• Energy Research

Climate change affects various aspects of the economy, agriculture, economics, and politics, including forestry. There is more and more talk about the real impact of the effects of climate change. This paper presents the results of a survey on the perceptions of two groups, foresters and recreational forest users, about climate change and its impacts on forested areas; 130 foresters and 146 recreational forest users participated in the survey (total n = 276). The survey was conducted from April to November 2019 and consisted of three parts. The first part included questions about the demographic characteristics of the respondents (gender, age, education, place of residence), the second part focused on the respondents’ views on climate change and its implications for forest ecosystems, and the third part focused on informal forest education and its relationship to climate change. The results of our study indicated that progressive climate change affecting forest ecosystems is clearly felt by the professional group related to forests such as foresters, and to a lesser extent by people using forests for tourism and recreation. According to foresters, the effects of climate change on forest areas include rapid changes in weather patterns and more frequent insect infestations. On the other hand, people resting in forests mainly observe the lack of snow cover and occurrence of drought. Informal forest education insufficiently covers the topic of climate change. Thus, our study can help guide informal education towards topics related to climate change and the need for sustainable forest use.

This article presents results of research carried out in 2018 that aimed to determine the opinions of Bieszczady mountain guides on the scope of development of tourism and recreational infrastructure in the Bieszczady forests, Poland. The online survey included questions regarding nature protection in the Bieszczady region, factors limiting opportunities for tourism and recreation development in the Bieszczady forests, and the needs regarding new elements of tourism and recreation management of the area. Our research results indicate that the greatest impediments to the recreational use of the forest result from temporary restrictions on forest access, which are related to hunting or forest-management works. Most the interviewed guides were against further development of the tourist and recreational infrastructure in the Bieszczady forests. They were also in favor of extending the nature protection area in Bieszczady. Statistical analyses using the Kruskal–Wallis test showed that persons who are against, in favor of and neutral on extending the nature protection area in the Bieszczady forests varied significantly in their views on issues such as hunting or restrictions on forest access related to forest-management works. Compared to the other respondents, the supporters of extending the range of protected areas were more frequently against designating new recreation spaces or bonfire places in the Bieszczady forests.

This paper assesses the priority of forest ecosystem services (FESs) and defines the sociodemographic profile of people who consider particular services to be an essential function of forests. The research material consists of the results of a questionnaire survey conducted on 1402 Polish respondents. Twelve different types of FESs were evaluated, to which respondents assigned relative priority (Ps) on a five-point Likert scale. The significance of differences in the importance of individual FESs was assessed using the Kruskal–Wallis ANOVA rank test, while a logistic regression model was used to profile respondents in terms of differences in perceptions of a particular FES. Regulating functions were considered the most important (Ps 0.87–0.94), followed by cultural functions (0.79–0.86), while provisioning functions (0.31–0.75) were deemed the least important. During the last decade, the trend in societal demand for FESs was upward. The greatest increase occurred for regulating functions and the lowest for provisioning (in the case of the supply of animal products, demand has actually decreased). Regulating functions are seen as very important by people with higher education, people who are satisfied with their financial status, and women; noise reduction is in particular valued by urban residents. Cultural functions are most valued by those satisfied with their financial status and people over 40. Provisioning functions are perceived as very important primarily by rural residents, often of low financial status, with the provision of animal products being more appreciated by men and the supply of mushrooms and berries by women. The greater appreciation of the importance of regulating and cultural functions (compared to provisioning ESs) suggests that local development planning should emphasize them much more strongly. In turn, identifying and estimating the demand for ecosystem services from the perspective of socioeconomic and demographic stakeholder profiles can provide valuable insight during planning for sustainable forest and ecosystem services.

The role of values in climate-related decision-making is a prominent theme of climate communication research. The present study examines whether forest professionals are more driven by values than scientists are, and if this results in value polarization. A questionnaire was designed to elicit and assess the values assigned to expected effects of climate change by forest professionals and scientists working on forests and climate change in Europe. The countries involved covered a north-to-south and west-to-east gradient across Europe, representing a wide range of bio-climatic conditions and a mix of economic–social–political structures. We show that European forest professionals and scientists do not exhibit polarized expectations about the values of specific impacts of climate change on forests in their countries. In fact, few differences between forest professionals and scientists were found. However, there are interesting differences in the expected values of forest professionals with regard to climate change impacts across European countries. In Northern European countries, the aggregated values of the expected effects are more neutral than they are in Southern Europe, where they are more negative. Expectations about impacts on timber production, economic returns, and regulatory ecosystem services are mostly negative, while expectations about biodiversity and energy production are mostly positive.

In Poland, informal forest education is carried out mostly on forest educational paths, equipped with educational boards. Due to the diverse audience, an attempt was made to assess the elements supporting forest education from the perspective of forest users. The aim of the study is to determine the basic criteria that, in the opinion of path users, determine the use, attractiveness, and importance of educational boards in education. In an anonymous questionnaire, 504 people participated during meetings with an educator on paths in forests of the Regional Directorate of the State Forests in Lublin. In the opinion of trail users, boards are not an important element that should be present on educational trails; in their opinion, they moderately support informal forest education activities. Users generally paid attention to between one to two or three to four boards. The attractiveness of the boards is determined by the graphics of the whole board. Respondents would also prefer boards on which information is presented in graphical rather than text form. Our study indicates a somewhat negative perception of educational boards in forest education, which has prompted the authors to conduct further research in order to clarify forest users’ perceptions of the issues analyzed.

Building plots, understood as land properties intended for development, are an important object of commercial transactions. Their prices are determined by several factors, such as location, state of development, distance from important urban centres, and proximity to green areas. It is certain that, especially with regard to building plots intended for single-family housing, the proximity of natural areas, especially forest areas, is becoming increasingly important. The Otwock region, with a forest cover of more than 30%, has numerous undeveloped lands that are or could be development plots. This article concerns an analysis of transactions involving undeveloped development land of selected communes in the Otwock region. On the basis of an analysis of prices of real estate transactions from 2011 to 2016 from four municipalities of the Otwock region and a spatial visualisation of the plots, the relationship of price (m2) with physical characteristics (technical development, shape, area), distance from a large city (Warsaw), and distance from a railroad line stop and landscape values (landscape type, distance to the forest, number of landscape components) was determined. Statistical analyses used regression and correlation analysis. The preferences of 519 people interested in buying/selling real estate in the Otwock region were also investigated, and for this purpose, we cooperated with real estate offices and municipal offices. The results of the survey strongly indicate that forest landscapes increase the attractiveness of building plots, which in turn leads to higher prices on the market. The results of the study show that there is a relationship between the price of a property and its distance to the forest, the nature of the forest boundary, and the number of landscape elements. The forest landscape is one of the most important factors determining the attractiveness of a building plot. Proximity to a forest, especially forests under a form of protection, is an important value for prospective land plot buyers. The views of respondents varied considerably due to socio-demographic characteristics, mainly the age and education of respondents.