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Social Perception of Trees in the Landscape: The Connection Between Attitudes and Visual Preferences Cover

Social Perception of Trees in the Landscape: The Connection Between Attitudes and Visual Preferences

Open Access
|Jun 2023

Abstract

The study presented in this paper uses a representative sample of the Czech population to analyse the relationships between attitudes to trees and preferences for landscapes with trees. We ask whether a positive assessment of the environmental benefits of trees in general and old and dead trees in particular leads to preferences for close-to-nature forms of the tree landscape. The results show that tree landscape preferences are primarily affected by attitudes attached to trees, rather than by sociodemographic factors. People who appreciate the environmental benefits of trees are more likely to prefer transparent and organized landscapes with trees, whereas the more specific environmental attitude appreciating old or dead trees is reflected in higher preferences for wilderness-like landscapes. The results of our research suggest that the perceived environmental benefits of trees are anthropocentric in nature, in a way utilitarian; trees serve people and their environment, and not nature as such.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jlecol-2023-0004 | Journal eISSN: 1805-4196 | Journal ISSN: 1803-2427
Language: English
Page range: 66 - 87
Submitted on: Mar 16, 2023
Accepted on: May 12, 2023
Published on: Jun 9, 2023
Published by: Czech Society for Landscape Ecology
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 4 issues per year

© 2023 Jana Stachová, Daniel Čermák, published by Czech Society for Landscape Ecology
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.