Abstract
AbstractUnravelling the psychological processes determining landowners’ support towards forest conservation is crucial, particularly in rural areas of the tropics, where most forest remnants are within private lands. As human–nature connections are known to shape pro‐environmental behaviours, the intention of preserving forest remnants should ultimately be determined by the ecological context people live in.Here, we investigate the pathways through which the ecological context (forest cover), via direct contact with forests and ecosystem services and disservices, influence the psychological antecedents of conservation behaviour (beliefs, attitude and intention of preserving forest remnants). We conceptualized a model based on the Reasoned Action Approach, using the ecological context and these three forest experiences as background factors, and tested the model using Piecewise Structural Equation Modelling. Data were collected through an interview‐based protocol applied to 106 landowners across 13 landscapes varying in forest cover in a consolidated rural region in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.Our results indicate that: (a) ecosystem services are more important than disservices for shaping intention of preserving forests, particularly non‐provisioning services; (b) contact with forest has an indirect effect on intention, by positively influencing the frequency of receiving ecosystem services; (c) people living in more forested ecological contexts have more contact with forests, receive ecosystem services more frequently and, ultimately, have stronger intention of preserving forests.Hence, our study suggests a dangerous positive feedback loop between deforestation, the extinction of forest experiences and impairment of human–nature connections. Local demands across the full range of ecosystem services, the balance between services and disservices and the ecological context people live in should be considered when developing conservation initiatives in tropical rural areas.A freePlain Language Summarycan be found within the Supporting Information of this article.
Highlights
Over the last decades, the framing of conservation science has changed, reflecting mainly the way human–nature relationships are viewed
Our results indicate that: (a) ecosystem services are more important than disser‐ vices for shaping intention of preserving forests, non‐provisioning services; (b) contact with forest has an indirect effect on intention, by positively influencing the frequency of receiving ecosystem services; (c) people living in more forested ecological contexts have more contact with forests, receive eco‐ system services more frequently and, have stronger intention of pre‐ serving forests
We considered different radii to account for possible dif‐ ferences in the scale of effect of the ecological context on different types of forest experiences – for example, direct contact with forest may be associated with forest cover at smaller spatial scales than the frequency of receiving ecosystem services or disservices
Summary
The framing of conservation science has changed, reflecting mainly the way human–nature relationships are viewed. Balmford & Cowling, 2006; Miller, 2005; Stokes, 2006) and public health (Soga & Gaston, 2016), as interacting with nature af‐ fects human physical health, cognitive performance and psychological well‐being (Bratman, Hamilton, & Daily, 2012; Keniger, Gaston, Irvine, & Fuller, 2013) Addressing this feedback loop between the extinc‐ tion of nature experiences and conservation support requires studies encompassing all the pathways connecting the context where people live in with their intentions and behaviours via nature experiences. We investigate the relevant pathways through which the ecological context – represented by the amount of remaining native forest in the landscape – influences land‐ owners’ beliefs, attitude and intention of preserving forest remnants within their properties, considering both the direct contact they have with forests (visits to the forest) and their experiences of forests (re‐ ceived ecosystem services and disservices; Figure 1)
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