Climate Change, Bushfire Risk, and Environmental Values: Examining a Potential Risk Perception Threshold in Peri-Urban South Australia

ABSTRACT

Striking a balance between the management of environmental risks and values is a challenge for decision-makers. If people perceive that environmental risks are increasing they may be willing to discount local values to manage those risks, so the identification of thresholds in risk perception in relation to specific behaviors could help to avoid policy failures. The complex relationships between perceptions of climate change and bushfire risks, environmental values and support for actions to mitigate local risks are presented for peri-urban regions in South Australia. The results of a household survey (N=988) suggest that a threshold of risk perception in relation to climate change and bushfire management has not been exceeded and people are broadly supportive of balanced management interventions. A minority of people still do not perceive that climate change is increasing bushfire risk, and are supportive of risk mitigation interventions even at the expense of local biodiversity. However, a larger group believe that climate change is a driver of bushfire risk, yet are still more likely to prioritize ecological values and are unwilling to discount those values for risk mitigation. Targeted communication could assist different groups to respond to gaps in knowledge and action to facilitate effective, differentiated interventions within forested landscapes on the margins of urban areas.

KEYWORDS:

• Action gap
• biodiversity
• bushfire
• climate change
• risk perception
• South Australia

Acknowledgment

The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of the South Australian Government or any organization listed. Thanks go to Di DeLaine, Daniel Rogers, Randall Johnson, Kirstin Abley, Sandy Carruthers, Stephanie Williams and the late Graeme Hugo for their support; to survey respondents for sharing their insights into environmental risk and value; and to the anonymous reviewers for their suggested improvements to the paper.

Additional information

Funding

As part of an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant (LP130100406), this research is supported by funding from the South Australian Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources and two regional Natural Resource Management Boards—Adelaide and Mount Lofty and Eyre Peninsula.