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Abstract
In the present study, the legitimacy of the forest policy in Sweden was explored. Based on a value belief approach, the general public's support for forest policy was examined by means of a questionnaire (n = 796). Results demonstrated that the respondents believed ecological principles, such as sustaining natural conditions for native plants and animals, were most important in forest policy, but preservation of social values and using the forest efficiently to maintain high market value were also emphasised. Although socio-demographic variables (i.e. gender and age) had some impact on support for the policy, different values and beliefs reflecting ecological, social and economic interests were more important. By considering different values and beliefs, as well as policy support explicitly, the study provides a multifaceted account of the public's viewpoint regarding forest issues.
Notes
1. When extracting the examined principles from the forest policy, we attempted to retain the core of the principles while at the same time using statements that are relatively easy to evaluate. Not every sentence was therefore examined explicitly. For example, “The composition of forest production shall be such that it will be able to satisfy a variety of human needs in the future” was not included as part of the production principle since we believed that highlighting an efficient but responsible use of forest products was sufficient. Moreover, the principle “protection of endangered species and vegetation types” was excluded since the broader principle “preservation of biological diversity” covered this dimension.
2. Although private forest owners can be considered part of the general public, they were excluded from this study since they profit directly from production activities in the forest, thereby having a direct interest invested in the forest that other members of the general public is lacking.
3. Although the bivariate correlations between recreation values and support for the two ecological principles were positive, the beta weights are negative. Recreation values thus acts as a negative suppressor variable in the regression analyses. A closer inspection of this result shows that partialling out ecological values and cultural values from the correlation between recreation values and support for the ecological principles, makes the positive correlations of 0.08* and .08* become − 0.08* and − 0.08*, respectively. This result indicates that recreation values are negatively related to support for the ecological principles after removing the variance shared with ecological and cultural values. Similarly, partialling out production values and ecological values from the correlation between recreation values and support for the production principle, makes the zero order correlation of 0.02 become negative − 0.08*, suggesting that recreation values are negatively related to support for the production principle after removing the variance shared with ecological and production values.