Faculty of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Technical University in Zvolen, T. G. Masaryka 24, 960 01, Zvolen, Slovakia.
Faculty of Forestry, Technical University in Zvolen, T. G. Masaryka 24, 960 01, Zvolen, Slovakia.
Ambio. 2023 Mar;52(3):647-664. doi: 10.1007/s13280-022-01816-x. Epub 2023 Jan 7.
Public expectations of forests as high-quality restorative environments that facilitate subjective well-being and stress relief along with numerous health benefits have been rising sharply during recent decades. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic and its accompanying restrictive measures also transformed forests into some of the few places to spend time away from home. The presented study drew on the assumption that the pandemic situation and a rise in the number of forest visits would affect the experience, recognition, and appreciation of the well-being aspects related to spending time in forests. The study goal was to elucidate the potential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the relationships between forest visits, well-being and stress relief, emotions, perception of nature and forest value and importance, pro-environmental behavior, and societal expectations of the role of forests and forest ecosystem services. A survey using a digital questionnaire was conducted several months after the pandemic outbreak on a representative sample of the Slovak population. The Wilcoxon test and ordinal regression analysis were used to identify significant relationships, e.g., between the recency of anger episodes and the number of forest visits. The results showed that the pandemic strengthened the perception of forests as a high-quality restorative environment and that emotions associated with forest visits played an important role in the perceived importance of forests and their possible overexploitation. The results underscore the urgent need to put demands for forest recreation on par with the forest bioeconomy and to sensitize forest visitors to management and conservation requirements.
几十年来，公众对森林的期望越来越高，认为森林是高质量的恢复环境，有助于提高主观幸福感，缓解压力，并带来许多健康益处。此外，COVID-19 大流行及其伴随的限制措施也使森林成为人们离家外出的少数几个好去处之一。本研究基于这样一种假设，即大流行情况和森林访问量的增加会影响人们对与在森林中度过时间相关的福祉方面的体验、认知和欣赏。本研究的目的是阐明 COVID-19 大流行对森林访问、幸福感和压力缓解、情绪、对自然和森林价值和重要性的感知、亲环境行为以及社会对森林和森林生态系统服务作用的期望之间关系的潜在影响。在大流行爆发后的几个月，我们使用数字问卷对斯洛伐克人口的代表性样本进行了调查。我们使用 Wilcoxon 检验和有序回归分析来识别显著关系，例如，愤怒发作的最近时间与森林访问次数之间的关系。结果表明，大流行增强了人们对森林作为高质量恢复环境的认知，与森林访问相关的情绪在感知森林的重要性及其可能的过度开发方面发挥了重要作用。研究结果强调了迫切需要将森林娱乐需求与森林生物经济相提并论，并提高森林游客对管理和保护要求的认识。
