Historical perceptions and uses of forests.

Abstract

The uses of forest materials have fluctuated from the beginning of recorded history, but human perceptions regarding forests have generally fallen into three categories: reverence, fear and exploitation. This paper discusses each of these categories, with primary emphasis on exploitation. A historical account of forest protected areas is also given.

Lessons from Managing for the Extremes: A Case for Decentralized, Adaptive, Multipurpose Forest Management within an Ecological Framework

“…Despite the widespread demand for a multitude of forest products and services [1][2][3][4], both the discourse and practice of public forest management, in modern history, have largely gravitated towards two problematic extreme positions. At one extreme is an approach that uses public forests to produce a single crop, usually timber.…”

Navigation in outdoor environments as an embodied, social, cultural, and situated experience: An empirical study of orienteering

“…It is likely that the dark, wooded environments that characterize orienteering do not merely affect the actor's ability to see clearly, for example; they also constitute a culturally meaningful environment (Nassauer, 1995). In urban western societies in particular, many people report feelings of fear when imaging being alone in woods, which researchers have proposed arises because people are socialized as children to perceive forests as potentially dangerous places (Hart, 1979;Vogt et al, 2006). For novices, orienteering can be experienced as an "ordeal" (Jeu, 1977); that is, the novice is to some extent engulfed in the forest world and later returns to the "world of the living" (p. 33).…”