Students’ attitudes toward forest ecosystem services, knowledge about ecology, and direct experience with forests

Abstract

The main study objective was to determine how primary and lower secondary school students’ valuations and perceptions of ecosystem services as provisioning (produces timber, food, and fuel), regulating (regulates the climate, protects against natural hazards, produces clean water, produces soil, produces clean air), cultural (a place for recreation, for relaxation and deep thinking, for physical/sports activities, with aesthetic value), and supporting (a habitat for animals, plants, and mushrooms) are affected by their knowledge of ecology and direct experiences in forests. The study also investigated how sex and age determine the valuation of forest ecosystem services. The study sample comprised 377 Slovenian students from the sixth and ninth grades (the average age was thirteen). The findings show that students with better general knowledge of ecology placed more importance on regulating and supporting forest ecosystem services. More frequent forest visitors placed more importance on regulating, cultural, and supporting forest ecosystem services, but there was no significant correlation between forest visits and knowledge about ecology. Female students expressed attitudes that are more positive toward forest-supporting ecosystem services than male students. They also showed better knowledge of ecosystems than male students. Older students showed more knowledge of ecology than younger students. The findings have significant implications for conservation education and for raising awareness of forest ecosystem services in the school context and beyond.