Public attitudes toward biodiversity‐friendly greenspace management in Europe

Abstract

Increasing urbanization worldwide calls for more sustainable urban development. Simultaneously, the global biodiversity crisis accentuates the need of fostering biodiversity within cities. Policies supporting urban nature conservation need to understand people's acceptance of biodiversity‐friendly greenspace management. We surveyed more than 2,000 people in 19 European cities about their attitudes toward near‐natural urban grassland management in public greenspaces, and related their responses to nine sociocultural parameters. Results reveal that people across Europe can support urban biodiversity, yet within the frames of a generally tidy appearance of public greenery. Younger people and those using greenspaces for a greater variety of activities were more likely to favor biodiversity‐friendly greenspace management. Additionally, people who were aware of the meaning of biodiversity and those stating responsibility for biodiversity conservation particularly supported biodiversity‐friendly greenspace management. Our results point at explicit measures like environmental education to increase public acceptance of policies that facilitate nature conservation within cities.

Reconciling road verge management with grassland conservation is met with positive attitudes among stakeholders, but faces implementation barriers related to resources and valuation

“…Still, these results are encouraging, as positive attitudes toward altered management are nonetheless an important prerequisite for considering grassland species during verge management in the first place. The results also echo those obtained from other anthropogenic habitats: the more familiar urban residents across Europe are with biodiversity, the more positive they are toward managing urban greenspaces in a biodiversity-friendly manner (Fischer et al 2020). Educating stakeholders on the grassland conservation value of road verges could thus be one of many steps toward reconciling road verge management with grassland conservation, especially as it was reported as highly feasible by the stakeholders themselves, as described earlier.…”

“…Although the values originally referred to in the context of cognitive hierarchy theory correspond to these abstract core values (Homer and Kahle 1988;Fulton et al 1996;Rawluk et al 2019), research has shown that the more tangible valued attributes are also useful in predicting attitudes (Manning, Valliere, and Minteer 1999;Seymour et al 2010). In habitat and vegetation management, attributes such as beauty (Gobster et al 2007), wildness or naturalness (Fischer et al 2020), cleanliness and evidence of deliberate caretaking (cues to care) (Nassauer 1995), are all suggested to correlate with attitudes toward particular management practices. On road verges, especially attributes such as traffic safety and neatness are suggested to drive attitudes toward different types of verge management (Akbar, Hale, and Headley 2003;Weber, Kowarik, and S€ aumel 2014;Hoyle et al 2017).…”

Socio‐psychological factors, beyond knowledge, predict people’s engagement in pollinator conservation

“…Europe-wide study found that most people were favourable about such management when within well-defined areas, for example by regularly mowing edges (Fischer et al, 2020). These simple but under-utilised actions should be prioritised by pollinator conservation programmes, namely by communicating the benefits, and developing narratives that overcome social norms around tidiness (e.g.…”

Broaching the brook: Daylighting, community and the ‘stickiness’ of water

“…Similarly, a 'Scout system could work on different levels passing on knowledge, from Beavers to Cubs to Scouts' and could 'help manage or create' naturalistic features, fostering ownership in the process. Time spent in naturalistic spaces and awareness of biodiversity conservation are positively related to acceptance of wilder, less manicured urban green spaces (Fischer et al, 2020), suggesting a positive feedback loop could emerge from outdoor lessons in local restored landscapes.…”