Public perception of river fish biodiversity in four European countries
Public support for biodiversity conservation is shaped by people’s values and their knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes toward the environment. We conducted the first multinational representative survey of the general public’s perceptions of river fish biodiversity in France, Germany, Norway, and Swed...
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2573486 https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13180 |
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ftninstnf:oai:brage.nina.no:11250/2573486 2023-06-11T04:10:21+02:00 Public perception of river fish biodiversity in four European countries Kochalski, Sophia Riepe, Carsten Fujitani, Marie Aas, Øystein Arlinghaus, Robert France, Germany, Norway, Sweden 2018 application/octet-stream http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2573486 https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13180 eng eng Andre: German Research Foundation (grant AR 712/4-1) EC/H2020/IMPRESS (grant 642893) Conservation Biology. 2018, 1-12. urn:issn:0888-8892 http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2573486 https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13180 cristin:1623092 © 2018 Society for Conservation Biology 1-12 Conservation Biology attitudes biodiversity loss communications conservation planning environmental threats freshwater ecosystems public opinion species introduction VDP::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480 VDP::Zoology and botany: 480 Journal article Peer reviewed 2018 ftninstnf https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13180 2023-05-10T22:47:57Z Public support for biodiversity conservation is shaped by people’s values and their knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes toward the environment. We conducted the first multinational representative survey of the general public’s perceptions of river fish biodiversity in France, Germany, Norway, and Sweden. For the online survey, 1000 respondents per country were randomly selected from large panels following countryspecific quotas set on age, gender, and educational level. Questions covered people’s level of knowledge, beliefs, values, and attitudes toward river fish, environmental threats, and conservation measures. We found that the public had limited knowledge of freshwater fishes. Two non-native species, rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), were widely perceived as native, whereas native Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) was mostly classified as native in Scandinavia and largely as non-native in central Europe. These results suggest an extinction of experience paralleling the extirpation or decline of salmon stocks in countries such as Germany and France. Respondents thought pollutionwas the dominant threat to riverine fish biodiversity. In reality, habitat loss, dams, and the spread of non-native fishes are equally important. Despite limited biological knowledge, respondents from all countries held an overwhelmingly proecologicalworldview, supported conservation stocking, and appreciated native fishes, although only a minority interacted with them directly. Differences among the 4 countries related to several conservation issues. For example, threats to biodiversity stemming from aquaculture were perceived as more prevalent in Norway compared with the other 3 countries. Promoting fish conservation based on charismatic species and use values of fishes may work well in countries with a strong economic and cultural link to the freshwater environment, such as Norway. In countries where people rather abstractly care for nature, focusing conservation messaging on broader ecosystem ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Atlantic salmon Salmo salar Norwegian Institute for Nature Research: Brage NINA Norway Conservation Biology 33 1 164 175 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Norwegian Institute for Nature Research: Brage NINA |
op_collection_id |
ftninstnf |
language |
English |
topic |
attitudes biodiversity loss communications conservation planning environmental threats freshwater ecosystems public opinion species introduction VDP::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480 VDP::Zoology and botany: 480 |
spellingShingle |
attitudes biodiversity loss communications conservation planning environmental threats freshwater ecosystems public opinion species introduction VDP::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480 VDP::Zoology and botany: 480 Kochalski, Sophia Riepe, Carsten Fujitani, Marie Aas, Øystein Arlinghaus, Robert Public perception of river fish biodiversity in four European countries |
topic_facet |
attitudes biodiversity loss communications conservation planning environmental threats freshwater ecosystems public opinion species introduction VDP::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480 VDP::Zoology and botany: 480 |
description |
Public support for biodiversity conservation is shaped by people’s values and their knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes toward the environment. We conducted the first multinational representative survey of the general public’s perceptions of river fish biodiversity in France, Germany, Norway, and Sweden. For the online survey, 1000 respondents per country were randomly selected from large panels following countryspecific quotas set on age, gender, and educational level. Questions covered people’s level of knowledge, beliefs, values, and attitudes toward river fish, environmental threats, and conservation measures. We found that the public had limited knowledge of freshwater fishes. Two non-native species, rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), were widely perceived as native, whereas native Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) was mostly classified as native in Scandinavia and largely as non-native in central Europe. These results suggest an extinction of experience paralleling the extirpation or decline of salmon stocks in countries such as Germany and France. Respondents thought pollutionwas the dominant threat to riverine fish biodiversity. In reality, habitat loss, dams, and the spread of non-native fishes are equally important. Despite limited biological knowledge, respondents from all countries held an overwhelmingly proecologicalworldview, supported conservation stocking, and appreciated native fishes, although only a minority interacted with them directly. Differences among the 4 countries related to several conservation issues. For example, threats to biodiversity stemming from aquaculture were perceived as more prevalent in Norway compared with the other 3 countries. Promoting fish conservation based on charismatic species and use values of fishes may work well in countries with a strong economic and cultural link to the freshwater environment, such as Norway. In countries where people rather abstractly care for nature, focusing conservation messaging on broader ecosystem ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kochalski, Sophia Riepe, Carsten Fujitani, Marie Aas, Øystein Arlinghaus, Robert |
author_facet |
Kochalski, Sophia Riepe, Carsten Fujitani, Marie Aas, Øystein Arlinghaus, Robert |
author_sort |
Kochalski, Sophia |
title |
Public perception of river fish biodiversity in four European countries |
title_short |
Public perception of river fish biodiversity in four European countries |
title_full |
Public perception of river fish biodiversity in four European countries |
title_fullStr |
Public perception of river fish biodiversity in four European countries |
title_full_unstemmed |
Public perception of river fish biodiversity in four European countries |
title_sort |
public perception of river fish biodiversity in four european countries |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2573486 https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13180 |
op_coverage |
France, Germany, Norway, Sweden |
geographic |
Norway |
geographic_facet |
Norway |
genre |
Atlantic salmon Salmo salar |
genre_facet |
Atlantic salmon Salmo salar |
op_source |
1-12 Conservation Biology |
op_relation |
Andre: German Research Foundation (grant AR 712/4-1) EC/H2020/IMPRESS (grant 642893) Conservation Biology. 2018, 1-12. urn:issn:0888-8892 http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2573486 https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13180 cristin:1623092 |
op_rights |
© 2018 Society for Conservation Biology |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13180 |
container_title |
Conservation Biology |
container_volume |
33 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
164 |
op_container_end_page |
175 |
_version_ |
1768384708937252864 |