Sociodemographic characteristics, cultural biases, and environmental attitudes: An empirical application of grid-group cultural theory in Northwestern China

Natural resource-management studies have become increasingly attentive to the influences of human factors. Among these,cultural biases shape people’s responses to changes in natural resource systems. Several studies have applied grid-group cultural theory to assess the effects of multiple value biases among stakeholders on natural resource management. We developed and administered a questionnaire in the Heihe River Basin(n = 364) in northwestern China to investigate the appropriateness of applying this theory in the Chinese context of natural resource management. The results revealed various cultural biases among the respondents. In descending order of prevalence, these biases were hierarchism(46.98%), individualism(26.65%), egalitarianism(18.96%), and fatalism(2.78%), with the remaining respondents(4.67%) evidencing no obvious bias. Our empirical study revealed respondents’ worldviews and the influence of sociodemographic characteristics on cultural biases, as theoretically posited. Among the variables examined, age had a positive and significant effect across all biases except individualism. The correlation of income to all cultural biases was consistently negative. Only education had a negative and significant effect across all biases. Women were found to adhere to egalitarianism, whereas men adhered to individualism and hierarchism. Thus, grid-group cultural theory was found to be appropriate in the Chinese context, with gender, age, education, and income evidently accounting for cultural biases. Relationships between environmental attitudes and cultural biases conformed with the hypothesis advanced by grid-group cultural theory. This finding may be of value in explaining individuals’ environmental attitudes and facilitating the development and implementation of natural resource-management policies.

Modelling Environmental Attitudes of the Users of Kilombero Valley Wetlands, Tanzania

Development policies have for a long time made it more profitable for people to degrade than to conserve environment. The adoption of these economic wide policies by Africa especially during colonial time and after independence has resulted into erosion of its communities’ conservation behaviour and attitude. Although many studies assess environmental attitudes, those focussing on African regions or countries using New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) scale are very limited. Such studies in the African context using NEP scale are very important, simply because many people depend on the environment for their livelihood, and in the process they destroy the world’s valued ecosystems including wetlands. This study is meant to fill in the gap using Kilombero valley wetlands in Tanzania as a case. The study used Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to predict the behaviour of the users based on attitudes, environmental knowledge and awareness. The findings indicate that users of the Kilombero wetlands have a generally positive attitude towards the environment, despite a great degree of variability among the study participants. The study shows also that a certain level of environmental awareness is needed in order to increase people’s knowledge about environmental issues and change their environmental attitudes. The NEP scale does not fully fit into the Tanzanian context, thus suggesting that further research into the adaptation of the scale is needed.

How Environmental Attitudes Affect Consumers’Willingness to Engage in Green Consumption Behaviors:The Moderating Role of“Plastic Restriction”

Consumers’willingness to engage in green consumption behavior will be guided by internal psychological factors and also influenced by external environmental factors.One of the most common external interventions is the issuance of scientific policies and regulations.The government may introduce policies and regulations that help to increase the willingness of green consumption behavior,such as energy-saving and emission reduction policies and policies to restrict plastic products.In this paper,the authors study the mechanism of the effect of environmental attitudes on consumers’willingness to engage in green consumption behavior from the perspective of“plastic restriction”,and conclude that the magnitude of the effect of policies and regulations on the willingness to engage in green consumption behavior varies significantly at different levels of environmental attitudes.This study provides scientific implementation ideas and targeted management suggestions for the government to formulate effective external intervention policies for green consumption.

Environmental management system and community＇s spillover behavior

The purpose of this study is to explore how business organizations could effectively promote positive environmental norms among a larger section of the community. This study hypothesized that the development of a feeling of high involvement among employees of organizations implementing the Environmental Management System （EMS） could result in the spillover phenomena of other environmentally responsible behavior in different domains such as, consumer preferences for environment-friendly products. The study also confirms the effects of environmental attitude （EA） and concrete knowledge （CK） as a mediator; acting not only as an axis to the spillover phenomenon but is also found to be the crucial factor in determining the strength of the whole spillover process.

Spatio-temporal patterns and changes in environmental attitudes and place attachment in Gauteng, South Africa

In this study,we employed a number of geospatial techniques to examine the spatiotemporal patterns and changes of environmental attitudes and place attachment values in the Gauteng province of South Africa.The data were obtained from the Gauteng City Region Observatory’s Quality of Life Survey collected at three separate points in time,namely 2013,2015,and 2017.Results indicated that wards(smallest administrative and analysis units)located on the urban periphery of Gauteng,which are generally less affluent,largely held more negative environmental attitudes and place attachment values during the three time periods.In contrast,centrally located wards,which are generally more affluent,expressed more positive environmental attitudes but less place attachment values,especially in 2017.The findings of this research not only highlight the complex spatio-temporal distribution of environmental attitudes and place attachment values throughout Gauteng but also empha-size the need for spatially targeted state interventions for future environmental planning within the province.

Tourists’ Behavioural Intention Towards Ecotourism in Bali Under Consideration of Issue-Related Knowledge

Tourists’image about Bali and the motivation to visit the island are firmly based on Bali’s rich culture and tradition as well as its abundant nature.Due to the increasing number of visitors year by year,the island is in urgent need to reduce or even minimize the negative impacts of tourism and the damages done to nature and Balinese society.To improve the quality of tourism,a better understanding of tourists’behavioural intention and actual behaviour is crucial.An essential part of this context and the process of tourists’decision making plays the level of environmental knowledge.Therefore,the study intended to answer the research question:“How does issue-related knowledge influence ecotourism behavioural intention and actual environmental behaviour of tourists?”.A sequential exploratory research method using quantitative and qualitative data from interviews and Focus Group Discussion has been utilized to find more insights.Ajzen’s(1991)“Theory of Planned Behaviour”has been applied in an extended model to analyze whether knowledge influences attitude,intention,and behaviour.The data for the quantitative analyzes were collected 2019 within four weeks through interviews of 264 international and domestic tourists at three nature-based tourism destinations in Bali.The gained data were processed using multiple techniques:descriptive statistical analysis,correlation analysis,and Structural Equation Model(SEM)analysis.The results showed that ecotourism knowledge has a direct impact on tourists’environmental attitudes and their actual environmental behaviour.Although the SEM analysis could not show the direct influence towards ecotourism behavioural intention,this was confirmed by the correlation analysis result with a positive relationship of the latent variables ecotourism knowledge and ecotourism behavioural intention with significant strength.The research findings led to the conclusion that the research question could be confirmed.The level of ecotourism knowledge has a positive influence onenvironmental attitude,behaviour intention,and actual behaviour.