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

Abstract

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 D 1135) and Sweden (n D 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.

Understanding consistencies and gaps between desired forest futures: An analysis of visions from stakeholder groups in Sweden

“…Disagreements about forest futures not only create conflicts but also lead to deadlocks when the stakeholders talk past each other, severely hampering policy development (Sandström and Sténs 2015). Although many studies have tried to identify similarities and differences between different stakeholders’ perceptions and visions in order to move the discussion forward, the focus has often been constricted to current policies with an emphasis on immediate implementation rather than policy development (e.g., Beland Lindahl 2008; Kindstrand et al 2008; Eriksson et al 2014). …”

Long‐term trends in books of terms related to forest pathology

“…This result is consistent for books in four main languages (English, French, German and Italian) and for books in both American and British English. Further research is needed to investigate this pattern in other languages that can be studied using the same search engine (i.e., Chinese, Hebrew, Spanish and Russian), so as to test for cross-cultural differences in public understanding of forest health and tree diseases (Kohsaka & Handoh, 2006;Ueda et al, 2012;Eriksson et al, 2015). However, not all studied terms show a decrease in recent years: there has been a recent increase in the use of terms such as 'ecosystem health' in the studied books ( Figs S2-S6).…”

New Forest Owners: Change and Continuity in the Characteristics of Swedish Non-industrial Private Forest Owners (NIPF Owners) 1990–2010

“…Production and human-centred values are often described as anthropocentric, as they stress the role of forests in satisfying human needs. Ecological values can be regarded as either anthropocentric or biocentric, depending on whether they are oriented towards human interests or focused on nature in its own right (Eriksson et al 2015). Forest values differ between NIPF owner sub-groups (Ingemarson et al 2006;Nordlund and Westin 2011).…”