Segmenting Landowners of Shandong, China Based on Their Attitudes towards Forest Certification

Nana Tian, Fadian Lu, Omkar Joshi, Neelam Poudyal
2018 Forests  
Forest certification is considered a viable market-based policy instrument to promote forest sustainability. It has an important role of play in meeting the objective of modern forestry development in China, which is to sustain ecological and environmental benefits of forests. To understand differences in attitudes, opinions, and interests in forest certification, this study segmented respondents of a landowner's survey in Shandong, China based on their level of interest in participating in
more » ... st certification under different program requirements. Multivariate cluster analysis revealed three distinct groups: likely-, potential-, and unlikely-landowners. We further examined the heterogeneity of these groups in terms of their demographics, ownership characteristics, management objectives, and perceived benefits and challenges of adopting forest certification. The results suggested the necessity of differentiating landowners in formulating and designing specific motivation-based incentives and tailoring outreach efforts and communication strategies to improve their interests in forest certification. Findings will be useful and interesting to forest policymakers interested in promoting forest certification among landowners in China and other countries facing similar circumstances.
doi:10.3390/f9060361 fatcat:f4enzfgydzfvnmctjrl6sdm4le