Do digitalization and trade development positively impact forest road expansion and nature conservation under the individual perception in a transition economy?

Abstract

Forests are considered to be the planet's green lungs to regulate the air and protect human health. With trade development, deforestation for agricutlural production will affect the natural environment. However, the effect of trade development and digitalization on individual perceptions of forest roads in agricultural production and nature conservation has yet to be identified. Therefore, this study aims to find how trade development affects nature conservation through the individual perception of forest roads for agriculture. Accordingly, four factors are investigated in these effects (digitalization, deforestation, emissions, and health concerns). The qualitative approach was employed to validate the measurement scale, while the quantitative approach was used to test the proposed hypotheses through a survey of 975 citizens in Vietnam. The results found that trade development indirectly impacts the individual perception of forest road expansion through increased emissions. In contrast, digitalization is found to be an insignificant influence on the individual perspective of road expansion. Moreover, the increase in emissions has the highest impact on individuals’ opposition towards forest roads, followed by deforestation. Trade development helps a transition economy shorten the gap with developed countries by receiving advanced technology from other countries. However, this raises concerns about increasing environmental pollution and increasing emissions. Therefore, transition economies that want to encourage the development of international trade must comply with regulations on nature conservation under the free trade agreements in which they participate.