The influence of human values on attitudes and behaviours towards forest conservation

Assessing community values of civil society organizations led coastal ecotourism conservation projects on climate change context

The study examines the key community values defining the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) institutional climate capacity of coastal communities in the context of ecotourism-based conservation projects along the Maharashtra coastal belt, India. The study proposes conceptualized dimensions based on the Situation-Actor-Process-Learning (SAP-L) model. Data was collected through consultative approaches involving CSOs, NGOs, and SHGs, using focused group discussions and key informant interviews in the conservation project areas. The study evaluates the CSOs institutional strengths, weaknesses and determines key factors influence their institutional climate capacities. The findings indicate that CSO expertise and collaborations foster communication and trust among ecotourism beneficiaries, incorporating sociocultural factors and promoting climate action orientation. Planning and budgetary processes assist in need-based scenario planning for CSO management decisions. The outcomes contribute to understanding CSO's climate capacity in coastal ecotourism, informing policy and practice. The study also emphasizes the need for further quantitative research in this area.

Perspectives on wolves after their recolonization in Flanders, Belgium

At the time of the wolf's (Canis lupus) recolonization in Flanders, public perspectives on this species were not well understood. To address this gap, we conducted a survey gathering demographic and contextual data to explore the relationship between these factors and public perspectives on wolves. We defined perspectives as: attitudes towards wolves, perceptions as whether they belong in Belgium, their mode of arrival, and attitudes towards wolf-related conflicts. Using redundancy analysis, we identified key explanatory variables, including hunting, residency, education, age, gender and dog ownership. Although these factors were significantly associated with perspectives on wolves, their explanatory power was limited, except for being a hunter. Notably, hunters generally had negative perspectives on wolves; however, hunters who stated they had negative attitudes towards hunting showed more positive perspectives on wolves. Conversely, non-hunters with positive attitudes towards hunting showed more negative perspectives. Attitudes towards hunting emerged as the strongest explanatory variable and may serve as a useful proxy for researchers studying wolf perspectives. Recognizing the diversity of stakeholder perspectives, particularly attitudes towards hunting, and underlying ethics could enhance the effectiveness of wolf conservation management.

Developing a specific model to exploring the determinant of individuals' attitude toward forest conservation

Introduction

In the context of forest conservation, individuals' attitude can significantly influence their intentions and subsequent behaviors towards conserving forests. However, there is a research gap when it comes to understanding the determinants of individuals' attitude towards forests conservation. To address this gap, the present study aimed to investigate the influence of variables associated with values from value-belief-norm theory, awareness of consequences, and ascription of responsibility from norm activation model on individuals' attitudes as main determinant of behavior intention.

Methods

The Data of study was collected from a sample of 200 students from Behbahan University, Iran. through a questionnaire designed specifically for this purpose. The validity and reliability of questionnaire were confirmed. Structural equation modeling was employed to analyze the collected data.

Results

The findings of the study revealed that the examined variables were able to describe 88.6% of the variance in individuals' attitude towards forest conservation. Specifically, it was found that biospheric (ƛ= 0.097) and altruistic (ƛ= 0.385) values, ascription of responsibility (ƛ= 0.150), and awareness of consequences (ƛ= 0.380) had significant and positive effects on individuals' attitude towards forest conservation. On the other hand, egoistic values exhibited a significant and negative impact (ƛ= -0.071) on individuals' attitude.

Discussion

These research findings hold significant implications for planners and policymakers involved in forest conservation efforts. By understanding the factors that shape individuals' conservation attitudes, decision-makers can develop targeted strategies and interventions to strengthen positive attitudes towards forest conservation. Given the positive influence of biospheric values and awareness of consequences, developing awareness-raising programs to enhance individuals' environmental knowledge and the awareness of outcomes of their conservation actions can be considered as strategy to strengthen public's attitude and improvement their participation in forest conservation projects.

Collaborative Modeling of the Tick-Borne Disease Social-Ecological System: A Conceptual Framework

Hard-bodied ticks have become a major concern in temperate regions because they transmit a variety of pathogens of medical significance. Ticks and pathogens interact with hosts in a complex social-ecological system (SES) that influences human exposure to tick-borne diseases (TBD). We argue that addressing the urgent public health threat posed by TBD requires an understanding of the integrated processes in the forest ecosystem that influence tick density and infection prevalence, transmission among ticks, animal hosts, and ultimately disease prevalence in humans. We argue that collaborative modeling of the human-tick SES is required to understand the system dynamics as well as move science toward policy action. Recent studies in human health have shown the importance of stakeholder participation in understanding the factors that contribute to human exposure to zoonotic diseases. We discuss how collaborative modeling can be applied to understand the impacts of forest management practices on ticks and TBD. We discuss the potential of collaborative modeling for encouraging participation of diverse stakeholders in discussing the implications of managing forest ticks in the absence of large-scale control policy.

Searching for New Human Behavior Model in Explaining Energy Transition: Exploring the Impact of Value and Perception Factors on Inconsistency of Attitude toward Policy Support and Intention to Pay for Energy Transition

The purpose of this study is to compare and analyze the factors influencing the public's attitude toward policy support and intention to pay for energy transition from nuclear to renewable energy. We focus on inconsistency issues between attitude and intention. To this end, we set the attitude toward policy support and behavioral intention to pay as dependent variables, and value factors (i.e., ideology, political support for the current Moon Jae-in government, environmentalism, and science-technology optimism) and perception factors (i.e., perceived risk, benefit, knowledge, and trust) as the independent variables. Based on a survey, the analysis showed that at the variable level, the perceived benefits and trust in renewable energy and perceived risks and benefits in nuclear energy influenced the attitude toward policy support and the intention to pay for energy transition. Second, when evaluating the explanatory power of independent variables, the attitude toward the energy transition was affected in the following order: (1) perceived benefit in nuclear power (β = 0.259) > (2) perceived benefit in renewable energy (β = -0.219) > (3) perceived risk in nuclear energy (β = 0.202) > (4) Moon Jae-in government support (β = 0.146). On the other hand, behavioral intention to pay for energy transition was influenced in the following order: (1) trust in renewable energy (β = 0.252) > (2) Moon Jae-in government support (β = 0.154) > (3) perceived risk in nuclear energy (β = 0.139) > (4) perceived benefit in renewable energy (β = 0.099). Third, variables such as environmentalism, perceived benefit/risk/trust in renewable energy, and perceived benefit/risk in nuclear energy affected inconsistency between attitude toward policy support and intention to pay for energy transition.

Supporting schools to use face recognition systems: a continuance intention perspective of elementary school parents in China

A great deal of attention has been focused on technological innovation, for example, face recognition, which has been used in some countries in various fields. Nonetheless, there has been little attention paid to parents' acceptance of the use of face recognition systems on campus. To address this gap in the literature, this study examined how different degrees of technological innovativeness and dangerous beliefs in the virtual world (DBVW) influence parents' perceived value of using and intention to continue supporting schools' use of face recognition systems. This study adopted snowball sampling to collect data through questionnaires, and received 380 valid responses from parents living in Xuzhou, China. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to analyze the data, with results indicating that: (1) DBVW was negatively related to perceived value; (2) technological innovativeness was positively related to perceived value; and (3) perceived value was positively related to continuance intention to use face recognition systems. The results suggest that parents support the use of face recognition systems in elementary school; thus, such systems can be adopted by other elementary schools in other areas.

Do Value Orientations and Beliefs Play a Positive Role in Shaping Personal Norms for Urban Green Space Conservation?

Urban Green Spaces (UGS) have a huge contribution to the health of urban ecosystems. However, they are threatened by numerous factors such as rapid urbanization, resource depletion, and climate change. These factors are inextricably linked to human behaviors, guided by the values and beliefs of people. According to value-belief-norm theory and norm activation model, personal norms are defined as self-expectations of pro-environmental behavior influenced by the ascription of responsibility and awareness of consequences in values and beliefs. When the conditions of responsibility and consequence awareness are met, individuals are more likely to experience a sense of moral obligation to exhibit environmentally responsible behavior. To address conservation and better enable UGS to have a positive function, we must explore how to promote the development of personal norms that are beneficial to UGS conservation. This study explored the influence that UGS values and beliefs have on personal norms. A questionnaire was administered to 1641 urban residents in Beijing, China, and Partial Least Square Structural Modeling was used to assess the causal relationship in the formation of personal norms on UGS conservation. The results showed that intrinsic, instrumental, and relational UGS value orientations contribute directly or indirectly to the formation of personal norms for the conservation of UGS through environmental beliefs as mediators, with the most significant effect being the relational value orientations. The results of the study can provide scientific guidance for future public participation in UGS conservation.

Impacts of Social Trust on Rural Households’ Attitudes Towards Ecological Conservation—Example of the Giant Panda Nature Reserves in China

Understanding rural households’ conservation attitudes is crucial to achieving biodiversity conservation effectiveness, and one underlying predictor of household conservation attitudes is social trust. This study examined the impact of rural households’ social trust on their ecological protection attitudes based on 922 rural household data around 13 giant panda nature reserves in Shaanxi Province and Sichuan Province, China. The results show that: (1) Social trust has a significant positive impact on rural households’ conservation attitudes. (2) Males’ ecological conservation attitudes are influenced by all the social trust variables, whereas females’ attitudes are influenced mainly by interpersonal trust (trust in neighbors and villagers). The conservation attitudes of households with higher education levels and higher family incomes are mainly affected by trust in government, while those with lower education levels and lower family incomes are more significantly affected by the trust in villagers and village cadres. The above conclusions are helpful to understand the influencing mechanism of rural households’ conservation attitudes and improve the protection effects of nature reserves.