Non-industrial private forest owners’ knowledge of and attitudes towards nature conservation

Abstract

This study examined the knowledge of and attitudes towards nature conservation. A questionnaire enquiring about aspects related to education, land-holdings and attributes was answered by 393 Swedish non-industrial private forest owners. Attendance on the National Board of Forestry's educational programmes, self-estimated knowledge about conservation and knowledge about forest species were all related to a positive attitude towards conservation. Education in forestry was related to knowledge of conservation, but not to the attitude towards it. Dependence on income from the forest, age > 55 yrs and a land-use-related occupation, all indicated a less positive attitude. Compared with men, women were less active owners with less forestry education, but younger women with high formal education had the most positive attitude of all. The results suggest that forest owners should be encouraged to attend regularly updated courses, and that courses should be available for non-active owners on how to put a pro-environmental attitude into practice.

Keywords:

• Attitude
• biodiversity
• conservation
• non-industrial private forest owners
• opinions
• policy implementation
• questionnaire
• Sweden

Acknowledgments

Bo Edvardsson, Stefan Bleckert and the employees of the Regional Forestry Board helped in the development of the questionnaire, and Lena Gustafsson, Jan Olsson, John Innes, Anna-Lena Axelsson and an anonymous referee made valuable comments on the manuscript. H.V. Would like to thank Stiftelsen Oscar och Lily Lamms minne.

Notes

Uliczka, H. ¹ , Angelstam, P. ^1,2 , Jansson, G. ¹ and Bro, A. ³ (¹Department of Conservation Biology, Grimsö Wildlife Research Station, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE-730 91 Riddarhyttan, Sweden, and Departments of ²Natural Sciences and ³Social Sciences, Örebro University, SE-701 82 Örebro, Sweden). Non-industrial private forest owners’ knowledge of and attitudes towards nature conservation.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Helen Uliczka

Uliczka, H. 1 , Angelstam, P. 1,2 , Jansson, G. 1 and Bro, A. 3 (1Department of Conservation Biology, Grimsö Wildlife Research Station, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE-730 91 Riddarhyttan, Sweden, and Departments of 2Natural Sciences and 3Social Sciences, Örebro University, SE-701 82 Örebro, Sweden). Non-industrial private forest owners’ knowledge of and attitudes towards nature conservation.