Villagers' Participation in Conservation of Village Woodlands - Two cases of Namwon City, Korea

摘要

This study aims to analyze factors affecting villagers’ participation in conservation of village woodlands. We postulated that socio-economic characteristics such as gender, age, place of birth, wealth level, frequency of use and leader experience could contribute to decision-making of participation in the village woodland conservation. Data were collected by interviewing 52 villagers in village A and 41 villagers in village B and were used to estimate the probability function of villager's participation in village woodland conservation using ordered logit model. The results indicate that frequent use of village woodlands increases the probability of villagers’ participation in conservation of village woodlands in the case of village A. In the case of village B, people who were bom in the village and have experiences of serving the village as a village leader are more likely to participate in the village woodland conservation activities. Considering the fact that the village woodland of village Ais owned by the community as a village common, and that cultural activities remain in the village woodland of village A, the utility of village woodlands to the residents and their common understanding of village woodlands seem to influence the likelihood of villagers’ participation in conservation of village woodlands. In order to induce villagers’ participation in the village woodland conservation, it is necessary to recognize the right of villager’s access and provide villagers with common understanding of village woodlands through cultural activities and education programs.