Nonindustrial Private Forest Landowner Beliefs Toward Climate Change and Carbon Sequestration in the Southern United States

作者：Kh**** Puskar N^*; Grebner Donald L; Munn Ian A; Grado Stephen C; Grala Robert K; Henderson James E; Measells Marcus K

来源：Journal of Forestry, 2016, 114(5): 524-531.

DOI：10.5849/jof.15-033

• family forest
• risk perception
• cluster analysis
• attitudes
• communication

Carbon storage utilizing forests is one of the most important strategies for implementing climate change mitigation. Considering the potential of carbon storage in forests owned by nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) landowners, it is imperative to understand their views regarding climate change and carbon sequestration. This study segments NIPF landowners in the southern United States on the basis of their beliefs toward climate change and carbon sequestration. A K-means cluster analysis was used to segment their climate change and carbon sequestration beliefs into three broad clusters: skeptic, supportive, and neutral landowners. The results indicated that a majority of southern landowners (47%) held neutral beliefs, whereas the proportions of supportive and skeptical clusters were 35 and 18%, respectively. These belief clusters differ with respect to landowner income and education as well as their landownership and management characteristics. In terms of the future impact of climate change, 40% of landowners in the supportive cluster expected timber yield to fluctuate more than 5% on average but only 12% in the skeptic cluster expected it, whereas 24% of landowners in neutral cluster anticipated the same impact. Results of this study provide insights on the current beliefs of NIPF landowners toward climate change and carbon sequestration as well as strategies for effectively communicating climate change and carbon sequestration information to them.

• 出版日期2016-9