Attitudes toward Conservation of the Transboundary Białowieża Forest among Ecotourism Businesses in Poland and Belarus

Marek Giergiczny, Sviataslau Valasiuk, Mikita Yakubouski, Mikołaj Kowalewski, Jędrzej Maskiewicz and Per Angelstam ()
Additional contact information
Marek Giergiczny: Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw, Długa 44/50, 00-241 Warszawa, Poland
Mikita Yakubouski: State Nature Protection Institution “National Park “Biełavieskaja Pušča”, a/h Kamianiuki, 225063 Kamianiecki Rajon, Belarus
Mikołaj Kowalewski: Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw, Długa 44/50, 00-241 Warszawa, Poland
Jędrzej Maskiewicz: Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw, Długa 44/50, 00-241 Warszawa, Poland
Per Angelstam: Department of Forestry and Wildlife Management, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Campus Evenstad, N-2480 Koppang, Norway

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-24

Abstract: The Białowieża Forest is a contested transboundary forest massif in Poland and Belarus. Reflecting on transitions from value chains built on sustained yield forestry to ecotourism, we pioneer documentation of how country-specific legacies shape preferences toward increased forest protection at the expense of wood production. For both countries, we used a quantitative ordered logit model based on questionnaires to Polish and Belarusian ecotourism business owners to, for the first time, empirically study drivers of their preferences toward different Białowieża Forest values, and we used qualitative data to identify attitudes toward the expansion of protected areas in the Białowieża Forest. Whilst Belarusian ecotourism business owners supported increased area protection, the opposite was true for their Polish counterparts. The proportion of foreign guests co-varied with support toward increased area protection. Conversely, local origin, size of hospitality business, and role of foresters as customers decreased interest in area protection. The qualitative data revealed that narratives against extended area protection were spread in Poland but not in Belarus. The conflict over the conservation of the Polish part of the Białowieża Forest involves actors and stakeholders with competing interests. A solution is that this remnant massif of the once widespread European temperate lowland forest becomes subject to a regional planning and zoning perspective. Encouraging multiple value chains and evidence-based collaborative learning are key components.

Keywords: Bia?owie?a National Park; biodiversity conservation conflict; forest management; nature-based tourism; nature protection; ordered logit model; Polish State Forest Holding (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/6/1150/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/6/1150/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:6:p:1150-:d:1159438

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().