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To manage for more sustainable wildlife viewing tourism, a better understanding of tourists' behaviour that might disturb and negatively affect wildlife such as birds is needed. We conducted a qualitative case study of visitors to Hornøya, a protected bird cliff in Northern Norway. Behaviours with the potential to disturb seabirds at the site were explored using the theory of planned behaviour as a guiding framework. In-depth interviews and observations were used to explore why some visitors perform illegal or unwanted, potentially harmful behaviours, and to understand attitudes, social norms, and perceived behaviour control as influencing factors. The tourists visited Hornøya to experience seabirds in their natural surroundings, without causing harm. They were emotionally affected by the bird encounters, which may lead to thoughts and reflections about environmental challenges and nature protection. Visitors generally did not intend to disturb birds during these encounters. However, many visitors interpreted the birds' behaviour as meaning that they were not easily disturbed. Poorly developed social norms among visitors, in combination with limited presence of surveillance/guide personnel, and strong behavioural control among some visitors (willingness and ability to engage in illegal behaviour) led to occasional breaching of formal rules as well as incidents of inappropriate, potentially disturbing behaviour towards birds. Experienced wildlife photographers tended to show willingness and ability to engage in illegal behaviour more often than the two other segments. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10344-023-01678-y.
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BACKGROUND: Communication is a central tool used to manage the balance between outdoor recreation and environmental protection in natural areas. Several studies have evaluated different communication measures in case studies, but rarely are these measures compared across contexts. We review the literature guided by the question: what is the scope of evidence of on-site communication to change human behavior towards a more sustainable direction in outdoor recreation? Taking natural areas as our starting point, we map research-based distribution and abundance of communication measures, with emphasis on their outcomes and study design. METHODS: The target population for our mapping review are outdoor recreationists and nature-based tourists who visit natural or near-natural settings. We examined studies that have crafted written, oral and visual intervention measures to change behavior by using persuasion, education and information rather than legal restrictions or bans. Examples of challenges addressed with communication measures include proper waste disposal, using designated trails, minimizing wear and tear at campsites, avoid disturbing wildlife, and encouraging appropriate and safe behavior. We did not restrict our search geographically. We searched publication databases for peer-reviewed published articles (WoS, Scopus) and forward and backward citation chasing. To identify grey literature we used the database IRMA and internet searches in Google Scholar supplemented with specialist searches. Inclusion criteria and related search terms were based on PICO and included population (P: people participating in outdoor recreation in natural settings), terms that denoted intervention (I: on-site communication measures in situ vs. C: no communication measures) and terms that denoted outcome (O: changed behavior). We screened first by title and abstract and finally full text. For each article selected for full-text screening, metadata was extracted on key variables of interest such as behavior category, context, targeted population, study design and outcomes. REVIEW FINDINGS: Overall, we identified 54 studies that were assessed in the review. Our review documents growing academic interest looking at actual behavior change in outdoor recreation. Theory is often subsidiary to attempted behavioral change via communication and different situational aspects, such as targeted visitor populations and environmental context, as well as psychological factors remain underexplored in the literature. The primary communication medium in the reviewed papers is passive use of signs. Awareness raising is the dominant communication mode, but other modes such as emotions, identity, and social norms are common. The geographic distribution of the studies is highly skewed to the United States. CONCLUSIONS: The amassed studies have an uneven focus on different settings and mediums used to change behavior. Research could benefit from investigating different contexts and the state of the natural environment before and after interventions. We advocate for casting a wider disciplinary net and interest in qualitative investigations to produce data-rich studies of where and how sustainable behavior is encouraged and eventually achieved. Collectively, different disciplinary perspectives are required to understand the aspects that contribute to sustainable, and sustained, behavior change. It is important to distinguish what aspects of behavior change could be generalized across settings, and which purely contextual aspects drive behavior change.
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BACKGROUND: Communication is a central tool in managing the balance between outdoor recreation and environmental protection. Several studies have evaluated different communication measures in nature area case studies, but rarely are these measures compared across contexts. We systematically map the literature guided by the question, what is the evidence base of on-site communication in outdoor recreation to change human behavior towards a more sustainable direction? Taking vulnerable natural areas as our starting point, we map distribution and abundance of communication measures, study design and outcome-related themes. METHODS: The target population for our mapping review (hereafter review) are outdoor recreationists and nature-based tourists who visit natural or near-natural settings. We will examine the studies that have crafted written, oral and visual intervention measures to change behavior by using persuasion, education and information instead of legal restrictions or bans. Some examples of challenges addressed with communication measures are proper waste disposal, using designated trails, minimizing wear and tear at campsites, avoid disturbing wildlife, and encouraging appropriate and safe behavior. No geographic restrictions will be applied but we will focus on protected areas. We will search publication databases for peer-reviewed published articles using internet and specialist searches to identify grey literature in English. We will screen first by title, followed by abstract and finally full text. For each article selected for full-text screening, metadata will be extracted on key variables of interest. The extracted data from the coding will be used to group and compare the studies to reveal knowledge gaps and knowledge clusters. We will briefly describe findings from the included studies. The review will help identify what type of human behavior researchers have addressed with communication in nature management and conservation. In addition it will highlight which communication measures are frequently used in each behavioral context. It will identify which frameworks and communication theories have been the basis for designing intervention measures and provide support to practitioners and researchers in future framing and implementation of communication measures in natural settings.
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Ecosystems and biodiversity produce benefits to society, but many of them are hard to quantify. For example, it is unclear whether European societies gain benefits from experiencing rivers that host high native biodiversity. Without such knowledge, monetary investments into ecologically oriented river management plans are difficult to justify. The objective of this study was to reveal how the public in four European countries values ecological characteristics of domestic rivers and the outcomes of hypothetical river basin management plans designed to improve river ecosystems, particularly fish biodiversity. We conducted a choice experiment among the populations in Norway, Sweden, Germany, and France. We found similar preference structures in all countries with high marginal willingness-to-pay for improvements of abiotic river attributes (increased accessiblity of the river banks, improved bathing water quality, decreased river fragmentation). Citizens also benefited from certain fish species occurring in a river with native salmonid species being more valued than nonnatives, particularly in Norway, and from the degree of a river's native biodiversity. Welfare measures calculated for selected river basin management plans (policy scenarios) revealed societal benefits that were primarily derived from ecological river management whereas a scenario focusing on hydroelectricity production generated the lowest utility. We conclude that ecological river management may produce high nonmarket economic benefits in all study countries, particularly through the management of abiotic river attributes and the restoration of declining or extinct fish species. Our results help to inform decisions on restoration efforts by showcasing the benefits that these measures have for the public.
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Biodiversidad , Ecosistema , Animales , Europa (Continente) , Francia , Alemania , SueciaRESUMEN
Public support for biodiversity conservation is shaped by people's values and their knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes toward the environment. We conducted the first multinational representative survey of the general public's perceptions of river fish biodiversity in France, Germany, Norway, and Sweden. For the online survey, 1000 respondents per country were randomly selected from large panels following country-specific quotas set on age, gender, and educational level. Questions covered people's level of knowledge, beliefs, values, and attitudes toward river fish, environmental threats, and conservation measures. We found that the public had limited knowledge of freshwater fishes. Two non-native species, rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), were widely perceived as native, whereas native Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) was mostly classified as native in Scandinavia and largely as non-native in central Europe. These results suggest an extinction of experience paralleling the extirpation or decline of salmon stocks in countries such as Germany and France. Respondents thought pollution was the dominant threat to riverine fish biodiversity. In reality, habitat loss, dams, and the spread of non-native fishes are equally important. Despite limited biological knowledge, respondents from all countries held an overwhelmingly proecological worldview, supported conservation stocking, and appreciated native fishes, although only a minority interacted with them directly. Differences among the 4 countries related to several conservation issues. For example, threats to biodiversity stemming from aquaculture were perceived as more prevalent in Norway compared with the other 3 countries. Promoting fish conservation based on charismatic species and use values of fishes may work well in countries with a strong economic and cultural link to the freshwater environment, such as Norway. In countries where people rather abstractly care for nature, focusing conservation messaging on broader ecosystem traits and non-use values of fishes is likely to win more support.