Anthropocentric Values Research Articles

How national cultural values affect pro‐environmental consumer behavior

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to link national cultural values to personal pro‐environmental value orientations, in order to investigate why the salience of pro‐environmental value orientations differs cross‐culturally. A value‐based model is proposed and tested in a multinational study.Design/methodology/approach – An empirical investigation of 1,096 consumers was conducted in five nations with a different cultural profile on the two cultural dimensions in‐group collectivism and assertiveness. The paper applies multi‐group structural equation modelling to test the moderating effect of culture on the impact of pro‐environmental values on attitudes and subjective norms.Findings – The study reveals that the influence of a pro‐environmental value orientation differs substantially, according to national cultural values. While an ecocentric value orientation is important in the US, Canadian, German, and Australian samples which hold individualistic values, an anthropocentric value orientation is salie...

Endangered Species and Threatened Landscapes in Appalachia: Managing the Wild and the Human in the American Mountain South

Abstract Faced with the ideological and practical shortcomings of the American wilderness ideal, many environmentalists and scholars have redefined debates over managing wild lands in terms of biodiversity. Through a process of reduction, endangered species and threatened habitats have gradually become shorthand for biodiversity and hence touchstones of preservation efforts. This article draws on examples from the southern Appalachian Mountains to explore the benefits and drawbacks of placing endangered species and habitats at the centre of wildlands management, and suggests that this management rubric suffers from the same lack of historical context that plagues the wilderness idea. It traces the histories of two endangered habitats and their rare species in southern Appalachia. In the cases of endangered plants on Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina and the Roan Mountain grasslands along the Tennessee/North Carolina line, human disturbance actually benefited biodiversity. Contemporary management at both locations restricts traditional activities - activities that may have contributed to the formation and maintenance of these habitats - in the name of conservation but perpetuates similar disturbance practices in preservation efforts. This essay does not suggest abandoning the concept of endangered species or the work of the Endangered Species Act but instead warns against the facile replacement of the wilderness idea with a management alternative that carries many of the same burdens. The preservation of species and the rare habitats that support them is immensely important but managers must recognise that their preservation efforts always place an anthropocentric value on nature. Successful preservation of some of the most threatened species and landscapes depends on embracing this reality.

Anthropocentrism and ecocentrism in potential technology-based entrepreneurs

This study aims to characterize the profile of potential technology-based entrepreneurs (PTBE) in terms of their environmental values, given that one would expect to observe differences in their pattern of ecological values in comparison with people who do not aspire to set up a technology-based enterprise. On a sample of 191 students from the University of Almería (34.5%o men, 65.5%o women, age range: 18–50, M = 23, SD = 6) an electronic questionnaire was carried out, containing a scale of ecocentric environmental values, anthropocentric environmental values, sociodemographic items and items aimed at classifying the participants as PTBE. The results show that there are no statistically significant differences with regard to ecocentrism, but that there are in relation to anthropocentrism in accordance with the entrepreneurial profile. These results indicate that PTBE tend to be more anthropocentric individuals than the non-entrepreneurial population and general purpose entrepreneurs.

An exergy-based framework for evaluating environmental impact

The analysis framework introduced in this paper utilizes the recognition that exergy is a form of environmental free energy to provide a fundamental basis for valuing environmental interactions independent from their secondary impacts (e.g., global warming, photochemical smog). In order to extend exergy to analyze environmental interactions, modifications are required to the traditional representation of the environment and definition of the dead state used in technical exergy analysis. These are accomplished through a combination of logical extensions and use of non-equilibrium thermodynamic principles. The framework is comprised of two separate components: (1) environmental exergy analysis and (2) anthropocentric sensitivity analysis. Environmental exergy analysis is based on fundamental thermodynamic principles and analysis techniques. It extends the principles of technical exergy analysis to the environment in order to quantify the locations, magnitudes, and types of environmental impact—state change, alteration of natural transfers, and destruction change. Anthropocentric sensitivity analysis is based on the concepts of anthropocentric value and anthropocentric sensitivity. It enables the results of environmental exergy analysis to be interpreted for decision making, but at the expense of introducing some subjectivity into the framework. A key attribute of the framework is its ability to evaluate and compare the environmental performance of energy systems on a level playing field, regardless of the specifics of the systems—resources, by-products, sizes, time scales.

Exploring the influence of outdoor recreation participation on pro-environmental behaviour in a demographically diverse population

This study used structural equation modelling to examine the effects of socio-demographic variables and outdoor recreation participation on pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) among an ethnically diverse population of adult state-park visitors near Atlanta, Georgia, USA (N = 319). Data collected through intercept surveys at three state parks were used to examine interactions among potential predictors of PEB, including socio-demographics (ethnicity, gender, education, and income), outdoor recreation participation (during childhood and adulthood), and environmental value orientations (biocentric and anthropocentric). The best fitting model accounted for 40% of the variance in self-reported PEB and indicated the strongest positive relationship between adult outdoor recreation participation and PEB (β = 0.54, t = 5.70). Biocentric and anthropocentric value orientation scores were also significant antecedents of PEB (β = 0.17, t = 1.99, and β = 0.19, t = 2.56, respectively), and both were influenced by socio-demographic variables. Overall, results suggest that a diverse public's environmental ethos and propensity to engage in PEBs could be influenced by outdoor recreation opportunities.

Attitudes to sustainable development among Swedish pupils

The preconditions for education for sustainable development (ESD) differ according to contextual factors. This paper discusses the sources of values connected with sustainable development and also presents findings from a Swedish survey about how attitudes to some aspects of sustainable development are distributed among Swedish pupils. The results show significant differences related to gender and education programme. Boys and students in vocational programs hold stronger anthropocentric values than girls and students in theoretical programmes. There is also a positive correlation between solidarity and biocentric values. Comparison with earlier studies indicates that the differences mentioned above are increasing.

Groundwater-dependent ecosystems and the dangers of groundwater overdraft: a review and an Australian perspective

In many parts of the world, access to groundwater is needed for domestic, agricultural and industrial uses, and global groundwater exploitation continues to increase. The significance of groundwater in maintaining the health of rivers, streams, wetlands and associated vegetation is often underestimated or ignored, resulting in a lack of scrutiny of groundwater policy and management. It is essential that management of groundwater resources considers the needs of natural ecosystems, including subterranean. We review the limited Australian literature on the ecological impacts of groundwater overdraft and place Australian information within an international context, focusing on lentic, lotic, stygobitic and hyporheic communities as well as riparian and phreatophytic vegetation, and some coastal marine ecosystems. Groundwater overdraft, defined as abstracting groundwater at a rate which prejudices ecosystem or anthropocentric values, can substantially impact natural communities which depend, exclusively or seasonally, on groundwater. Overdraft damage is often underestimated, is sometimes irreversible, and may occur over time scales at variance to those used by water management agencies in modelling, planning and regulation. Given the dangers of groundwater overdraft, we discuss policy implications in the light of the precautionary principle, and make recommendations aimed at promoting the conservation of groundwater-dependent ecosystems within a sustainable use context.

Ethical Compatibility of GM Crops with Intrinsic and Extrinsic Values of Farmers: A Review

The role of intrinsic and extrinsic ethical values as determinants of farmers' adoption decisions of genetically modified (GM) crops is reviewed based on 17 scientific papers publish between 1999 and 2006 in nine countries. In these studies, intrinsic values received less attention than extrinsic values as contributors to adoption decisions. The natural- ness/unnaturalness concept featured only in one qualitative study. Farmers in most countries were generally very knowl- edgeable about issues related to GM food safety, environmental and agronomic impacts, and animal welfare. In a study conducted in New Zealand, farmers intending to adopt GM crops agreed more with the anthropocentric value position than other conventional or organic farmers, who tended to emphasize the risks associated with GM crops. This and other farmer typologies, produced in four countries on the basis of expressed ethical attitudes toward GM crops and condensing around benefit believers, risk perceivers and fatalists, showed recognizable consistency between countries. Thus conven- tional farmers are far from being a homogeneous group in regard to their attitudes toward GM crops. Even those who were using these crops for years questioned and evaluated their decision continuously. Despite the expressed ethical con- cerns, economic and market considerations tended to figure as the most prominent determinants of intended or realized adoption/rejection decisions. The stability/changeability of farmers' ethical values in the course of the innovation- adoption process is discussed. The term ethical compatibility is suggested to be included in the list of innovation attributes as used according to the adoption perception paradigm of innovation diffusion research.

A Literal Use of “Forest Health” Safeguards against Misuse and Misapplication

A Literal Use of “Forest Health” Safeguards against Misuse and Misapplication

No wilderness for immigrants: Cultural differences in images of nature and landscape preferences

Despite the growing cultural diversity in many European countries, nature recreation is still a very “white” activity. Immigrants hardly ever visit non-urban green areas. Prior research has suggested that different perceptions of nature and landscape may be related to this limited use. Based on 618 questionnaires, this article investigates to what extent immigrants from Islamic countries and the native Dutch have different images of nature and landscape preferences. Using the concept of images of nature, cultural differences in meanings attached to nature are explored. Three images of nature are described: the wilderness image, the functional image, and the inclusive image. The wilderness image focuses on ecocentric values and the independence of nature; the functional image focuses on anthropocentric values and intensive management and the inclusive image focuses on ecocentric values and an intimate relationship between humans and nature. Native Dutch people are strong supporters of the wilderness image, while immigrants generally support the functional image. In addition, landscape preferences differ significantly between immigrants and native Dutch people. In general, immigrants show lower preferences for non-urban landscapes. Immigrants show especially low preferences for wild and unmanaged landscapes, like marshes and dunes. Multivariate analyses of variance showed that images of nature and immigrant-status are the most powerful predictors of differences in landscape preferences. Age, gender and education have only a small additional predictive power. The practical and theoretical consequences of these findings are discussed.

Proenvironmental Value Orientation Across Cultures

The present study develops and validates a German and Russian scale of proenvironmental value orientation. Proenvironmental value orientation is conceptualized as a four-dimensional construct, entailing egocentric, ecocentric, and anthropocentric value orientations as well as environmental apathy. The first stage of the research is an expert test of indicator content validity. In a subsequent step, the authors provide evidence of internal consistency for a student sample (N = 223) and for the structural equivalence and criterion validity for a representative sample (N = 430). The structure of proenvironmental value orientation appears to be largely equivalent in both cultures, though the behavioral relevance of the dimensions differs. In the Russian sample, proenvironmental behavioral intention correlates with any of the four dimensions, whereas in Germany, anthropocentric value orientation does not relate to behavioral intention.

Setting Sustainable Goals for Environmental Remediation: The Case of River Remediation in Israel

Abstract People who undertake river remediation projects have a variety of goals, both ecological and social, that they seek to fulfill. Practical examples of river remediation projects implemented in Israel in recent years illustrate how conflicting goals can be balanced in the actual implementation of such projects. While restoration, in terms of rehabilitating riparian landscapes and ecosystems, was one of the key aims of Israel’s river remediation program, it has not been the dominant outcome in individual river basins. Instead the program has produced a variety of environmental conditions depending on the situation at hand. While these environmental conditions may or may not have the same ecological value as the original river environments prior to significant human impacts, the anthropocentric value of these remediated environments is now undoubtedly many times greater than it was prior to the remediation program. The pragmatic approach taken by the Israelis in effect acknowledged that the full restoration of past riparian environments was impossible and that a balance between ecological and human goals needed to be struck to achieve a sustainable outcome.

Environmental Values and Response to Ecolabels Among International Visitors to New Zealand

The research reported here documents the awareness of ecolabels among visitors to Christchurch, one important visitor destination in New Zealand. Around the world there is a growing debate about ecolabels and how visitors respond to them. We propose to inform this debate by studying the relationship between visitor response to ecolabels and their environment values. In interviews with 295 visitors to Christchurch it was found that only one-fifth recalled any place with ecolabels, and only 13% had ever heard of any tourism ecolabel. However, 33% of visitors had some experience of ecolabels. Data were cluster analysed to find that 61% of respondents expressed biocentric values and 39% expressed ambivalent values but not anthropocentric values towards nature. Further analysis of the data showed that the clusters had different responses on many dimensions of ecolabels. Biocentric visitors were concerned with the environment in which they travel, believed that ecolabels are needed in New Zealand, and said they would choose accommodation with an ecolabel. Their reports of their actions were consistent with their expressions of concern for the environment. Results suggest that many visitors will favourably receive ecolabel developments in New Zealand and that ecolabel development and use should be supported.

Francois Mitterrand and Nature

Abstract With the help of extensive quotations, this paper shows that the writings of Francois Mitterrand contain many professions of his love for nature, and reflections on the bond between man and nature. In contrast to these aesthetic and mystical, almost religious outpourings, his references to environmental issues, to ecology and to the environmental movement are few, and they are counterposed by exaltations of materialism and material progress. This dichotomy, and Mitterrand's failure when in office to really engage politically with the conservation of nature and the environment, can partly be explained by the anthropocentric and conservative spiritual values engendered by his rural catholic upbringing.

“Done because we are too menny”: Ethics and Identity in J M Coetzee's Disgrace

This essay suggests that Coetzee extends ethical questions raised in Hardy's Jude the Obscure – questions which have to do with the subject's relatedness to other sentient beings within the context of a natural world indifferent to the individual's plight or to contingent ethico‐cultural values. As much as he comes to recognise their ephemerality and contingency, Lurie upholds Western values: the fact that his ethical paradigm is supervenient upon a cultural and historical moment does not in itself necessitate the view that this paradigm is without worth. Nevertheless, a growing awareness of the limits of his Western, anthropocentric value system alters Lurie's responses to his fellowcreatures. Lurie recognises that he is part of a transtemporal “line of existences”, irrespective of his cultural engagement. A response which acknowledges the individual life as an instant in a larger sequence of existence demands an ethical understanding of the self as intrinsically related to other beings. In articulating this relatedness, Disgrace, like the opera that Lurie is composing, possibly succeeds in sounding “a single authentic note of immortal longing.” Yet, as in the case of the opera, it takes a “scholar” to recognize this note – and scholars themselves are the products of contingent and ephemeral cultures.

Associations between environmental value orientations and landscape preferences

Why do group differences in landscape assessment exist? In the present paper, we explore the hypothesis that landscape preferences are associated with people’s environmental value orientations, operationalised according to Thompson and Barton’s [J. Environ. Psychol. 14 (1994) 199] distinctions between anthropocentric, ecocentric, and apathetic orientations toward the environment. Preferences for local landscapes and environmental value orientations were surveyed in a sample of the adult population of Røros, southern Norway. The highest preference was expressed for wildland scenes containing water, followed by cultural landscapes and traditional farm environments. Landscapes with elements of modern agricultural practises were the least preferred category. Significant positive correlations were found between the ecocentric environmental value orientation and a preference for wildlands with water, and for cultural landscapes. The anthropocentric value orientation correlated positively with a preference for farm environments, while environmental apathy was negatively associated with a preference for wildlands and cultural landscapes. The respondents agreed to ecocentric, but were neutral to anthropocentric statements. The findings indicate that the majority of the people in the area should be responsive to ecocentric arguments when development and conservation plans are presented.

Agriculture and biodiversity: Finding our place in this world

Agriculture has been recently viewed as the primary destructive force of biodiversity, but the places that produce our food and fiber may also hold the key to saving the richness of life on earth. This argument is based on three fundamental positions. First, it is argued that to value and thereby preserve and restore biodiversity we must begin by employing anthropocentric ethics. While changing our understanding of intrinsic values (i.e., the unconditional values of biodiversity as a state and process in-and-of-itself, without reference to human interests) is often advocated as the means by which our behavior will reflect the importance of biodiversity, a change in how we perceive and conditionally value biodiversity is proposed as a more effective and compelling approach. Second, I suggest that anthropocentric values can be linked to a sense of “Place,” with agriculture playing a vital role in this context. Agriculture forms a powerful basis for personal, experiential development of a profound meaning and connection to a setting or landscape. The agricultural setting has tremendous potential for arational (emotional, aesthetic, and spiritual) values that ultimately compel our actions. The constancy of relationship and mutuality of dependency between humans and agricultural lands, particularly extensive agroecosystems, fosters an intensity of association that transcends our recent affinity to wildlands. Third, a mature understanding of places and their biodiversity must include those organisms that account for many of the ecological processes and the majority of the species richness -- the insects. The importance of these insects in structuring the landscape and the effects of habitat destruction on these organisms both suggest a vital, intimate, and reciprocal link between insects and Places. Finally, it is argued that the most important avenue for future efforts to protect and restore biodiversity on the part of agricultural and other scientists is educational -- the presentation of our research to the public in terms that provoke emotional, aesthetic, and spiritual meaning which lies at the core of human values and actions.

On agricultural sustainability and its measurement in small-scale farming in sub-Saharan Africa

We argue in this paper that there is a need to bring the current debate on sustainability down to a more pragmatic level, to ‘operationalise’ sustainability. Given the diversity of agricultural systems throughout the world, the best that is possible may be to develop proximate definitions that do generate testable theories, as we try to do in this paper by developing a pragmatic and measurable definition of the concept which is relevant to small-scale farming in sub-Saharan Africa. The definition we offer takes the community of the village agroecosystem as a relevant and embracing social and spatial unit of analysis. It is based on the anthropocentric value judgement that future generations must have the same range of options concerning the use of agroecosystems as the current generation. Given that village agroecosystems generate various environmental amenities for the human communities, this value judgement means that a sustainable agroecosystem is one which has the capacity to respond to exogenous change as well as to internal disruptions by maintaining non-declining trends in its resources and amenities over a period of at least one decade. The approach we advocate has the dual dangers of over-simplification and the creation of tautologies. It should always be borne in mind that the criteria of sustainability may differ from ecosystem to ecosystem, zone to zone, nation to nation. Each situation should be scrutinised for the essential criteria for assessment, which may be different, and greater or lesser in number, than those we have proposed. As a generality we do maintain, however, that for progress in sustainability assessment, this process of choice should be based on the principle of parsimony. Tautology, the erection of self-fulfilling predictions, is a more fundamental danger in the approach we have taken. We have emphasised several times the necessity of rigorous testing of hypotheses concerning the determinants of each of the components of sustainability that we have described. This is the real challenge to the researcher, but insight into the design of appropiate experiments may be gained from preliminary application of pragmatic tests of relative sustainability of the type described here. We try to avoid ecological and economic dogma as far as possible in our discussion of sustainability, attempting to argue instead from what we actually observe in the systems we study. Whilst a great deal of ecological and economic theory may seem at first look to be applicable to the analysis of the sustainability of small-scale agricultural systems, we find that closer analysis reveals the inapplicability of much of what has been subsumed under the titles of agroecology or natural resource economics. Concepts such as stress and disturbance, stability and diversity, community structure, economic optimality, maximum social welfare, do not, on inspection, provide particularly strong predictive power, particularly when applied to the dynamics of resource-poor, small-scale, community-structured, and to a non-negligible extent, non-market-driven agricultural systems.

Ecosystem Valuation: Combining Economics, Philosophy, and Ecology

Discussions regarding ecological crises often begin by casually identifying anthropocentric traits as responsible for the crises and by briefly explaining the need for holistic or macroscopic modeling. Yet, when modeling begins, policy scientists, philosophers, and social scientists usually are not included, and the models often are not ecological, but are rather narrowly biological or physical. The main purpose of this paper is to emphasize the need for broader and richer modeling and the need to recognize that environmental protection and enhancement is anthropocentric policymaking. The question is not whether it will be anthropocentric, but which anthropocentric values, beliefs, and philosophies will guide the policymaking paradigms and analytical techniques.

In Absentia Benefits of Nature Preserves: A Review

Nature preserves are lands which are protected in order to provide hoped-for perpetuation of natural features within the context of a relatively unmodified natural environment. Nature preserves are typically justified on the basis of benefits to communities of plants or animals (biocentric benefits) or to Mankind (anthropocentric benefits). Anthropocentric benefits are usually described in terms of on-site uses of nature preserves for recreation, quiet enjoyment, scientific research, education, and/or resource-banking. These benefits are not, however, by any means the only effects which accrue to humans because of nature preserves; indeed some of them include the potential to damage the natural integrity of the preserves.The majority of benefits which accrue to humans from nature preserves are in absentia benefits, or benefits which do not require the presence of the beneficiaries on the site. In absentia benefits include residual benefits, or benefits which persist or develop after visiting a preserve, vicarious benefits, or benefits which exist for one or more people (or society) because of someone else's visit to a preserve, and non-use benefits, or benefits which exist for people without anyone necessarily having visited the preserve. In addition there are ecosystem services, maintaining vital gene-pools and natural nutrient and hydrological cycles, as the most important category of non-use benefits. Of these four categories of in absentia benefits, non-use benefits are, by far, the largest. Non-use benefits provide the majority of anthropocentric values accruing from nature preserves.