Sociocultural Profile as a Predictor of Perceived Importance of Forest Ecosystem Services: A Case Study from Poland

Abstract

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.