Explain The Moral Norm, Intention and Behavior of Protection of Zagros Forests

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 PhD student of Agricultural Extension and Education and Rural Development, Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan, Mollasani, Iran

2 Ph.D Graduate Student, Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan, Mollasani, Iran

3 Assistant Prof., Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan, Mollasani, Iran

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors affecting the moral norm, intention and behavior of forest protection. The statistical population of this study consisted of rural households in four villages of Chegni dore (N = 1399) which based on Krejcie and Morgan table, the sample size of 300 head of households was selected. Sample individuals were studied using stratified sampling method with proportional assignment. The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire whose face validity was confirmed by a group of professors and experts. In addition, to determine the reliability, the pretest was used and confirmed by calculating the Cronbach's alpha coefficient (87/0-95/0). The results of structural equation modeling of path analysis showed that the variables of social capital and environmental attitude are variables affecting the moral norm and the variables of moral norm, environmental responsibility, environmental attitude and environmental awareness of the variables directly affecting intention and Behaviors are indirect. Also, two variables of social capital and intention had a direct and significant positive effect on the behavior of rural households in forest protection. Finally, these variables were able to predict 62%, 61% and 46% of the changes in the variables of moral norm, intention and behavior of rural households towards forest protection, respectively.

Keywords


-Abrahamse, W., Steg, L., Gifford, R. and Vlek, C., 2009. Factors influencing car use for commuting and the intention to reduce it: A question of self-interest or morality? Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 12(4): 317-324.
-Ficko, A. and Bončina, A., 2019. Public attitudes toward environmental protection in the most developed countries: the environmental concern Kuznets curve theory. Journal of Environmental Management, 231: 968-981.
-Gregory, G. D. and Leo, M. D., 2003. Repeated behavior and environmental psychology: the role of personal involvement and habit formation in explaining water consumption 1. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33(6): 1261-1296.
-Güler, S., 2010. Türk mutfak kültürü ve yeme içme alışkanlıkları. Dumlupınar Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 26(1): 24-30.
-Adhami, A. and Akbarzadeh, A., 2010. Study of cultural factors affecting environmental protection in Tehran (Case study of areas 5 and 8). Journal of Sociology, 1(1): 2-34 (in Persian).
-Aguilar‐Luzón, M.D.C., García‐Martínez, J.M.Á., Calvo‐Salguero, A. and Salinas, J.M., 2013. Comparative study between the theory of planned behavior and the value–belief–norm model regarding the environment, on Spanish housewives' recycling behavior. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 42(11): 2797-2833.
-Alexander, R. D., Innocente, S. A., Barrass, J. D. and Beggs, J. D., 2010. Splicing-dependent RNA polymerase pausing in yeast. Molecular Cell, 40(4): 582-593.
-Alp, E., Ertepinar, H., Tekkaya, C. and Yilmaz, A., 2008. A survey on Turkish elementary school students’ enviromental friendly behaviours and associated variables. Environmental Education Research, 14(2): 129-143.
-Aqnum, M., Foqhahi, J., Makhdoom, M. and Jabarian Amiri, B., 2015. Determination of sensitive and vulnerable areas to livestock grazing in the forest (Case study: Patem section of Khairud forest). Environmental Research, 6(11): 66-11 (in Persian).
-Armaghan, S., 2018. Strategies to increase public participation in promoting environmental indicators in rural areas (Case study: Mallard rural districts). New Attitudes in Human Geography (Human Geography), 10(2): 150-131 (in Persian).
-Bagheri, A., Bondori, A., Allahyari, M.S. and Damalas, C.A., 2019. Modeling farmers’ intention to use pesticides: An expanded version of the theory of planned behavior. Journal of Environmental Management, 248: 109-291.
-Barber, N., Taylor, D.C. and Strick, S., 2009. Environmental knowledge and attitudes: influencing the purchase decisions of wine consumers. International CHRIE Conference-Refereed Track, 4(15): 1-11.
-Barnes-Mauthe, M., Oleson, K.L., Brander, L.M., Zafindrasilivonona, B., Oliver, T.A. and van Beukering, P., 2015. Social capital as an ecosystem service: Evidence from a locally managed marine area. Ecosystem Services, 16: 283-293.
-Berger, L. and Marinacci, M., 2020. Model uncertainty in climate change economics: A review and proposed framework for future research. Environmental and Resource Economics, 77(3): 475-501.
-Bijani, M., Ghazani, E., Valizadeh, N. and Haghighi, N.F., 2017. Pro-environmental analysis of farmers' concerns and behaviors towards soil conservation in central district of Sari County, Iran. International Soil and Water Conservation Research, 5(1): 43-49.
-Boratyńska, K. and Huseynov, R.T., 2017. An innovative approach to food security policy in developing countries. Journal of innovation and knowledge, 2(1): 39-44.
-Brick, C., Sherman, D. K. and Kim, H. S., 2017. “Green to be seen” and “brown to keep down”: Visibility moderates the effect of identity on pro-environmental behavior. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 51: 226-238.
-Castilho, L.C., De Vleeschouwer, K.M., Milner-Gulland, E.J. and Schiavetti, A., 2018. Attitudes and behaviors of rural residents toward different motivations for hunting and deforestation in protected areas of the northeastern Atlantic Forest, Brazil. Tropical Conservation Science, 11(1): 5-20.
-Cismaru, M., Cismaru, R., Ono, T. and Nelson, K., 2011. Act on climate change: an application of protection motivation theory. Social Marketing Quarterly, 17(3): 62-84.
-Coulibaly-Lingani, P., Savadogo, P., Tigabu, M. and Oden, P.C., 2011. Factors influencing people's participation in the forest management program in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Forest Policy and Economics, 13(4): 292-302.
-Dahmardeh, M.D. Yaghoubi Farani, A. and Rousta, K., 2011. Investigating social and organizational barriers of local communities, participation in Rehabilitation of Forest Landscapes and Degrade dL and project (Case study: Rigancounty, Kerman province). Iranian Journal of Forest and Poplar, 26(3): 435-446 (In Persian).
-De Groot, J.I.M., Steg, L. and Dicke, M., 2007. Morality and reducing car use: Testing the norm activation model of prosocial behavior. Transportation Research Trends, NOVA Publisher, pp 1-78.
-Eldredge, L. K. B., Markham, C. M., Ruiter, R. A., Fernández, M. E., Kok, G. and Parcel, G. S., 2016. Planning health promotion programs: an intervention mapping approach. John Wiley & Sons.
-Elliott, S. and Young, T., 2016. Nature by default in early childhood education for sustainability. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 32(01): 57-64.
-Empidi, A.V.A. and Emang, D., 2021. Understanding public intentions to participate in protection initiatives for forested watershed areas using the theory of planned behavior: a Case study of Cameron highlands in pahang, Malaysia. Sustainability, 13(8): 43-99.
-Fatehi, P. Namiranian, M. Darvish, S.A. and Fatahi, M., 2010. The study of suitable forest territorial organization in the northern Zagros. Journal of Forest and Wood Products, 62(4): 417-428.
-Fu, Y., 2018. Understanding and modelling of residential water use behavior. Doctoral dissertation, Staffordshire University, 1-182.
- Gravaundy, Sh., Papzan, A. and Afsharzadeh, N., 2011. Modeling sustainable environmental development using fundamental theory (Case study: Shervineh village, Javanrood county). Quarterly Journal of Housing and Rural Environment, 136: 67-78 (in Persian).
-Greaves, M., Zibarras, L.D. and Stride, C., 2013. Using the theory of planned behavior to explore environmental behavioral intentions in the workplace. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 34: 109-120.
- Harland, P., Staats, H. and Wilke, H. A., 2007. Situational and personality factors as direct or personal norm mediated predictors of pro-environmental behavior: Questions derived from norm-activation theory. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 29(4), 323-334.
-Heidari, Q., Rastegar, Sh. and Forutany, B., 2014. Evaluation of socio-economic factors affecting the participation of local communities in sustainable rangeland management (Case study: summer rangelands of Bahar plain, Hamadan province). Publication pasture, 1(2): 110-89 (in Persian).
-Hejazi, Y. and Ishaqi, R., 2014. Explaining the environmental behavior of villagers in the western provinces of the country based on the model of planned behavior. Iranian Economic Research and Agricultural Development, 5(3): 21-54 (in Persian).
-Holt, J.R., Butler, B.J., Borsuk, M.E., Markowski-Lindsay, M., MacLean, M.G. and Thompson, J.R., 2021. Using the theory of planned behavior to understand family forest owners’ intended responses to invasive forest insects. Society and Natural Resources, 34(8): 1001-1018.
-Hynes, N. and Wilson, J., 2016. I do it, but don't tell anyone! Personal values, personal and social norms: Can social media play a role in changing pro-environmental behaviours? Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 111: 349-359.
-Ildermi, A., Qasempour, F. and Bahmani, N., 2015. Investigating the role of socio-economic factors in the degradation of Zagros forest ecosystem (Kakarza region of Lorestan). Iranian Journal of Forests and Rangelands, 13(2): 149-140 (in Persian).
-Jannat, M., Hossain, M.K. and Uddin, M., 2020. Socioeconomic factors of forest dependency in developing countries: Lessons learned from the Bandarban hill district of Bangladesh. American Journal of Pure and Applied Biosciences, 2(3): 77-84.
-Karami Dehkordi, A. and Ansari, A., 2012. The effect of watershed management pastoral projects on sustainable livelihoods of rural households in Zanjan county. Journal of New Agricultural Technologies, 5(2). 107-136 (in Persian).
-Karpudewan, M., Roth, W.M. and Abdullah, M.N.S.B., 2015. Enhancing primary school students' knowledge about global warming and environmental attitude using climate change activities. International Journal of Science Education, 37(1): 31-54.
-Keshavarz, M. and Karami, E., 2016. Farmers' pro-environmental behavior under drought: Application of protection motivation theory. Journal of Arid Environments, 127: 128-136.
-Khedrizadeh, M., Maleknia, R., Adeli, K. and Hanareh Khalyani, J., 2017. Survey of barriers and potential field to involve local people in the forest management process (Case study: Local Communities in Nameshir, Baneh). Journal of Wood and Forest Science and Technology, 24(3): 35-47 (In Persian).
-Kumar, S., 2013. Environmental Awareness among Rural Folks of Hamirpur District, HP.‏ The International Journal of Engineering and Science, 2(1): 81-84.
-Kuruppu, N. and Liverman, D., 2011. Mental preparation for climate adaptation: The role of cognition and culture in enhancing adaptive capacity of water management in Kiribati. Global Environmental Change, 21(2): 657-669.
-Landon, A. C., Kyle, G. T. and Kaiser, R. A., 2017. An augmented norm activation model: The case of residential outdoor water use. Society and Natural Resources, 30(8): 903-918.
-Landmann, H. and Rohmann, A., 2020. Being moved by protest: Collective efficacy beliefs and injustice appraisals enhance collective action intentions for forest protection via positive and negative emotions. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 71: 101-491.
-Larson, L.R., Stedman, R.C., Cooper, C.B. and Decker, D.J., 2015. Understanding the multi-dimensional structure of pro-environmental behavior. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 43: 112-124.
-Laužikas, M. and Dailydaitė, S., 2015. Impacts of social capital on transformation from efficiency to innovation-driven business. Journal of Business Economics and Management, 16(1): 37-51.
-Le Dang, H., Li, E., Nuberg, I. and Bruwer, J., 2014. Understanding farmers’ adaptation intention to climate change: A structural equation modelling study in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Environmental Science and Policy, 41: 11-22.
- Ficko, A. and Bončina, A., 2019. Public attitudes toward environmental protection in the most developed countries: The Environmental Concern Kuznets Curve theory. Journal of Environmental Management, 231: 968-981.
-Barnard, M., 2013. Fashion as communication. Routledge.
-Lee, K., 2011. The role of media exposure, social exposure and biospheric value orientation in the environmental attitude-intention-behavior model in adolescents. Journal of environmental psychology, 31(4): 301-308.
-Lee, T.H. and Jan, F.H., 2015. The effects of recreation experience, environmental attitude, and biospheric value on the environmentally responsible behavior of nature-based tourists. Environmental management, 56(1): 193-208.
- Li, M. and Cai, L. A., 2012. The effects of personal values on travel motivation and behavioral intention. Journal of Travel Research, 51(4): 473-487.
-Li, M., Cai, L.A. and Qiu, S., 2016. A value, affective attitude, and tourist behavioral intention model. Journal of China Tourism Research, 12(2): 179-195.
-Lu, A.C.C., Gursoy, D. and Del Chiappa, G., 2016. The influence of materialism on ecotourism attitudes and behaviors. Journal of Travel Research, 55(2): 176-189.
-Madigele, P.K. and Mogomotsi, G.E.J., 2017. Polluter pays or polluter enriching the retailers: the case of plastic bag levy failure in Botswana. Ethiopian Journal of Environmental Studies and Management, 10(4): 472-481.
-Mohammadi, Y. and Etemad, V., 2015. Villagers' perceptions of forest benefits and explanatory demographic variables in the four-story Ardal forest habitat. Journal of Zagros Forest Research, 2(1): 39-19 (in Persian).
-Mohammadian, M. and Khatai, A., 2011. The relationship between psychological, social and green consumer factors (supporting the environment). Business Management, 3(7): 143-160 (in Persian).
-Mullan, B., Allom, V., Sainsbury, K. and Monds, L.A., 2015. Examining the predictive utility of an extended theory of planned behaviour model in the context of specific individual safe food-handling. Appetite, 90: 91-98.
-Nawah, A. and Froutan Kia, Sh., 2011. Investigating the relationship between rational action and environmental behaviors (Case study: Andimeshk urban society). Environmental Science Quarterly, 51: 1-21 (in Persian).
-Newton, P., Miller, D.C., Byenkya, M.A.A. and Agrawal, A., 2016. Who are forest-dependent people? A taxo nomy to aid livelihood and land use decision-making in forested regions. Land Use Policy, 57: 388-395.
-NikoKami, D., Omidvari, Sh., Barzegar, A. and Masihabadi, M., 2016. The effect of TMU and Geopedology work units on the accuracy of soil regression map. Watershed Management Research, 112: 40-34 (in Persian).
-Oettel, J. and Lapin, K., 2021. Linking forest management and biodiversity indicators to strengthen sustainable forest management in Europe. Ecological Indicators, 122: 107-275.
-Opp, K.D., 2013. Norms and rationality. Is moral behavior a form of rational action? Theory and Decision, 74: 383-409.
- Hejazi, Y. Karami Darabkhani, R., Hosseini, M. and Rezaei, A. 2017. Investigating the Factors Affecting the Environmental Behavior of Members of Environmental NGOs in Tehran Province. Environmental Science, 43(1): 17-30 (in Persian).
-Hooper, D., Coughlan, J. and Mullen, M., 2008. Evaluating model fit: a synthesis of the structural equation modelling literature. In 7th European Conference on Research Methodology for Business and Management Studies, pp. 195-200.
-Qi-yan, W.A.N.G. and Yan-li, L.I., 2011. Research on status and influence factors of citizen's environmental behaviors in Beijing. Energy Procedia, 5: 2103-2107.
-Rajabi, G. R., Karjo-Kasmaie, S. and Jabbari, H., 2011. The effectiveness of cognitive couple therapy on decreasing depression level, and increasing marital satisfaction. Clinical Psychology, 2(4): 9-17.
-Raskauskas, J., Rubiano, S., Offen, I. and Wayland, A. K., 2015. Do social self-efficacy and self-esteem moderate the relationship between peer victimization and academic performance? Social Psychology of Education, 18(2): 297-314.
-Raziuddin, K. and Vaithianathan, S., 2018. A fresh look at understanding green consumer behavior among young urban Indian consumers through the lens of Theory of Planned Behavior. Journal of Cleaner Production, 183: 46-55.
-Rosmanita, I., Sarwoprasodjo, S. and Mardiana, R., 2021. Communication of leadership and group conformity in community forest management. Habitat, 32(1): 37-46.
-Rudgarmi, P, Ansari, N. and Farahani, A., 2011. Investigation of socio-economic factors affecting the destruction of natural resources in Tehran province. Iranian Journal of Range and Desert Research, 18(1): 151-171 (in Persian).
-Salehi, S. and Ghaemi Asl, Z., 2013. The relationship between environmental education and environmental protection behaviors (Case Study: High school girls in Babol city). Environmental Education and Sustainable Development, 1(3): 67-79.
-Sánchez, M., López-Mosquera, N., Lera-López, F. and Faulin, J., 2018. An extended planned behavior model to explain the willingness to pay to reduce noise pollution in road transportation. Journal of Cleaner Production, 177: 144-154.
-Savari, M. and Asadi, Z., 2020. Determinants of rural women's membership in Zagros forest conservation cooperatives in Lorestan province. Forest and Wood Products, 72(4): 1-20.
Shamshad, M. and Malek Mohammadi, E., 2007. The role of public participation in watershed management projects. Fourth National Conference on Watershed Management Science and Engineering, Watershed Management, pp. 1-11.
-Shin, Y.H. and Hancer, M., 2016. The role of attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and moral norm in the intention to purchase local food products. Journal of Foodservice Business Research, 19(4): 338-351.
-Siponen, M., Mahmood, M.A. and Pahnila, S., 2014. Employees’ adherence to information security policies: An exploratory field study. Information and Management, 51(2): 217-224.
-Sözbilir, F., 2018. The interaction between social capital, creativity and efficiency in organizations. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 27: 92-100.
- Steg, L. and De Groot, J., 2010. Explaining prosocial intentions: Testing causal relationships in the norm activation model. British Journal of Social Psychology, 49(4): 725-743.
-Strydom, W.F., 2018. Applying the theory of planned behavior to recycling behavior in South Africa. Recycling, 3(3): 43.
-Sutherland, L.A., 2011. Effectively organic: Environmental gains on conventional farms through the market? Land Use Policy, 28(4): 815-824.
-Trihadmojo, B., Jones, C.R., Prasastyoga, B., Walton, C. and Sulaiman, A., 2020. Toward a nuanced and targeted forest and peat fires prevention policy: Insight from psychology. Forest Policy and Economics, 120: 102-293.
-Truelove, H.B., Carrico, A.R. and Thabrew, L., 2015. A socio-psychological model for analyzing climate change adaptation: A case study of Sri Lankan paddy farmers. Global Environmental Change, 31: 85-97.
-Ullah, S., Abid, A., Aslam, W., Noor, R.S., Waqas, M.M. and Gang, T., 2021. Predicting behavioral intention of rural inhabitants toward economic incentive for deforestation in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. Sustainability, 13(2): 617.
-Uzun, F.V. and Keles, O., 2012. The effects of nature education project on the environmental awareness and behavior. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 46: 2912-2916.
- Valois, R. F., Zullig, K. J. and Revels, A. A., 2017. Aggressive and Violent Behavior and Emotional Self‐Efficacy: Is There a Relationship for Adolescents? Journal of School Health, 87(4): 269-277.
-Wang, Y., Yang, J., Liang, J., Qiang, Y., Fang, S., Gao, M., Fan, X., Yang, G., Zhang, B. and Feng, Y., 2018. Analysis of the environmental behavior of farmers for non-point source pollution control and management in a water source protection area in China. Science of the Total Environment, 633: 1126-1135.
- Khoshfar, Gh, Salehi, p. and Imam Qoli, L., 2009. People's behavior towards the environment; Case study: urban and rural areas of Kurdistan province. Conference on Environmental Engineering, Tehran: University of Tehran. pp.1-15 (in Persian).
-Kim, Y. and Choi, S. M., 2005. Antecedents of green purchase behavior: An examination of collectivism, environmental concern, and PCE. ACR North American Advances.
-Mitra, A., Flynn, K. J., Burkholder, J. M., Berge, T., Calbet, A., Raven, J. A. and Zubkov, M. V., 2014. The role of mixotrophic protists in the biological carbon pump. Biogeosciences, 11(4): 995-1005.
-Onwezen, M. C., Antonides, G. and Bartels, J., 2013. The Norm Activation Model: An exploration of the functions of anticipated pride and guilt in pro-environmental behaviour. Journal of Economic Psychology, 39: 141-153.
-Wilk, R. R. and Cliggett, L., 2018. Economies and cultures: foundations of economic anthropology. Routledge.
-Zhang, X., Geng, G. and Sun, P., 2017. Determinants and implications of citizens’ environmental complaint in China: Integrating theory of planned behavior and norm activation model. Journal of Cleaner Production, 166: 148-156.
-Zhang, Y., Wang, Z. and Zhou, G., 2013. Antecedents of employee electricity saving behavior in organizations: An empirical study based on norm activation model. Energy Policy, 62: 1120-1127.
- Zobeiri, H. and Karimi Moghari., 2014. Effect of Social Cohesion on Economic Development (Cross-Country Study Using Panel Data Approach). Journal of Economic Growth and Development Research, Fourth Year, 14: 40-62.
-Foster, D. W., Yeung, N. and Neighbors, C., 2014. I think I can't: Drink refusal self-efficacy as a mediator of the relationship between self-reported drinking identity and alcohol use. Addictive Behaviors, 39(2): 461-468.
-Gao, Z. K., Cai, Q., Yang, Y. X., Dong, N. and Zhang, S. S., 2017. Visibility graph from adaptive optimal kernel time-frequency representation for classification of epileptiform EEG. International Journal of Neural Systems, 27(4): 1750005.
-Wang, Y., Zhou, L., Yang, G., Guo, R., Xia, C. and Liu, Y., 2020. Performance and obstacle tracking to natural forest resource protection project: a rangers’ case of qilian mountain, China. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(16): 56-72.
-Wauters, E., Bielders, Ch., Poesen, J., Govers, G. and Mathijs, E., 2010. Adoption of soil conservation practices in Belgium: An examination of the theory of planned behaviour in the agri-environmental domain. Land Use Policy, 27: 86-94.