TY - JOUR
T1 - Learning pathways for engagement
T2 - Understanding drivers of pro-environmental behavior in the context of protected area management
AU - Andrade, Riley
AU - van Riper, Carena J.
AU - Goodson, Devin
AU - Johnson, Dana N.
AU - Stewart, William
N1 - Funding for this research was provided by a Cooperative Agreement with the National Park Service ( P18AC00175 ), the University of Illinois Campus Research Board ( RB19119 ), and a three year project called ENVISION funded through the 2017–2018 Belmont Forum and BiodivERsA joint call for research proposals, under the BiodivScen ERA-Net COFUND programme. Support was provided by the following national funders: National Science Foundation in the US (grant number 1854767 ), Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (FORMAS), Federal Ministry of Education and Research , Germany, Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research ( NWO ), and the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain. We also thank Rose Keller, Evan Salcido, Gillian Rowe, and Chris Raymond, alongside our local partners in the Denali region, particularly Dave Schirokauer, Erik Johnson, and Ruth Colianni.
PY - 2022/12/1
Y1 - 2022/12/1
N2 - The participation of local communities in management decisions is critically important to the long-term salience and therefore, success, of protected areas. Engaging community members in meaningful ways requires knowledge of their behavior and its antecedents, particularly values. Understanding how learning influences cooperation in conservation initiatives is also fundamentally important for supporting decisions being made about public lands. However, there is little empirical evidence of how learning from different information sources works in conjunction with values that shape behavior. Using data from a household survey of residents living in the Denali region of Interior Alaska, U.S, we estimated a two-step structural equation model to understand the psychological reasons why stakeholders made decisions to collectively benefit the environment. Results showed that more diverse pathways by which learning occurred were instrumental in explaining why residents performed pro-environmental behaviors over the past year. Additionally, values that reflected the goals of eudaimonia influenced the transfer and negotiation of knowledge exchange among stakeholders as a correlate of behavior. Environmental concern and personal norms were positively associated with reported behaviors operationalized as social environmentalism and living in an environmentally conscientious manner, whereas environmental concern and willingness to pay for protected area management positively influenced civic engagement. We argue that broadening the range of learning spaces and considering a more diverse array of values in communities surrounding protected areas will encourage daily lifestyle changes, social interactions to support environmentalism, and more robust, pluralistic forms of public engagement in natural resource management.
AB - The participation of local communities in management decisions is critically important to the long-term salience and therefore, success, of protected areas. Engaging community members in meaningful ways requires knowledge of their behavior and its antecedents, particularly values. Understanding how learning influences cooperation in conservation initiatives is also fundamentally important for supporting decisions being made about public lands. However, there is little empirical evidence of how learning from different information sources works in conjunction with values that shape behavior. Using data from a household survey of residents living in the Denali region of Interior Alaska, U.S, we estimated a two-step structural equation model to understand the psychological reasons why stakeholders made decisions to collectively benefit the environment. Results showed that more diverse pathways by which learning occurred were instrumental in explaining why residents performed pro-environmental behaviors over the past year. Additionally, values that reflected the goals of eudaimonia influenced the transfer and negotiation of knowledge exchange among stakeholders as a correlate of behavior. Environmental concern and personal norms were positively associated with reported behaviors operationalized as social environmentalism and living in an environmentally conscientious manner, whereas environmental concern and willingness to pay for protected area management positively influenced civic engagement. We argue that broadening the range of learning spaces and considering a more diverse array of values in communities surrounding protected areas will encourage daily lifestyle changes, social interactions to support environmentalism, and more robust, pluralistic forms of public engagement in natural resource management.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116204
DO - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116204
M3 - Article
C2 - 36116262
AN - SCOPUS:85138020013
SN - 0301-4797
VL - 323
JO - Journal of Environmental Management
JF - Journal of Environmental Management
M1 - 116204
ER -