Abstract
Urban trees could provide a variety of ecosystem services. However, they require conservation to sustain a healthy and consistent provision of services. This study applies an extended theory of planned behavior (ETPB) to understand residents’ pay intention for conserving urban trees. In order to explore the impact of the public perception of urban trees, two constructs such as perceived usefulness and perceived tree benefits have been added to the TPB model. This study conducted a questionnaire survey on Taipei city residents and received 364 valid responses. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used for the analysis of the model. The results show that residents’ perceived usefulness and perceived tree benefits of urban trees have a significantly positive impact on public attitude toward protecting urban trees. Individuals’ intention to pay towards conservation of urban trees is, on the other hand, affected by subjective norm, attitude, perceived behavioral control, and perceived usefulness. Thus, with education and promotion of tree usefulness and benefits of ecosystem services, it is helpful to improve residents’ attitudes regarding the protection of urban trees and increase their intention to pay for urban tree conservation.
Highlights
Urban trees are those that trees grow in urban environments, such as on the peripheries of buildings, pavements, refuge islands, or parks, and are one of the important green resources in a city [1,2,3]
Urban trees can provide a variety of ecosystem services, allowing residents to obtain multiple benefits, and ameliorating adverse impacts induced by artificial structures [4]
Since this study aims to predict the behavioral intention to pay for conserving urban trees, partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) is suitable for conducting analyses
Summary
Urban trees are those that trees grow in urban environments, such as on the peripheries of buildings, pavements, refuge islands, or parks, and are one of the important green resources in a city [1,2,3]. Urban tree management divisions must put into resources like budgets to carry out various tasks conserving urban trees. Given easy access to urban trees in residents’ daily activities, public awareness and support is key information to ensuring the management divisions’ efficient tasks of a variety of tree conservation [19,20]. Understanding urban residents’ attitudes, behavior or behavioral intentions will facilitate related future strategic planning for urban trees conservation, as well as giving direction to promotional education campaigns to solicit support from residents. This will facilitate operations relating to urban trees conservation in urban settings
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