Social Perception of Trees in the Landscape: The Connection Between Attitudes and Visual Preferences

Abstract

Abstract The study presented in this paper uses a representative sample of the Czech population to analyse the relationships between attitudes to trees and preferences for landscapes with trees. We ask whether a positive assessment of the environmental benefits of trees in general and old and dead trees in particular leads to preferences for close-to-nature forms of the tree landscape. The results show that tree landscape preferences are primarily affected by attitudes attached to trees, rather than by sociodemographic factors. People who appreciate the environmental benefits of trees are more likely to prefer transparent and organized landscapes with trees, whereas the more specific environmental attitude appreciating old or dead trees is reflected in higher preferences for wilderness-like landscapes. The results of our research suggest that the perceived environmental benefits of trees are anthropocentric in nature, in a way utilitarian; trees serve people and their environment, and not nature as such.