Socio-economic factors affecting the conservation of natural woodlands in Central Riyadh Area – Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This study aimed to identify some socioeconomic factors affecting local people in central Riyadh area for the utilization of wood and other energy sources in cooking and heating in order to develop some recommendations for conserving woodlands. The study results revealed that gas is the most common energy source used for cooking with a mean usage level of 2.79 (SD = 0.58). On the other hand, wood ranked first for heating with the highest mean, usage level of 1.90 (SD = 1.06). However, electricity and gas as sources of energy for heating ranked second and third with mean usage level of 1.81 and 0.80 respectively. The study revealed that local people with the university education were significantly making higher use of electricity for both cooking and heating and those with no formal education ranked the highest on wood use for both cooking and heating. In addition, those living in traditional houses significantly used more wood for cooking than those living in villas and apartments. Also, local people with high income levels significantly were using more electricity for heating than others. The study recommended conducting extension and environmental awareness raising programs to enhance local residents' adoption of wood substitutes, promoting employment opportunities for unemployed locals, and subsidizing prices of alternative energy sources. ª 2015 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Farmers’ Attitudes to the Pricing of Natural Resources for Sustainability: GAP-Şanlıurfa Sampling of Turkey

“…There is a statistically significant relationship between education levels and attitude to pricing (p < 0.05). Education level is an important indicator of awareness and protection of natural resources positively [9,35,38], but unexpected results have been obtained in this research between the subgroups and the reference group. The literate farmers have an attitude of 39.7% of less likely to support pricing negatively as compared to the reference group that is made up of the farmers who are university graduates.…”

Farmers’ Perception on Forest Degradation in Eastern and Northern Regions of Ghana: Implication for Developing Sustainable Forest Management Strategy

“…The participants in the interview and group discussions argued that forest degradation can be reduced through the introduction of forest and proper land management enforcement rules and regulations, price subsidizing for alternative sources of energy (solar), and institutionalize educational programs that enhance awareness levels of local people to manage and conserve forestland sustainably. Consistent with the present results on forest strategies perceived by the farmers in the two study regions, several previous reports have con rmed the need for natural regeneration and enrichment planting and soil and water conservation structures and their integration (Aerts et al 2009;Hosonuma et al 2012;Al-Subaiee 2016), strengthen forest governance and law enforcement, promote sustainable rewood collection (e.g. through awareness-raising, local regulations and law enforcement), and rewood e ciency (e.g., use of e cient stoves and heaters) (Hosonuma et al 2012;Al-Subaiee 2016).…”

“…Farmland size: A farmer having larger land size could associate with forest land as such land is found from a forest area and so this increases perception on forest degradation. Farmland size is thus hypothesized to in uence positively farmers' perception on forest degradation (Bogale 2011;Al-Subaiee 2016). It is a continuous variable.…”

“…Field slope: Steep eld slope increases the effects of erosion under poor vegetation cover and it is hypothesized to be positively associated with perception on forest degradation (Bogale 2011;Al-Subaiee 2016). It is a dummy variable with 1 for steep, otherwise 0 for at slope.…”

The Refusal of Livestock Owners Towards Exclusion Policy In Protected Area

“…They disagree with grazing prohibition. These findings are not in line with Tortop (2012) and Alsubaiee (2016) who found that education has a great impact on creating awareness regarding the importance of forest conservation. Based our finding, effect of educational level on perception on grazing prohibition is unsignificant.…”