Abstract
This paper aims at investigating the change over time in the environmental awareness in rural Chinese communities and its correlation with environmental management measures implemented at the local level. We identify three main components of awareness, namely: perception, behavior, and attitude toward environmental management measures. Data were collected from two surveys in three villages in northern China in 2006 and 2015 that interviewed 125 and 129 respondents, respectively, and were analyzed employing an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach. The results discussed in the paper show that environmental awareness increased between 2006–2015, and was mainly manifested in better environmental behavior and understanding of environmental status due an improvement in rural infrastructure and a greater amount of information provided to rural residents about the environment. Place of residence had a considerable influence on respondents’ environmental awareness: residents in eco-villages had a higher environmental awareness than those living in common agricultural villages. This appears to indicate a positive nexus between the comprehensiveness of environmental management measures implemented locally, and environmental awareness. Also, the universality of environment issues reduced the importance of socioeconomic and demographic factors in determining the degree of environmental awareness. However, more attention should be paid to villagers’ external behavior and inner feelings, such as their attitude to governmental management policies. These findings yield important policy implications that are relevant to the promotion of environmental awareness in China’s rural communities, and the adoption of more effective environmental management measures.
Highlights
In light of growing concerns over environmental problems, China has established policies and programs aimed at establishing a harmonious relationship between human activities and nature [1]
Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) results show that environmental attitudes have a weight of 0.5 in environmental awareness, a weight of 0.33 for environmental behavior, and a weight of 0.17 for environmental awareness
It is the most authentic expressions from the innermost being; attitudes dominate behaviors, and behaviors respond to attitudes, so the importance of environmental behaviors is second to environmental attitude
Summary
In light of growing concerns over environmental problems, China has established policies and programs aimed at establishing a harmonious relationship between human activities and nature [1]. The development of environmental awareness among the Chinese public and decision-makers since the early 1970s has been greatly influenced by Western practices and the promotion of environmental discourses and best practices by the United Nations. A key event in the promotion of environmental awareness in China was the first National Conference on Environmental Protection, held in 1973, which laid the foundation for the first policies aimed at curbing pollution [3,4]. The environmental crisis further spurred the increase in environmental awareness The former State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA, the Ministry of Ecological Environment) increased environmental awareness in China. In 1992, SEPA and the State Education Commission jointly held the first National Environmental Education Work Conference, which was aimed at enhancing environment awareness [7]
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