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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Andy Jin, Dr Sophie Tindale, Professor Lynn FrewerORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Copyright: © 2024 Stewart-Knox et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citizens play a crucial role in attaining the United Nations 2030 sustainable development goals (SDGs). There is growing awareness of the importance of understanding citizen perspectives on environmental issues, in relation to developing and maintaining sustainable lifestyles, and in addressing perceived threats to protection and restoration of ecosystems and biodiversity. This analysis sought to understand people's attitudes towards environmental conservation, how they relate to perceived threats to the countryside, and to determine how attitudes and perceived threats vary demographically and between countries. A survey was administered to citizens (quota sampled on age, gender, education, and split between rural and urban residency) across five countries representative of differing biogeographical regions (N = 3,190): Czech Republic (n = 649) (Continental); Spain (Mediterranean) (n = 623); Sweden (Boreal) (n = 645); Switzerland (Alpine) (n = 641); United Kingdom (UK) (Atlantic) (n = 632). Attitudes were measured using the Environmental Attitudes Inventory (EAI-24) on 2 factors (utilization; preservation) and perceived threat to the countryside on 1-factor (15 items). Multigroup regression analysis indicated that preservationist attitudes were associated with greater perceived threat to the countryside in all five countries. Higher perceived threat was associated with activities linked to environmental degradation, socio-economic uncertainty and risks in agri-food supply chains in all countries. The "bad behaviour of visitors" was the greatest perceived threat in the Czech Republic, Switzerland and the UK, while "lack of young farmers taking over farming" was the greatest perceived threat in Spain and Sweden. To promote pro-environmental attitudes and obtain greater public support for policies and interventions targeting environmental conservation, communication about environmental threats is needed, together with threat mitigation measures. Raising peoples' awareness of threats to the countryside through targeted communications could promote pro-environment attitudes and potentially result in pro-environmental behaviours.
Author(s): Stewart-Knox BJ, Bunting BP, Jin S, Tindale S, Vicario-Modrono V, Miskolci S, Ojo M, Sanchez-Zamora P, Gallardo-Cobos R, Newell-Price P, Sonnovelt M, Hunter E, Frewer LJ
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: PLoS ONE
Year: 2024
Volume: 19
Issue: 10
Online publication date: 10/10/2024
Acceptance date: 11/09/2024
Date deposited: 12/09/2024
ISSN (electronic): 1932-6203
Publisher: Public Library of Science
URL: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0311056
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0311056
Data Access Statement: The survey instrument and data are available at https://zenodo.org/records/12819487.
PubMed id: 39388427
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