 and 668 learners, respectively, answered identical questionnaires on three different occasions (pretest, posttest 1, and posttest 2). RESULTS: The results show that, for most of the topics considered, knowledge and attitudes in both groups were better at posttest 2 than at the pretest, and in general, the best knowledge and attitudes were found in the experimental group. The combined safety/skid training seems to have had the greatest effect on seat belts and loads. The findings also indicate that the safety halls can be further improved to achieve an even better effect. IMPACT ON TRAFFIC SAFETY: The use of safety halls has improved the knowledge and attitudes of learner drivers concerning several important areas related to traffic safety. Since knowledge and attitudes are important predictors of behavior, implementing safety halls can be expected to lead to improvements, especially regarding the use of safety belts and securing loads.     

Perceptions, preferences, and reactions of local inhabitants in Vikos-Aoos National Park, Greece

Local inhabitants' perceptions, preferences, and reactions were investigated in Vikos-Aoos National Park, 25 years after its designation. Knowledge of aims of the park and source of information about them, necessity for infrastructure, reactions to certain policies, and effectiveness of administration and management scheme were studied by means of a questionnaire survey. Personal interviews were performed by systematic sampling, which resulted in 203 cases for analysis. Most respondents said that they had knowledge of the aims of the national park, and this was positively associated with education; protection of flora and fauna was identified by most as the main aim, and the management authority (the Forest Service) ranked first in order as source of information. Tourism development of the area was seen as a positive change, and recreation facilities and improvement in accessibility were considered of high priority for development. The investigation into peoples' reactions to several possible alternative management policies revealed willingness to accept certain restrictions on their agricultural use of the land. A policy of nonintensive agriculture with compensation for loss of income, if the ecosystems of the park were in danger, seems the most acceptable. Long-term leasing of farms by the Forest Service was another policy with a high degree of acceptance, especially for certain occupational groups; those working in the secondary and tertiary sectors of economy would accept such a policy more easily than those working in the primary sector. Finally, a very large majority of the respondents expressed a preference for a new administration and management scheme with the participation of local communities in the decision-making process.     

Is recycled water use risky? An Urban Australian community’s perspective

The emergence of a global water crisis has seen the necessity for a sustainable approach to water management. Policies directed towards water recycling have been implemented in many regions of the world. In Australia, prolonged drought conditions in most major cities during the past decade have led to serious national calls for less drinking water to be used (Prime Minister’s Science Engineering and Innovation Council, 2003), and a strategic policy response from many State Governments, including bold targets for water recycling. A key consideration to the realisation of these policies is greater understanding of community attitudes to recycled water use, without which, a number of recycled water projects have failed (Hurlimann and McKay, 2004). Despite the critical nature of community attitudes, little research has been conducted, especially in relation to perception of risk, which has been found to be critical in the adoption of new technologies (Cvetkovich and Lofstedt, 1999). This paper investigates an urban Australian community’s perception of risk involved with using recycled water. Key findings include: perception of risk increased as the use of recycled water became increasingly personal. Perception of risk was significantly negatively related to trust, perception of fairness and information. Trust in the Water Authority to manage risk was significantly related to perception of trust, communication and integrity of the Authority.     

A note on attitudes and knowledge concerning environmental issues in Sweden

As part of a larger research effort, the empirical basis for this note is responses to four out of many questions in a mailed survey, which primarily focused on national environmental objectives in Sweden. The results show that out of eight broad areas for use of tax money, five-including environment-are rated as important by over 90% of the respondents. Respondents appear to be less willing to discriminate between different issues covered by national environmental objectives, as all of these are rated as important by more than 80% of the respondents. The function of the ozone layer is an example of an environmental issue where the knowledge among people is relatively high, while this is not the case when it comes to the amount of pesticides used in agriculture. The results also show less support for actions at the individual level to improve the environment, as compared to support for actions taken by society at large through, e.g., technological improvement or policy intervention.     

Public perceptions of CCS: Emergent themes in pan-European focus groups and implications for communications

This paper reports on European public perceptions of carbon capture and storage (CCS) as determined through six focus groups, one held in each of the UK, the Netherlands, Poland, Germany, Belgium and Spain. The development of opinion and the emergence of concerns were observed via phased exposure to a specially commissioned film providing an overview of CCS technology, its rationale and associated debates, supplemented by additional information on national energy mixes. In general there was a high level of commonality in opinion and concerns across the six countries, with only minor differences. The concerns that emerged were not allayed by the information provided. On the contrary, there was evidence of a shift from initial uncertainty about CCS to negative positions. CCS was generally perceived as an uncertain, end-of-pipe technology that will perpetuate fossil-fuel dependence. Noting the political context to CCS, we conclude that advocates will likely find the European public opinion context a challenging one in which to achieve deployment, particularly for onshore storage, except where local communities perceive real economic or other benefits to CCS.