Environmental Psychology - Selected Projects
- Social Acceptability of Forest Management Options: Landscape Visualisation and Evaluation
- Social Acceptability of Forest Management Systems
- CRC for Forestry projects: Community attitudes toward plantation forestry
- Socio-economic impacts of land use change in the Green Triangle and Central Victoria
- Knowledge Making for Ecological Restoration
Social Acceptability of Forest Management Options: Landscape Level Visualisation and Evaluation
Social Acceptability of Forest Management Options: Landscape Visualisation and Evaluation
Aims
Tasmanian wet eucalypt forests are diverse, productive and beautiful. When members of the public are asked to judge the acceptability of their management, a range of factors come into play. These include characteristics of the forest landscape, such as its beauty, its value for timber production and its value as natural ecosystems. Other factors are psychological; peoples’ feelings, and the values and beliefs through which they interpret forests. This project seeks to explore these landscape and psychological factors as a way of understanding public responses to different forest management options.
An important aspect of the project is the use of interactive visualization technology to represent forested landscapes, and the evaluation of this technology for understanding public judgements of land management.
This project builds on research completed in 2005 which investigated the social acceptability of alternative harvest systems using close-up computer simulated pictures (see description below, ‘Social Acceptability of Forest Management Systems’). While close-up views of recently harvested forests are important to people’s views about forest management, close-up representations may not be very representative of many people's experience of the landscape. Driving through, or flying over areas that have been managed in different ways reveals a complex mix of landscape elements and forest of different ages. This research sought to explore this complexity by investigating the relative acceptability of options for managing the broader forest landscape.
The Departments of Resource Management and Geography and Geomatics collaborated to achieve these aims.
Method
The research focuses on a case study area which includes parts of the Huon, Arve and Picton valleys in Southern Tasmania. It extends from the World Heritage Area in the West through areas of State Forest to the Huon River Estuary in the East. The area includes the Warra Long Term Ecological Research site, the towns of Geeveston and Port Huon, the Tahune Airwalk and the Hartz Mountains.
In the first stage of the research (2006 and 2007) interviews were used to develop an understanding of people’s considerations in judging forest management across a broad landscape and the information they needed to make these judgements. This information includes visual images, which show areas that are, or are not, forested, and the ages of different areas of forest. Members of the public also seek discursive information to interpret what they see in visual images. The outputs of forest management for timber supply and the natural environment are important to many people. The preliminary interview findings informed the development of interactive computer systems.
In the second stage of the project (2007-2008) an interactive computer system was used to develop 25 forest management options. These have different visual, economic and ecological effects across the landscape. An important feature of the project is that these options were developed by stakeholders with an interest in forest management and by experts in various aspects of forest management. These option-builders were asked to build their ideal forest management option, which meant that the options represent meaningful, though hypothetical, ways of managing forests.
In stage three (2009) the options built in stage 2 were presented to members of the public on the Mainland and in Tasmania in two different ways:
- Forty-six people participated in interviews where they selected their preferred option using a second interactive computer system designed for the general public to use. This system includes simulated pictures of forest views and the other information found in Stage 1 to be important to public evaluations. This stage in the research will help in understanding how such decisions are made, including how people use the interactive system and other information.
- About 490 people participanted in a mail survey. These participants were asked to rate the scenic beauty and social acceptability of a more constrained range of options and to record their agreement or disagreement with statements measuring their values and beliefs about logging.
Results
The mail survey results are included in the attached overview document. Major findings are:
- People judged the options primarily on their effects on the environment and amenity. Options that were believed to have better impacts on the environment were more socially acceptable.
- Three options are particularly interesting as they have sawlog supply outputs similar to current management, but higher social acceptability. They also have higher environmental and amenity outputs than current management. Characteristics of these options include:
- A relatively large proportion of native vegetation that is not logged and contributes to good environmental and amenity outcomes.
- Intensification: eucalypt plantations enable wood to be produced very efficiently from a compact land area, limiting environmental impacts to a small area and allowing protection of other forests. On native forest, the clearfell, burn and sow system with thinning has a similar effect, increasing production per hectare in the long term.
- The aggregated retention logging method, which leaves about 20% of a logging area unlogged, has benefits for biodiversity, while also maintaining sawlog supply outputs.
- The finding that intensification over small areas can lead to environmental and social benefits is somewhat counter-intuitive. The research also found that most people believe that in general native forests should not be converted to plantations or clearfelled, and should only be selectively logged. Yet when presented with information about the effects of these logging methods within the broader landscape, options that combined plantations and clearfelling with large areas of native forest not affected by logging were more socially acceptable than options that made extensive use of selective logging. When people are given specific information about the effects of management arrangements, it becomes more important than their very general beliefs about how logging should be carried out.
Conclusions
This research points to several ways in which the social acceptability of forest management at the landscape scale can be improved. The findings show that two approaches favoured by biodiversity management experts: the use of aggregated retention silviculture and the creation of a mosaic of forest of different ages using a mix of systems also improve social acceptability. The findings also indicate that intensification through Eucalypt plantations can contribute to social acceptability, if other areas of forest are left unlogged. Conversion of native forest on public land to plantations is no longer practised in Tasmania. Nevertheless, these results suggest that plantations, perhaps established on cleared private land, can contribute to achieving a socially acceptable balance of outcomes.
Contact: Rebecca Ford or Kathryn Williams. Funded by Australian Research Council (Linkage Project Grant) and industry partners Forestry Tasmania, Forest Practices Authority (Tasmania) and Tourism Tasmania.
Example of forest landscape visualisation used in pre-testing
Image: Department of Geomatics, University of Melbourne
Social Acceptability of Forest Management Systems
Aims
Tasmania's wet Eucalypt forests are currently harvested by a clearfell, burn and sow system. Clearfelling is considered by the forestry industry to be a safe and efficient way to extract timber, but it concerns many people.
This research aimed to find out whether alternative harvest systems that retain some trees on felled areas would be more or less acceptable to the community than clearfelling. Within this aim, we sought to find out whether information about the consequences of harvesting had any effect on acceptability judgements.
A second aim was to investigate some of the underlying bases for differences of view about clearfelling in Tasmanian society, in particular people's values in relation to the natural environment and their beliefs about clearfelling.
Methods
The project used computer-simulated pictures of forests to show different forest management systems superimposed on the same patch of forest. Harvest systems shown included clearfelling, selective logging, aggregated retention and dispersed retention systems similar to those being trialled by Forestry Tasmania at the Warra Long Term Ecological Research site. A small side study investigated a wider range of systems which included a no-harvest option and conversion to bluegum plantation.
To understand the underlying factors beneath people's views about clearfelling and the other harvest systems, the research drew on psychological theories that relate people's deeply held values to their attitudes to management of the environment. A questionnaire was developed to measure peoples' values, beliefs about consequences and acceptance of the harvest systems.
The questionnaire measured three kinds of social values for the natural environment. Use values relate to the value that humans directly extract from natural areas such as timber. Intrinsic value involves valuing aspect of the natural environment for it's own sake, rather than for any human benefit. Non-use value includes benefits to humans from not using natural areas, which includes the ecosystem services thought to be provided by forests, such as clean air.
The early phases of the project focussed on development of the computer simulations, information about the consequences of harvesting and the questionnaire. These research tools were tested several times with small groups of participants to ensure that they were valid and would result in meaningful data.
For the main part of the study we surveyed about 550 people in groups. We found participants by inviting a wide range of organizations to come to group sessions. These organizations ranged from environmental groups to all kinds of clubs and societies to forest industry organizations. The groups that agreed to participate were shown the simulated pictures on an 8 metre wide screen, to maximise their sense of being in the forest. These participants filled in the questionnaire as they viewed the pictures. About half the participants also viewed information about the consequences of harvesting for a wide range of outcomes including fauna, forest products and other forest values.
Main results
Depending on their questionnaire responses, participants were divided into three groups based on their affiliation with either environmental groups, industry groups or just being members of the general public with no such affiliations. There were significant differences between the views of these three groups.
On average, conservation and non-affiliated people found the clearfelling system least acceptable and the selective logging system most acceptable. With these groups there was a general trend that the more trees retained on the site the more acceptable the result. The non-affiliated group found clearfelling a little more acceptable than did the conservation participants.
The trend for industry participants was opposite; these people found clearfelling acceptable and selective logging unacceptable. The more trees retained on the site, the less acceptable the result.
These results can be understood in terms of underlying values and beliefs about the consequences of clearfelling. People with stronger non-use and intrinsic values for the environment tended to value the natural environment and aesthetics of forests, to believe clearfelling has negative consequences for these things and judge it unacceptable. On the other hand, people who value the natural environment for human use tend to value timber, believe clearfelling has positive consequences for the regrowth of a future resource and judge clearfelling acceptable. On average, conservation and non-affiliated participants expressed higher intrinsic and non-use values, while industry participants expressed higher use values.
Judgements of acceptability were not, however, completely determined by people's values. The research found that provision to participants of information about the consequences of harvesting for a broad range of conservation and industry outcomes had a small but significant effect on acceptability. Viewing this information led non-affiliated participants to rate selective logging slightly lower, and a 30% aggregated system slightly higher than they would otherwise have done. The information showed that while selective logging is good for the natural environment, it has some negative consequences for eucalypt regrowth and the safety of timber workers. Some participants inferred from the information that the 30% aggregated retention system was a better compromise between conservation and industry outcomes.
Conclusions
There is need for caution in generalising these results, as the project participants were not representative of the broader Tasmanian population on all measures. While the non-affiliated participants were similar to the Tasmanian adult population on most key demographic characteristics, their education levels were, on average, higher. With this type of sample it is more valid and meaningful to compare different parts of the sample, and responses to different parts of the questionnaire than it is to try to draw detailed conclusions about the whole Tasmanian population. In general however, the results suggest that the general public in Tasmania finds alternative harvest systems more acceptable than clearfelling. Systems which retain more trees at first harvest are more acceptable. Without information selective harvesting was the most acceptable alternative. However, if participants are shown information about the consequences of harvesting, a 30% aggregated retention system becomes about equally acceptable.
This research also demonstrates that social values are an important underlying factor in judgements about the acceptability of forest harvesting. This places Tasmanian debates about forestry within the context of broader contests in Australian society between new eco-centric values for the natural environment on the one hand and more traditional social values emphasising resource use on the other hand. In this context, the acceptability judgements of people with one set of values are no more legitimate or rational than those of people with another set of values, they simply reflect different ideas about what is good or important in the world.
Some of the computer simulated pictures presented to project participants
Clearfell harvest system
30% aggregated retention system
Selective system (single tree/ small group selection)
Community Attitudes to Plantation Forestry
The ‘Communities’ project within the CRC Forestry explores social dimensions of forestry through research conducted by the University of Melbourne, Australian National University, University of Tasmania and Southern Cross University.
Three sub-projects are hosted by the University of Melbourne.
Surveys of community attitudes to plantation forestry.
During 2008 surveys were conducted in Tasmania and south west Western Australia to describe and explain views on plantation forestry. Understanding community views on plantations can inform land use policy and communication: The research makes it clear that for many residents plantations are not ‘just another crop’.
Key findings of the survey include that:
- Plantations were often viewed less positively than traditional rural land uses such as cropping and grazing, and new ‘green’ land uses such as wind farms and revegetation.
- Most participants considered plantations acceptable at some level, with around 20% finding plantations very acceptable. At the same time, around 12% of participants considered eucalypt plantations grown for paper and pulp to very unacceptable.
- Some plantations are more acceptable than others, for example when grown for timber rather than pulp and paper, when grown on poorer or saline soils or when grown on land previously used for plantations rather than agricultural land.
- Beliefs about the benefits of plantations for rural communities and the environment are strikingly diverse, and appear to strongly influence respondents’ level of support for plantations.
A follow up survey will identity whether and why views on plantations change over time. Further information about the project can be found here.
Making sense of plantations and communities
Caroline Dunn’s research considers how people working within the forest industry engage with social research to understand the ‘social side’ of forestry. The CRC Forestry ‘Communities’ project provides a case study for the project, providing a unique opportunity to observe how the project researchers work together with industry partners in developing social research goals and learning from research outcomes.
Based on two and a half years of participatory research, interviews and document analysis, the project describes how industry partners and researcher makes sense of the research and what it means for the forest industry. The project describes action taken to help build skills and capacity within the case study research program. This includes the skills of researchers to develop industry relevant research, and the capacity of industry partners to understand and make practical use of research findings.
The research develops a framework for thinking about how social research can and might make a difference in Australian forestry, and in other areas where researchers are working with industry in areas of changing land use.
Ideas of rurality and acceptability of plantation forestry
Nerida Anderson’s work investigates issues relating to the social acceptability of commercial forest plantations. In particular, her work looks at the way people value rural landscapes, and the way in which people respond to commercial forest plantations within these landscapes.
The research contributes understanding the factors influencing judgements of acceptability, and so provides guidance for the design and management of future commercial forest plantations.
Socio-economic impacts of land use change in the Green Triangle and Central Victoria
This project examined the social and economic impacts of land use change in southeast South Australia and southwest Victoria. The project used multiple methods to describe what land use change had occurred across this region between 1991 and 2006, what socio-economic change was associated with this, and how residents’ perceived and experienced this change.
Full details of the project, including reports can be found here.
Knowledge Making for Ecological Restoration
Karen Reid’s PhD research investigates the relationship between scientific and local knowledge in community based ecological restoration projects. Ecological restoration has been a contested approach to natural resource management. Advocates of ecological restoration assert that it creates values both natural and social, but its opponents often see it as diverting resources from nature preservation. Establishing the knowledge credentials of those who participate in ecological restoration has therefore been a priority and tensions arise between the knowledge-in-practice of volunteers and the methods of science. By using ethnographic methods that focus on observing restoration practice, this research reveals strong similarities between the knowledge practices of amateur ecological restorationists and traditional (or indigenous) ecological knowledge. This is most evident in restorationists’ use of narratives to generate and perpetuate knowledge and the relationships between “place”, narrative and knowledge. The findings potentially inform current ecological restoration discourse exploring the management of restoration projects across multiple (landscape and local) scales.