An index to measure the conservation attitudes of landowners towards Overberg Coastal Renosterveld, a critically endangered vegetation type in the Cape Floral Kingdom, South Africa
Date
2005
Authors
Winter S.J.
Esler K.J.
Kidd M.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The construction and validation of a user-friendly index to measure attitude of landowners towards conservation of Overberg Coastal Renosterveld (OCR), a critically endangered, distinctive grassy-shrubland in South Africa is reported. An iterative item reliability analysis was executed on questionnaire data from a random sample of 36 private landowners in the Overberg region of the Western Cape, using Spearman Rank Order correlations and Cronbach's Alpha. Results yielded an index with two dimensions and a Cronbach Alpha co-efficient of 0.67. Dimensions of conservation attitude towards renosterveld included: (i) landowners' perception of the benefit of Coastal Renosterveld; and (ii) willingness to conserve it. The mean conservation attitude score was 0.6 (±0.03), while minimum and maximum scores were 0.22 and 1.0, respectively, indicating that landowner attitudes were generally sympathetic towards OCR conservation. The following variables had significant associations with conservation attitude: (i) area of renosterveld; (ii) landowner environmental group membership status; (iii) presence of ecotourism activities on the property; and (iv) how long the property had been in the owner's family. Index scores can assist conservation practitioners to prioritise resources, on the assumption that high-scoring individuals are more likely to participate in conservation initiatives. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Description
Keywords
Cape Floristic Region, conservation, landowner, local participation, public attitude, Africa, Eastern Hemisphere, South Africa, Southern Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Western Cape, World
Citation
Biological Conservation
126
3
126
3