Redai dili (Mar 2023)
The Influence of Environmental Perception on Farmers' Willingness to Act in Pro-Environment Behavior: A Case Study of Ecological Restoration in the Tailings Area of the Dabaoshan Mountain
Abstract
With regard to China's vigorous promotion of environmental governance and ecological restoration, farmers around mines are victims of environmental damage and major participants in ecological restoration. Their willingness to participate is related to whether the government's environmentalpolicies can play a good role. This study developed a structural equation model of the impact of environmental perception on pro-environmental behavior willingness and conducted an empirical study using survey data of farmers around the Dabaoshan tailings area in Shaoguan in 2020. Value perception includes "economic value" and "ecology value", which was measured by the two observable variables "increasing income" and "improving the surrounding environmental quality". The results showed that value perception had a positive impact on farmers' willingness to be environmentally friendly, and that the standardization coefficient of the "increase in income" variable was higher, which meant that if farmers felt that environmental governance in the tailings area could bring them economic benefits or improve the ecological environment, they were more inclined to participate in environmental governance activities in tailings areas, and local farmers paid more attention to economic interests. Endowment perception represented farmers' self-efficacy, which was measured by "energy perception" and "ability perception". The above two variables strongly influenced farmers' willingness to be pro-environmental. The results showed that the higher the self-efficacy evaluation of farmers, the stronger their willingness to participate in environmental governance of the tailings area. Policy perceptions including exemplary norms and command-line norms were measured by "government attitudes", "attitudes of miner" and "attitudes of neighbor and friend". The results showed that policy perception had a direct impact on farmers' willingness to pro-environmental behavior, but this was due to an indirect impact by affecting farmers' value perception and policy perception, and "mining enterprise attitude" was the policy perception where the important variables were explained. Therefore, improving farmers' value perception and endowment perception through policy perception could also indirectly improve their willingness to exhibit pro-environmental behavior. Based on the above results, this study puts forward relevant policy implications. First, traditional media, newspapers, and TV should combine with emerging online platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou to expand publicity channels. As rational economic people, farmers naturally attach great importance to the value brought about by participating in environmental governance in tailing areas. Therefore, it is necessary to publicize the economic and ecological value of environmental governance in the tailings area in a simple and easy-to-understand way and to make the publicity more targeted. Second, it is necessary to strengthen employment guidance and vocational education, improve the technical literacy of local farmers, lower the threshold and cost for farmers to participate in environmental governance, and encourage them to make scientific decisions. Last but not the least, it is necessary to build an ecological restoration exchange platform, strengthen the demonstrative role of neighborhoods, break the information barriers between the government and farmers, and explore effective leading models.
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