Differences in Preferences towards Potential Future Landscapes in the Swiss Alps

Abstract

Land abandonment followed by spontaneous reforestation has been an ongoing process in the Swiss Alps, especially on steep and relatively inaccessible slopes and on alpine summering pastures. This study aims to identify and explain differences in preferences towards potential future landscapes: 1) between landscape settings at different elevation belts (e.g. valley bottom, forest clearings at medium elevations, alpine pastures above the forest belt); 2) between a group of local residents and the general Swiss population; and 3) between social groups within the Swiss population. A random sample of the general Swiss population and group of local residents assessed photo manipulations of different settings in an alpine region depicting for each setting a landscape similar to the present one, a landscape optimized for biodiversity conservation, an initial stage of spontaneous reforestation, and an advanced stage of spontaneous reforestation. We discuss differences between the group of local residents and the Swiss population regarding the assessment and interpretation of some photo manipulations, but also between social groups within the Swiss population. We found that low-intensity land use is visually preferred over intensive land-use and reforested landscapes. Spontaneous reforestation is less liked at higher elevations than at lower elevations. This implies that from a visual-aesthetic point of view, the gap in public funding between lower lying agricultural land and alpine pastures, seems to be not justified.