New Zealand school children’s perceptions of local forests and the Montréal Process Criteria and Indicators: comparing local and international value systems

Abstract

Background: A review of the international Montréal Process Criteria and Indicators (MP C&I) sustainable forests reporting framework required member countries to benchmark the Indicators against locally held forest values. Children constitute an important subgroup of the local stakeholders in forests: they may respond to forested environments in different ways and may hold values which are unique to their age group. This study reports on the values school children attributed to their local forests, across three New Zealand regions, and details the agreement of these values to the Montréal Process C&I, a values framework developed by international forestry experts.

Values held by Swedish primary school students towards forest ecosystems and the relevance for a nature’s contributions to people approach

“…the estimation of how costs will change as a result of time preferences and a temporal lag in the distribution of burdens (Stern, 2008;Gladwin et al 1995;Gómez-Baggethun et al 2010;Luck et al 2012)). Studies have analysed, for example, perceptions of biodiversity held by children in Brazil (Rosalino et al 2017) and forest values in New Zealand (Bayne et al 2015). Rosalino et al (2017) discussed the effect of contextual factors, for example socio-economic background, exposure to different media sources, and parental attitudes, on children's attitudes towards conservation.…”

“…Rosalino et al (2017) discussed the effect of contextual factors, for example socio-economic background, exposure to different media sources, and parental attitudes, on children's attitudes towards conservation. By comparison, Bayne et al (2015) studied the awareness of children on different aspects of value provided by forests. Further attempts have been made to understand how children gain knowledge about biodiversity and conservation in education (e.g.…”

“…The first group activity was a drawing exercise, which is considered an age-appropriate way to allow students to explore FESS in a fun and engaging environment (e.g. Bayne et al 2015). Each group was asked to sketch a forest that they are familiar with along with the activities they undertake there.…”

“…To analyse the visual and verbal data collected, we conducted a thematic analysis on the visual data and observations made during the focus group activities. While the drawings themselves were a form of visual data, the drawing activity was mostly used as a platform to begin conversations with students about their preferences regarding FESS (Forrest Keenan et al 2005;Bayne et al 2015). Visual data from the drawings were initially analysed in the context of which benefits the students themselves identified both through the drawings and short comments left on the drawings explaining the experiences described therein.…”

The Forest Policies of ASEAN and Montréal Process: Comparing Highly and Weakly Formalized Regional Regimes

“…Accordingly, the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) acknowledged and mentioned that these four bodies continue to make significant progress by working together to promote SFM [112]. Scholars have criticized the implementation of C&I and progress towards SFM besides the positive initiatives [109,[113][114][115]. Equally important, with a high degree of formalization, are the strong initiatives of Indonesia and Malaysia using ASEAN solidarity to keep ramin (Gonystylus spp.…”