An index to measure the conservation attitudes of landowners towards Overberg Coastal Renosterveld, a critically endangered vegetation type in the Cape Floral Kingdom, South Africa
Introduction
It is likely that more research has been conducted and more written on the topic of attitude formation, measurement and change than on any other subject in the social sciences. Attitudes are constructs central to understanding why people make decisions and behave the way they do. A construct is a theoretical creation based on observations but which cannot be observed directly or indirectly (Babbie and Mouton, 2001). Attitude towards conservation is more easily defined theoretically than observed in reality because it includes a wide variety of dimensions. These could include: the evaluations people hold of themselves either as careful custodians or rightful owners of their natural resources; or to other people or officials involved in conservation; and issues such as resource use, conservation projects and environmental problems. Attitudes towards conservation of a specific vegetation type, such as Overberg Coastal Renosterveld (OCR), a rare, endangered vegetation type in the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa, could then comprise a further suite of attitude dimensions. Constructs can be operationalised in empirical research by rendering them either measurable or observable through composite measures such as indexes and scales. An index is a measure that combines several distinct indicators of a construct into a single score. A scale is a measure, which captures the intensity, direction, level or potency of a variable construct, and arranges responses or observations on a continuum (Babbie and Mouton, 2001).
In contrast to attitudes, behaviours are observable actions, and while attitudes are not necessarily observable, they are measurable (Gray, 2002). Attitudes can be measured directly by asking respondents to report their beliefs or evaluations, or indirectly by studying responses believed to be related to attitudes (Bohner and Wanke, 2002). Direct attitude measures may consist of single-item numeric response scales (i.e., asking a person a single question about their general evaluation of an attitude object) or multi-item scales such as the frequently employed Likert scale (Likert, 1932). The major disadvantage of single-item measures is that their reliability may be low, or difficult to assess. Multiple-item indicators of attitudes can improve the ability of attitudes to predict behaviour. This addresses in part the controversy in the literature regarding the inconsistency between attitudes and behaviour, which can be due to the discrepancy between what people say and do (Steel, 2000). In this study, the attitudes of landowners1 towards the conservation of OCR were measured directly with a multi-item index, in order to express all possible dimensions of such attitudes in one summary measure.
Renosterveld is a grassy shrubland renowned for its spectacular diversity of geophytes which occurs predominantly in the Western Cape. Coastal Renosterveld is one of the most threatened and poorly protected vegetation types in the Cape Floristic Region (CFR), having been reduced to between 5% and 6% of its original extent. It boasts exceptionally high levels of plant rarity and endemism (von Hase et al., 2003) and occurs in a global biodiversity hotspot (Meyers et al., 2000). Of the roughly 18,000 remaining renosterveld fragments, more than half are smaller than a hectare (von Hase et al., 2003) rendering formal protected areas inappropriate. Less than 1% of renosterveld is formally conserved in statutory reserves in the Western Cape (von Hase et al., 2003). The only feasible prospect for conserving remaining Coastal Renosterveld fragments scattered throughout agricultural landscapes is through voluntary conservation by private landowners. Understanding landowner attitudes is therefore a critical first step for conservation agencies to consider before engaging with landowners that own such threatened habitats.
There are a number of examples in the literature of landowner attitude investigations towards conservation (Carr and Tait, 1991, Botha and Van Der, 1991, Van Zyl, 1999, Infield, 1988) or agri-environmental schemes (Battershill and Gilg, 1997, Falconer, 2000, Wilson and Hart, 2001, Fish et al., 2003, Benson and Willis, 1988). We are unaware of any studies that have developed an objective, quantitative measure, such as an index, to measure landowner attitudes towards conservation on private farmland. While qualitative attitude surveys will always be essential for complementing quantitative data to provide correct context, there is a need to express results of detailed survey work in a simple, index format for systematic conservation assessment and planning. A quantitative method is required to compare the conservation attitude of one landowner with another, especially when interviews or informal discussions are conducted by a number of different individuals. Personal interviews can be lengthy, and if a conservation organization wishes to assess attitudes and needs of many landowners, a rapid, rigorous assessment is required. Such a method must be easy to compute and analyze, if the tool is to be used by the layperson. Other advantages of a quantitative approach include the ability to: quantify constructs, such as landowner attitudes; describe, analyze and even explain landowners’ behaviour by correlating variables with each other; integrate quantitative Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data; and extrapolate results to a larger population.
There is a burgeoning literature on what influences attitudes towards conservation, but there is very little on what constitutes the actual components of conservation attitudes among farmers. Ferrar (1983) lists the following empirically untested factors that could influence people’s attitudes (and behaviour) towards conservation: (i) the personal environment (i.e., home-culture, socio-economic status, work environment); (ii) experiential events (i.e., the value of a single enlightening experience that stimulates future interest and understanding); (iii) urban crowding syndrome and the value of open space; and (iv) the effects of the media and advertising influence. Attitudes of farmers can also be influenced by the family situation, the farmer’s goals and the type of farm (Gasson, 1974, Coughenour and Swanson, 1988). Furthermore, farm size, farm income, off-farm income, erosion potential on the farm and length of farming experience have been found to significantly influence farmer’s attitudes toward the environment (Lasley et al., 1990, Featherstone and Goodwin, 1993). Rhodes et al. (2002) found that exposure to information about the attitude object can also influence attitudes, where more informed pastoral farmers in New Zealand had a more positive attitude towards the adoption of riparian management measures.
Lemon and Park (1993) concluded that farmers, attempting to achieve good practice on their farms, balance environmental, physical and commercial factors in their decision-making. In contrast, Battershill and Gilg (1997) maintain that economic constraints have the final say as they ultimately restrict or enable farmers in their ability to practice environmentally friendly farming or take part in conservation initiatives. Potter (1986) found that change in landuse on private farmland is both ‘determined’ by policy, institutional and family influences and ‘intentioned’ by the farmer and his/her attitudes acting as a problem-solving individual. Our study differs from other studies on landowners and environmental conservation in that it does not quantify factors that influence farmer decision-making or conservation behaviour, but rather seeks to measure attitudes of farmers towards conservation of a critically endangered vegetation type on their properties. The value of a focus on attitude measurement is that attitudes can affect behaviour towards natural ecosystems (Hartup, 1994, Brehm and Kassin, 1990), which has significant implications for the future retention or destruction of many threatened habitats.
The purpose of this study was to derive an index of conservation attitude from survey data collected in an earlier study (Winter, 2003). The initial survey explored attitudes and behaviours of landowners towards conservation of OCR by investigating four aspects: (i) landowner knowledge and awareness levels of the conservation value of OCR; (ii) the use and management of renosterveld; (iii) the value of renosterveld to landowners; (iv) the willingness of landowners to conserve renosterveld. Other questions included in the initial survey explored attitudes and behaviours towards general conservation issues not limited to renosterveld conservation. These included: The attractiveness of possible incentives to encourage conservation; Landowner knowledge of “conservancies” (i.e., mechanisms for conservation by which a group of neighbouring landowners voluntarily manage their living environment in a sustainable and co-operative fashion) and their attitudes towards such conservancies and; The attitudes of landowners towards the provincial conservation authority, namely CapeNature (previously Western Cape Nature Conservation Board).
Frequency data from all questions included in the interview schedule were analysed and presented in Winter (2003). The principal aim of this study was to measure conservation attitude in one, all-encompassing index. Identifying the underlying components of conservation attitude, as well as how other landowner-specific, demographic variables are empirically related to conservation attitude, accompanied the process of constructing an index. The second aim was to consider the applications of an index for informing the extension strategy of conservation authorities for privately owned land.
Section snippets
Study area and data collection
The initial landowner attitude survey (Winter, 2003), which provided the baseline data for this study, was conducted in two study areas within the Overberg region of the Western Cape Province. This included an area between the towns of Bot River and Caledon (referred to as “Bot River”) and an area between the towns of Bredasdorp and Swellendam (referred to as “Suikerkankop”) (Fig. 1). These areas contain some of the largest, and most ecologically important Coastal Renosterveld fragments in the
Reliability analysis
The following dimensions were considered for deriving a composite score for conservation attitude: knowledge; perceived benefit; interest; willingness to conserve; retention intentions. The indicators for the dimensions included in the index are detailed in Table 1, while Table 2 contains the dimensions and respective indicators that were excluded. A reliability analysis was conducted for each potential dimension of conservation attitude in the following manner: K1 and K2 (Table 2) were
Index interpretation
Results yielded an index comprised of two dimensions, namely perceived benefit and willingness to conserve, with a Cronbach Alpha value of 0.67, implying a moderate level of construct validity. When landowners perceive the retention of renosterveld on their property to provide some form of benefit to them or their farming operation (such as an alternate source of grazing in seasons of drought), they will be more willing to conserve their renosterveld. It can be hypothesized that land more
Acknowledgements
This study was financially supported through a National Research Foundation Grant (GUN: 2053516) to Karen Esler and a NRF Prestigious Bursary to Sue Winter. All landowners who participated in this survey and gave up time to be interviewed are gratefully acknowledged. Thanks go to Mark Botha from the Botanical Society of SA for his support in completing the study, and to Heidi Prozesky for providing comment and input on the sociological aspects of the manuscript.
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