Attitudes of outdoor-activists towards nature and landscape

Outdoor-activities can have negative consequences on nature and landscape. Following the "Swiss Landscape Concept", the people should be fostered towards a nature- and landscape-protecting behaviour. Authorities and Sports-Associations tried to reach this aim by giving informational advices, but without any proven success.

This new social research project located at the WSL`s section "Landscape and Society" is dealing with the development and evaluation of behaviour changing strategies, encouraging environmentally responsible behaviour. The analysis of the motivation of outdoor-activists and their attitudes towards nature and landscape will serve as a basis for the development of intervention experiments.

Research Questions

What are the motivational reasons and backgrounds for nature and landscape-orientated leisure-activities?
Do outdoor-activists have the willingness to change their behaviour in order to protect nature and landscape?
Which concrete strategies can help fostering sustainable changes in attitudes and behaviour in an effective and efficient manner?

Methods

There will be used a Combination of several research strategies:

qualitative (expert) interviews
epresentative (nation-wide) written survey (standardised questionnaire)
Interventions (experimental design), to test behaviour-changing strategies.

These data will provide information about the motivational structure of outdoor-activists and will support the development of strategies fostering nature and landscape protecting behavior.