The attractiveness of forests: preferences and perceptions in a mountain community in Italy

Abstract

Abstract. The analysis of the perception and preferences of local communities is a fundamental aspect to increase the social sustainability and to reduce the conflicts between forest users. The knowledge of people's perception of forest resources is important for decision makers, when implementing management strategies and this is particularly relevant in mountainous area, characterized by a strong link between local communities and forest. The paper focuses on the analysis of people's perception and preferences regarding the recreational value of forests. The research has been carried out by means of a case study, the Municipality of Trento, located in the Centre East sector of the Italian Alps. This area was chosen on the grounds of its geographical location and of the historical links that exist between local communities and forest resources. The sample included 1,000 randomly selected families and the method of investigation used was a structured selfreported questionnaire. The data were processed taking into account the relationship between people's perception and the main social characteristics of respondents (gender and age); this allowed statistical differences among groups to be highlighted. Forest attractiveness has been investigated considering: (i) forest accessibility, (ii) forest stand characteristics, (iii) visitor facilities and infrastructures. The results show that people prefer the open mixed forests with an irregular structure and some visitor facilities such as paths and refreshment points. Besides, people like to have facilities in the forests, but at the same time would like these forests to be little frequented by other visitors, in order to have a greater feeling of naturalness.

Tourists’ perception of deadwood in mountain forests

“…These study areas were chosen on the basis of the different characteristics such as destination attractiveness, tourist attendance, level of naturalness and forest management practices adopted (De Meo et al 2015). In particular, it was decided to investigate two different forest contexts in order to collect general information not related to current forest management practices in one area.…”

“…tree species composition and forest age (Gundersen et al 2006). Conversely, the preferences of local people should be included in the urban forest management plan in order to enhance visibility and attractiveness of these forest areas (De Meo et al 2015).…”

Balancing Economic Development and Environmental Conservation for a New Governance of Alpine Areas

“…In the following paragraphs, some methodological considerations are put forward on the basis of previous experiences of the authors in the Alpine environment, carried out by means of case studies [1,41,50,[78][79][80][81][82][83]. Among these, in particular, there is the research conducted within the EU Alpine Space Project Recharge.Green [11,[84][85][86].…”

“…Indeed, regarding these intangible services, there are still great challenges in order to define appropriate indicators and to obtain values for them. For this reason, participatory valuation methodologies have been developed which often use well-established techniques such as questionnaires [79,82,104,105], focus groups [106], workshops [107] or systematic reviews [108]. From the results of many studies, though not always carried out in the Alpine regions, it appears clear how important it is that people are involved in the assessment and valuation of ESs.…”

Social perception of forest management: the case of the peri-urban forest of Monte Morello (Florence, Italy)

“…Nello specifico, considerando la classificazione dei servizi ecosistemici così come descritti nel MEA (2005), la biodiversità rientra tra i servizi di supporto; la protezione idrogeologica e l'assorbimento carbonio rientrano nei servizi di regolazione; la produzione di legname e legna da ardere rientrano nei servizi di approvvigionamento; mentre il turismo-ricreazione, la protezione dell'eredità culturale e la creazione di posti di lavoro rientrano nei servizi culturali. Le domande successive hanno considerato, invece, l'importanza percepita dai rispondenti in merito alle caratteristiche intrinseche del popolamento forestale e alle caratteristiche indotte dall'uomo sul popolamento così come identificate da Van Raaij (1986) e da De Meo et al (2015). Per quanto riguarda il primo gruppo di caratteristiche (intrinseche) è stata considerata la composizione specifica, distinguendo tra: (1) boschi a prevalenza di conifere, (2) boschi a prevalenza di latifoglie e (3) boschi misti (conifere-latifoglie), e la struttura del popolamento distinguendo tra: (1) boschi con struttura non differenziata verticalmente e orizzontalmente e con alberi uniformemente distribuiti sul terreno; (2) boschi con struttura differenziata verticalmente e orizzontalmente con alberi non uniformemente distribuiti sul terreno; (3) boschi lasciati all'evoluzione naturale.…”