Social concerns, risk and the acceptability of forest vegetation management alternatives: Insights for managers (original) (raw)
Related papers
2011
Although public opinion and social issues have significant influence on policy-making, research on forest vegetation management (FVM) in Canada has a strong focus on biological aspects, with less attention being paid to social concerns. This paper reviews the social context in which FVM occurs. Individual views about FVM reflect a combination of values, beliefs, and attitude while also including differing perceptions of risks. Public views and the broader social acceptability of management decisions can be linked to five key factors: context, risk, aesthetics, trust, and knowledge. Judgements about acceptability will usually change over time and across specific situations and various segments of a population could make opposing judgements. We identify a variety of public concerns related to FVM in Canada, synthesizing research that can help resource managers consider the social impacts of their choices. We also note particular concerns related to Aboriginal peoples and the FVM workf...
Public perceptions of risk and acceptability of forest vegetation management alternatives in Ontario
The Forestry Chronicle, 1998
We examined public perceptions of risk and acceptability for 9 alternatives to controlling forest vegetation in Ontario (N = 2,301) in the fall of 1994. The proportion of respondents indicating whether an alternative was 1) difficult to control, 2) potentially catastrophic, 3) a problem for future generations, and 4) a personal worry determined perceptions of risk for each vegetation management alternative. Ranking of alternatives from highest to lowest perceived risk was: aerially-applied herbicides > biological control > ground-applied herbicides > mulches > prescribed fire > heavy equipment > cover cropping > manual cutting > grazing animals. Public acceptance was lowest for aerially-applied herbicides (18%) followed by ground-applied herbicides (37%), biological control (57%), prescribed fire (57%), mulches (65%), heavy equipment (72%), cover cropping (80%), grazing animals (82%), and manual cutting (89%). Public acceptability of various agents for biolog...
Introduction: Social Acceptability in Ecosystem Management
1996
This compendium of papers was developed in response to the assumption that implementing an ecological approach to forest management requires an understanding of socially acceptable forestry-what it is and the implications of doing it. The papers in this collection bring to bear perspectives from a variety of social science disciplines and question whether the focus on social acceptability is an appropriate and useful one.
Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 2002
The protection and sustainable management of forests make up one of the major challenges of the years to come. While deforestation is the main problem in the tropics and subtropics, the qualitative degradation of forest ecosystems is the focus of discussions in the temperate zones. From a sociopolitical point of view, the crucial question in this respect is how forestry professionals and forest owners can be prompted to take active measures to restore degraded forest stands. Based on the theory of social constructivism and the model of symbolic interactionism, this paper shows that a person's readiness to implement restoration measures, inter alia, depends on the urgency of the problem. However, it does not (only) hinge on the 'objective' degree of damage, but (also) on the subjective problem perception of the decision maker. The empirical survey indicates, furthermore, that these subjective perceptions are-among other things-determined by social interactions. On the basis of these ndings, we can derive a number of practical recommendations not just for science and research scientists, but especially for persons and institutions working in (further) education and in the eld of extension services.