Importance of Forest Ecosystem Services to Secondary School Students: a Case from the North-West Slovenia

摘要

Background and Purpose: Forest managers are facing challenges in balancing the demands for forest social services raised by the general public and forest productive services. Knowing local people’s attitudes, taking into account their needs and respecting their opinions, introducing social aspects should become a management priority to ensure success of conservational activities and sustainable use of natural resources. This study investigates the attitudes of one category from the general public which is secondary school students related to forest ecosystem services in order to determine and present a useful basis for further research of people’s attitudes towards forests and forest management. Materials and Methods: In 2013 and 2014 410 Slovenian students from secondary schools in the Vipava valley and Gori?ka area in northwestern Slovenia completed a questionnaire testing for the influence of gender and frequency of forest experiences on attitudes to forest ecosystem services. Students’ attitudes to forest ecosystem services were investigated via 15 statements about provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting services. The gathered data was analysed by the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), using ANOVA, Tukey post-hoc test, Spearman’s product moment correlation and the nonparametric Mann–Whitney (U) test. Results and Conclusions: Students acknowledged the high benefits of ecosystem services provided by forests, though not all forest ecosystem services hold the same importance to secondary school students. Students placed the highest importance on supporting services; especially on the value of forests as habitats for animal and plant species. Also the importance of forests for clean air production was emphasized. Students with more frequent experiences in the forest environment placed more importance on cultural services as well as regulating services, especially for clean water and air production. Gender differences were not significant, other than in the valuation of the forest as a place for relaxation and reflection, where female students were more supportive than male students.