The role of information in understanding forest ecosystem services

Općekorisne funkcije šuma važna su znanstvena i stručna tema o kojoj se na globalnoj razini raspravlja već dugi niz godina. U Hrvatskoj također postoje višegodišnji napori u promišljanju sistematizacije i vrednovanja općekorisnih funkcija šuma, kao i osiguravanju naknade za njihovo pružanje. Ipak, pregled literature pokazuje da opseg znanstvene i stručne produkcije nije u skladu s važnosti ove teme za hrvatsko šumarstvo. Posebice se to odnosi na istraživanje stavova i percepcije građana, kao i njihove informiranosti o problematici općekorisnih funkcija šuma. Cilj je ovog članka analizirati ulogu informiranosti na poznavanje problematike općekorisnih funkcija šuma, uz pretpostavku da veća informiranost vodi i boljem poznavanju te problematike. Korištena je metoda ankete na uzorku populacije studenata triju raznorodnih fakulteta Sveučilišta u Zagrebu – Šumarskog fakulteta (ŠF), Fakulteta strojarstva i brodogradnje (FSB) te Hrvatskih studija (HRSTUD). Pretpostavljeno je da će studenti ŠF imati bolje razumijevanje problematike jer su bolje informirani o njoj kroz izvedbu studijskog programa. Uzorak je bio namjeran i prigodan, a ukupno je anketirano 247 ispitanika. Primijenjene su metode deskriptivne statistike, kao i hi-kvadrat i Kruskal-Wallis neparametarski testovi. Rezultati su pokazali da su studenti ŠF prema vlastitom mišljenju puno više upoznati s pojmom općekorisnih funkcija šuma i Naknade za njih od studenata drugih fakulteta. Međutim, pitanja znanja pokazala su da i oni imaju problema s prepoznavanjem tih funkcija, kao i namjena za koje se koristi Naknada. Ipak, gotovo uvijek je postojala statistički značajna razlika u odgovorima između studenata ŠF i studenata drugih dvaju fakulteta. Zaključuje se da informiranost donekle utječe na poznavanje problematike općekorisnih funkcija šuma, ali vjerojatno postoje i neki drugi čimbenici koji utječu na poznavanje i formiranje stava. U budućnosti je neophodno nastaviti istraživati razumijevanje i stavove različitih segmenata građanstva o općekorisnim funkcijama šuma i Naknadi, kako bi se razvili i primijenili prikladni instrumenti šumarske politike, a kojima bi cilj bio veće razumijevanje problematike i pozitivniji stav prema šumarskim aktivnostima u tom smislu.Ecosystem services including forest ecosystem services are hot topic globally among scientists and practitioners for decades. In Croatia there is a long tradition of discussing forest ecosystem services in terms of how to systemise them, assess and value, as well as how to secure payment for their provision. However, literature review showed discrepancy between scientific and professional production and importance of this topic for forestry sector in Croatia. This is especially a fact when it comes to research related to citizen perceptions and attitudes and whether they are informed about the topic. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of information in better understanding of the topic with the assumption that being informed leads to better understanding of the topic. Survey questionnaire was applied on the sample of three student populations of the University of Zagreb – Faculty of Forestry (FoF), Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture (FMENA) and Centre for Croatian Studies (CCS) (Table 1). The hypothesis was made that respondents from FoF would have better understanding of the topic since they are more informed through their study programme in comparison to respondents from other two faculties. The sample was purposeful and convenient at the same time, and included 247 respondents. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for statistical data analysis that included Chi-square and Kruskal-Wallis non-parametric tests beside descriptive statistics. Results showed that respondents from FoF in their own opinion were more informed about the topic of forest ecosystem services and payment for ecosystem services in comparison to respondents from other faculties (Figures 1 and 2). However, questions concerning their actual knowledge on the topic showed that even them had problems with recognising forest ecosystem services and purposes of the payment for forest ecosystem services (Tables 2 and 4). However, there was always statistically significant difference in answers between respondents from FoF and other two faculties (Table 3). When asked about who has the obligation to pay for forest ecosystem services respondents provided various answers, while only 29.2% of respondents from FoF, 9.9% of respondents from FMENA and 15.2% of respondents from CCS provided correct answer to this question (Figure 3). Similarly respondents were asked about the institution responsible for distribution of resources collected as payment for forest ecosystem services. Correct answer was given only by 41.5% of respondents from FoF, 26.8% from FMENA and 19.7% from CCS (Figure 4). Furthermore, respondents were asked to express their agreement with four statements related to payment for forest ecosystem services in terms of purposeful and transparent money spending, whether it contributes to the better state of forests in Croatia or it should be abolished (Figures 5-9). Results showed that rather high share of respondents does not have opinion, especially respondents from FMENA and CCS. The conclusion is that information has a role in better understanding of the topic of forest ecosystem services, but there are probably other factors that were not included in this research. In future it is important to continue studying understandig and attitudes of various segments of citizens. The purpose of these studies would be to contribute to creation and implementation of proper forest policy instruments that would help in better understanding of the topic and eliciting positive attititude towards forestry activities related to forest ecosystem services by citizens