Forest Attendance in the Times of COVID-19—A Case Study on the Example of the Czech Republic

Jarský, Vilém; Palátová, Petra; Riedl, Marcel; Zahradník, D.; Rinn, Radek; Hochmalová, Miroslava

doi:10.3390/ijerph19052529

Cited by 19 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 43 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Indeed, except for regulating services, which were of primary importance in both studies, cultural services received more recognition than provisioning services in our case. This could be attributable to the socio-demographic characteristics of our sample or, to the effects induced by the pandemic, which promoted greater frequentation of forests and natural environments, especially for recreational purposes or psychophysical wellbeing, as confirmed by several authors (Bamwesigye et al, 2021;Hansen et al, 2022;Jarský et al, 2022;Vos et al, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 53%

Civil society’s perception of forest ecosystem services. A case study in the Western Alps

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Forest Ecosystem Services (FES) are widely recognised by the society nowadays. However, no study in the literature has analysed a ranking of FES after the pandemic. This paper investigated civil society’s perception and knowledge toward these services; in addition, the presence of attitudinal or behavioural patterns regarding individual’s preference, was assessed. A choice experiment was conducted using the Best-Worst Scaling (BWS) method on a sample of 479 individuals intercepted in the Argentera Valley, in the Western Italian Alps. Results, showed a strong interest in biodiversity, aesthetic landscape quality and psychophysical health and a lower interest in provisioning services. Based on the individual preferences, civil society was clustered into five groups for FES, named “Hedonistic,” “Individualist with cultural and health interests,” “Sensitive to regulatory and utilitarian functions,” “Climate change sensitive” and “Livelihood and hedonistic wellbeing.” In general, there was a growing appreciation by civil society for the intangible services offered by the forest, driven by modern lifestyles and an interest in learning more about the provided services. Based on these elements, we believe that similar research should be extended to other mountain contexts to validate the results or to find new insights, and that it is now necessary to study how to involve civil society in decision-making processes of forest planning and management at a local level.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 53%

Civil society’s perception of forest ecosystem services. A case study in the Western Alps

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…According to Syrbe and Grunewald ( 2017 ), it is necessary to thoroughly analyze the demand for the ES to prevent the misuse of primary resources by large market players. A great deal of research has been devoted to forest attendance issue or to motivation of forest visits, which gaining much attention especially due to COVID-19 pandemic (Derks et al 2020 ; Venter et al 2020 ; Jarský et al 2022 ). Some studies analyze the perception of urban parks or urban forests and their ES.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Demand for forest ecosystem services: a comparison study in selected areas in the Czech Republic and China

et al. 2022

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Ecosystem services are investigated from many perspectives, but there are very few studies comparing the perception of forest and demand for forest ecosystem services (FES) in a cross-cultural analysis. This study aims to map the demand for FES and find out the forest perception of forest visitors in both Czech and Chinese societies. Data were collected by structured questionnaire among three different groups of respondents (n = 847) in six forest areas. The questions were focused on the demand for FES, expectations from the forest, preference for the visual form of the forest, and the willingness of forest visitors. Analysis demonstrates that the demand for some FES is related to geographical and cultural conditions. The results indicated that provisioning and regulation services are perceived as more important than cultural services. The differences by country were obvious in the cultural and provisioning services: Chinese demand more relaxing and meditation activities, whereas Czech demand mushroom picking. A significant outcome is a high demand of Chinese respondents for recreational facilities. Tree planting was rated as one of the most popular voluntary activity across the whole sample. Meanwhile, some findings point to an increasing pressure on forest ecosystems and their protection, which emerge due to the strong demand for recreational facilities. According to the findings, active involvement of forest visitors in various activities is recommended so that their appreciation of FES will constantly increase and to take into account the profile of visitors and incorporate them in forest management and planning in order to meet societal demand.

show abstract

“…Forest re response to interface length was relatively sharp and increased linearly, suggesting this factor's importance. In Central Europe, this factor is expected to affect forest re ignition risk by facilitating forest accessibility to people in the short term for collection of mushrooms and other products; and in the longer term for sport and recreation activities (Šodková et al 2020;Jarský et al 2022).…”

Section: Patterns and Drivers Of Forest Resmentioning

confidence: 99%

A combination of human activity and climate drives forest fire occurrence in Central Europe: case of the Czech Republic

Berčák,

Holuša,

Trombik

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Central Europe is not a typical wildfire region; however, an increasingly warm and dry climate and model-based projections indicate that the number of forest fires are increasing. This study provides new insights into the drivers of forest fire occurrence in the Czech Republic, during the period 2006 to 2015, by focusing on climate, land cover, and human activity factors. Results The average annual number of forest fires during the study period was 728, with a median burned area of 0.01 ha. Forest fire incidence showed distinct spring (April) and summer (July to August) peaks,with median burned areas of 0.04 ha and 0.005 ha, respectively. Relationships between the predictors (climate data, forest-related data, socioeconomic data, and landscape-context data) and the number of forest fires in individual municipality districts were analyzed using Generalized Additive Models (GAM) on three time scales (annually, monthly, and during the summer season). The constructed GAMs explained 48.7 and 53.8% of forest firevariability when fire occurrence was analyzedon a monthly scale and during thesummer season, respectively. On an annual scale, the models explained 71.4% of the observed forest fire variability. The number of forest fires was related to the number of residents and overnight tourists in the area. The effect of climate was manifested on monthly and summer season scales only, with warmer and drier conditions associated with higher forest fire frequency. A higher proportion of conifers and the length of the wildland–urban interface were also positively associated with forest fire occurrence. Conclusions Forest fire occurrence was influenced by a combination of climatic, forest-related, and social activity factors. The effect of climate was most pronounced on a monthly scale, corresponding with the presence of two distinct seasonal peaks of forest fire occurrence. The significant effect of factors related to human activity suggests that measures to increasepublic awareness about fire risk and targeted activity regulation are essential in controlling the risk of fire occurrence in Central Europe. An increasing frequency of fire-conducive weather, forest structure transformations due to excessive tree mortality, and changing patterns of human activity on the landscape require permanent monitoring and assessment of possible shifts of forest fire risk.

show abstract

Forest Attendance in the Times of COVID-19—A Case Study on the Example of the Czech Republic

Cited by 19 publications

References 43 publications

Civil society’s perception of forest ecosystem services. A case study in the Western Alps

Civil society’s perception of forest ecosystem services. A case study in the Western Alps

Demand for forest ecosystem services: a comparison study in selected areas in the Czech Republic and China

A combination of human activity and climate drives forest fire occurrence in Central Europe: case of the Czech Republic

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About