(2020). Public Perceptions of Forests Across Italy

Research Article ii FF o o r r e e s s t t doi: 10.3832/ifor3394-013 Biogeosciences and Forestry vol. 13, pp. 323-328

Public perceptions of forests across Italy: an exploratory national survey

Giuseppe Carrus (1), In a context of progressive expansion of the Italian forest area, we present the Angelo Panno (2), results of a national survey exploring public perception of forests across dif- (3) ferent geographical scales in Italy. Perceptions of forests are assessed in rela- Juan Ignacio Aragones , tion to popular beliefs on relevant environmental issues such as countering cli- Marco Marchetti (4), mate change, protecting biodiversity, and promoting social cohesion and envi- Renzo Motta (5), ronmental education. Participants (N = 1059) living in five different regions of (6) Northern (Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Piemonte), Central (Lazio, Molise) and Giustino Tonon , Southern Italy (Puglia), were recruited in the survey and completed a paper- (7) Giovanni Sanesi and-pencil questionnaire. Survey questions regarded the estimated percentage of forest cover, the perceived importance of different environmental issues and of different material and non-material forest products, as well as participants’ perceptions regarding connectedness to nature. Results revealed a generalized tendency to overestimate the extension of forest surface area in the participants’ region, in Italy, and in the European Union. Results also showed high scores for participants’ perceived importance of environmental issues, such as climate change and biodiversity protection, and in their belief that forests could play a positive role in addressing these issues and providing important outcomes and benefits for the quality of human life, such as health and well-being or social cohesion.

Keywords: Forest Perceptions, Nature Experience, Environmental Attitudes, Environmental Issues

Introduction in naive thinking and common sense per- psychology (see Mercado-Doménech et al. Forests have been considered an impor- ceptions, when discussing general public 2017 for a recent review). This entire body tant asset throughout human history for perceptions and beliefs about forests it is of research focuses on the positive role of many reasons (Abel 1998, Perlin 1991). Of important to highlight the fundamental exposure to nature for the promotion of course, experts in ecological and forestry role of natural settings in positively affect- health and well-being over an individual’s science would easily point to the crucial ing human environmental preference and lifespan (Hartig et al. 2011, Carrus et al. role of forests in ensuring ecosystem func- well-being. Indeed, the past three decades 2015a, 2015b, 2017, Panno et al. 2017). tion in present-day habitats. However, pub- of research in environmental psychology Within this general theoretical frame- lic perceptions of forests is also an interest- (Van Den Berg et al. 2007), have consis- work, and given the positive role that for- ing topic of investigation for scholars in tently underscored the role of the physical ests and trees seem to have for the promo- the environmental-psychological domain, environment for shaping the quality of life tion of psychological restoration, it is in- in particular for those interested in explor- in contemporary society (Pol et al. 2017). deed interesting to explore and deepen ing the interface between ecology and so- Generally speaking, the perceptive and our understanding on what the general cial science in terms of human response to evaluative mechanisms that drive human public perceptions and assessments of for- the physical environment. adaptation and evolution in the natural en- ests are and how these perceptions might As forests and trees can also be consid- vironment have been subject to consistent be linked to people’s general environmen- ered a substitute for the concept of nature investigation by scholars in environmental tal attitudes and beliefs in relation to the environment, or to environmental issues such as global climate change and biodiver- (1) Roma Tre University, Department of Education, Rome (Italy); (2) European University sity. This issue is also linked to the more of Rome, Department of Human Science, Rome (Italy); (3) Complutense University of Madrid, general theme of how citizens and so- Department of Psychology, Madrid (Spain); (4) University of Molise, Dipartimento di Bio- called “civil society” might contribute to scienze e Territorio (Italy); (5) University of Turin, Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Forestali the worldwide goal of sustainable transi- e Alimentari, Turin (Italy); (6) Libera Università di Bolzano, Facoltà di Scienze e Tecnologie, tions in present-day democracies, i.e., un- Bolzano (Italy); (7) University of Bari Aldo Moro, Department of Agro-environmental and Ter- derstanding how the public perceives spe- ritorial Sciences, Bari (Italy) cific issues that have a direct impact on the quality of planetary ecosystems as well as @ Giuseppe Carrus ([email protected]) on the quality of human life. This insight might thus be helpful in developing more Received: Mar 06, 2020 - Accepted: Jun 08, 2020 effective strategies to drive such sustainable transitions (Frantzeskaki et al. 2016). Citation: Carrus G, Panno A, Aragones JI, Marchetti M, Motta R, Tonon G, Sanesi G (2020). Currently, forests cover almost 40% of Public perceptions of forests across Italy: an exploratory national survey. iForest 13: 323-328. Italy’s national territory (Italian Inventory – doi: 10.3832/ifor3394-013 [online 2020-07-28] of Land Use – IUTI 2017). Since 1990, it has increased to over 1 million ha, that is, an av- 2 Communicated by: Marco Borghetti erage of 800 m of new forests per minute. In 2018, for the first time in centuries, the

r national territory covered by forests ex- selves two questions. First, whether (and has been the concept of “Connectedness t

s ceeded that used for agricultural purposes how) public perceptions of relevant envi- to Nature”, defined by Mayer & Frantz e

r (Marchetti et al. 2018). ronmental elements, such as forests, corre- (2004) and measured through the Connect- o In this article, we present the results of a spond to actual facts and, second, how edness to Nature Scale (CNS). In another F survey aimed at assessing public percep- such public perceptions are linked to peo- study, these authors showed that the di- d n tions of forests across different geographi- ple’s attitudes, opinions and beliefs about rect experience of nature positively pre- a cal and socio-economical scales in Italy. other relevant environmental phenomena, dicts subjective well-being in a group of s e More specifically, we investigate how such as global climate change or biodiver- people who participated in a nature tour, c

n these perceptions of forests are related to sity conservation. and that this relation is mediated by in- e i popular beliefs on relevant environmental In the last few decades, global environ- creases in connectedness to nature (Mayer c

s issues, such as the importance of counter- mental change has gained increasing rele- et al. 2009). This empirical evidence has o ing climate change, protecting biodiversity, vance in scientific inquiry, for decision mak- been demonstrated in other works report- e g promoting social cohesion and enhancing ers, and for the general public. This has ing how people who walk on nature trails o i environmental education. led to a greater focus on the “human di- experience increased well-being and posi- B A consistent number of studies in the mension” of phenomena such as climate tive affection (Pasca et al. 2019). In a simi- – field of environmental psychology have an- change, biodiversity loss, or CO2 emissions. lar vein, the concept of Connectedness to t s alyzed the so-called “social construction” Likewise, an increasing consensus in the Nature has been related to well-being, spir- e r of environmental issues, focusing in partic- scientific community, the political arena, ituality, and pro-environmental behavior in o

F ular on the processes of generation and and public opinion has emerged on the studies conducted in Mexico and France i diffusion of the “environmental discourse” need for the participation and support of (Navarro et al. 2019). The results of these and the role that mass media play in these local communities in order to achieve glob- studies show that, in both countries, con- processes (Carrus et al. 2009, Graumann & al goals such as emissions reduction, biodi- nectedness to nature favors spirituality and Kruse 1990,). At the basis of this research versity conservation and more sustainable personal well-being (Pasca et al. 2019). is the assumption of the often-mediated management of natural resources such as There is converging evidence suggesting character that many environmental experi- forests, green areas or natural reserves, in that the concept of connectedness to na- ences hold for citizens in present-day soci- general. ture could be incorporated in studies on eties. Thus, the environmental discourse in Psychological research has attempted to human valuation and perception of the na- contemporary society reflects a change in study the relationship between people and tural environment, as it appears linked not our construction of the world we live in, forests with the aim of contributing to the only to pro-environmental behaviors but where the role of mass media is fundamen- management of large-scale natural spaces also to subjective well-being experienced tal in this process. In this way, the power of such as parks and protected areas in coun- after exposure to natural settings. In the the media can be identified not so much in tries like the US (Heberlein 1989). In Italy, remaining sections of this paper, we pres- the simple and immediate documentation however, the relationship between people ent the results of a national survey conduc- and dissemination of news, but rather in and different typologies of urban and peri- ted for the purpose of exploring the char- the relevant exchanges between journal- urban forests has only recently been the acteristics and accuracy of public percep- ists, commentators, experts and politicians focus of social and behavioral sciences tion of forests across Italy and their rela- (Graumann & Kruse 1990). The media exert (Carrus et al. 2015b) that assess the restor- tion to attitudes and beliefs about other their influence through “agenda setting”, ative potential of green spaces on daily life relevant environmental issues, such as cli- that is, by directing public attention to spe- experiences for the promotion of human mate change, biodiversity, and environ- cific issues (environmental and otherwise) well-being. Although forests are an increas- mental education. on which citizens must take a position ing attraction for a large number of people, rather than to evaluations. Therefore, in re- the accuracy of people’s perception of for- Materials and methods lation to the environment and related is- ests at the national level is a rather unex- sues, the information conveyed by the me- plored issue for research in this field, with Survey data dia seems to be more important than di- some notable exceptions (Roovers et al. The survey data were collected on a con- rect and subjective everyday experiences. 2002, Meijaard et al. 2013). This is due to venience sample, using a paper-and-pencil This issue is also related to a cultural-spe- widespread enhanced sustainable lifestyles questionnaire administered from (summer) cific construction of the environment. In among the general public and the greater 2016 to (springtime) 2017 by trained inter- fact, societies might differ in their repre- quest among urban dwellers for positive viewers to a total of 1059 respondents liv- sentations of the environment and envi- experiences of psychological restoration in ing in five different regions of North, Cen- ronmental risks, which could lead to indi- nature. Previous works have analyzed local tral and South Italy: Trentino-Alto Adige/ vidual experiences of the environment be- stakeholders’ perceptions of forests in spe- Südtirol (19%), Piemonte (19%), Lazio (25%), coming largely dependent on these social cific areas (Pastorella et al. 2017, Paletto et Molise (19%), and Puglia (18%). Respon- construction processes. al. 2018), but no study to our knowledge dents are urban (75%) and rural (25%) resi- In the discourse on forests, an example of has developed an extensive survey cover- dents, a pattern that corresponds to the these processes can be found in the recent ing the entire Italian territory. current distribution of the entire popula- case of the Amazon forest fires in 2019, Environmental psychology studies have tion according to ISTAT, the Italian National where the issue of forests has certainly shown with consistent empirical evidence Statistical Institute (https://www.istat.it/it/ received extraordinary media coverage that as human beings feel a part of nature, files/2019/12/Asi-2019.pdf), and are equally around the globe. Indeed, as reported by their degree of environmental concern in- distributed for gender. Average age of the several mass media (e.g., https://www.lati creases. This relationship, which has sys- respondents is 46 ± 18.25 (SD) years. Tab. 1 mes.com/opinion/story/2019-09-06/amazon tematically appeared in the psychological shows the characteristics of the sample of -rainforest-fire), the extensive burning of literature, has resulted in different ap- survey respondents in detail. Respondents the Amazon forest during the summer of proaches to study the concept of individual were ensured of the anonymous character 2019 was a great shock and caused much connection to nature in contemporary soci- of the survey, and made aware that the concern around the globe, certainly raising eties. As reviewed by Tam (2013), several survey completion was entirely voluntary, public opinion’s awareness of the impor- constructs with related psychometric mea- so no specific ethics documentation need- tance of forests for human societies and sures have been proposed to measure the ed to be signed by respondents. ecosystems worldwide. degree of inclusion of the human self in The questionnaire employed for the sur- Starting from these socio-constructivist “nature”. Undoubtedly, the proposal that vey contains the following: assumptions, it is important to ask our- has gained more attention in this domain 1. A section assessing socio-demographic

324 iForest 13: 323-328 Public perceptions of forests across Italy y

characteristics of the respondents (age, r

Tab. 1 - Characteristics of the sample of survey respondents. t

gender, residence, occupation, and level s e

of education). r

2. A section on the quantitative perception Characteristic Class Perc. (%) o F of forests consisting of the following Sex Women 50.4 d

items: (i) Individual estimates of the per- Men 49.6 n a centage of forest surface in the territory Education Level Primary or secondary school 17.1 s

of Italy, participants’ region, and the EU e High school 51.1 c

respectively. Answers range from 0 to n

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree 24.3 e 100%. (ii) Individual estimates of forest i c

efficacy in facing environmental issues Doctorate degree/Specialization 7.5 s

(e.g., climate change; desertification; bio- o

Marital Status Single 31.9 e diversity protection; wood/cellulose/bio- Married 49.1 g o

mass production; and support for tour- i

Living with partner 8.3 B ism). Answers range from “1 = not at all – important” to “5 = very important”. (iii) Divorced 5.7 t

Individual estimates of the importance of Widowed 5.0 s e different material and non-material for- Residence Urban 75.2 r o

est products (i.e., firewood; construction F Suburban 24.8 i wood; biomass/cellulose; wild berries/ mushrooms/fruits; medicines and nutra- Geographical Area North 38.1 ceuticals; health and well-being; social Central 43.4 cohesion and sense of community; and South 18.4 environmental education). Answers Age < = 25 16.8 range from “1 = not at all important” to 26 - 35 17.5 “5 = very important”. (iv) Two items on 36 - 45 17.0 the need for human intervention in forest management (“It is necessary that 46 - 65 30.7 human beings take care of forests”; = > 66 18.0 “Forests must be left free from human interference”). Answers range from “1 = completely disagree” to “5 = completely scores for Connectedness to Nature for re- significant differences in scores for Con- agree”. spondents in Northern, Central and South- nectedness to Nature as a function of geo- 3. A section on Connectedness to Nature ern Italy, and for rural and urban respon- graphical context (F[2, 1051] = 9.15; p < 0.001): composed of four items taken from the dents, respectively. the respondents from Central Italy pro- CNS by Mayer & Frantz (2004), adapted Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed duced the highest scores (3.9 ± 0.84), and translated into Italian by the authors. Answers range from “1 = comple- Tab. 2 - Descriptive statistics of the main variables measured in the survey. (EU): Euro- tely disagree” to “5 = completely agree”. pean Union; (SD): standard deviation. Statistical analysis Descriptive statistics, ANOVA models and Variable Mean SD bivariate correlations were computed us- Connectedness to nature 3.78 0.74 ® ing the SPSS software (IBM Corp., Ar- Estimated percentage of forest surface in own region 46.7 19.7 monk, NY, USA), to explore the main Estimated percentage of forest surface in Italy 46.5 15.5 trends in the variables measured (descriptive statistics), the main patterns of rela- Estimated percentage of forest surface in the EU 52.4 16.9 tions among the variables measured in our Importance of the issue of climate change 4.49 0.79 questionnaire (bivariate correlations) and Importance of the issue of desertification 4.19 0.91 the existence of group differences in the Importance of the issue of biodiversity protection 4.44 0.75 main variables measured as a function of Importance of the issue of wood/cellulose/biomass production 3.84 0.97 participants’ socio-demographic characteristics and geographical context. Importance of the issue of support for tourism 3.89 1.06 Importance of forests for climate change 4.52 0.73 Results Importance of forests for desertification 4.26 0.92 Importance of forests for biodiversity protection 4.47 0.75 General trends and descriptive statistics Importance of forests for wood/cellulose/biomass production 4.24 0.91 First, we looked at the descriptive statis- Importance of forests for support for tourism 3.83 1.03 tics and the relations among the main variables assessed in the survey. Importance of firewood 3.42 1.14 Tab. 2 shows the descriptive statistics for Importance of construction wood 3.66 1.00 the main variables measured in the survey. Importance of biomass/cellulose 3.62 0.93 Gender is equally balanced across the par- Importance of wild berries/mushrooms/fruits 3.75 1.03 ticipants, and the level of education is in Importance of medicines and nutraceuticals 3.91 0.99 line with the Italian national pattern. Importance of health and well-being 4.22 0.88 Connectedness to nature Importance of social cohesion and sense of community 3.68 1.10 We assessed differences in Connected- Importance of environmental education 4.33 0.84 ness to Nature as a function of partici- It is necessary that human beings take care of forests 4.17 1.05 pants’ characteristics (e.g., geographical Forests must be left free from human interference 3.08 1.31 context). Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 show the average iForest 13: 323-328 325 Carrus G et al. - iForest 13: 323-328 y r t s e r o F d n a s e c n e i c s o e g o i B

– Fig. 1 - Connectedness to Nature scores of respondents across Fig. 2 - Connectedness to Nature scores of urban and rural resi- t

s North, Central, and South Italy. dents. e r o F i those from Southern Italy (3.6 ± 0.63) the Perceptions of forest surface extension above 3.5 for all the items, where 3 was the lowest and those from Northern Italy are in and beliefs about forest management middle point on the response scale. Fig. 5 between (3.7 ± 0.64). Also, rural residents With regard to participants’ perception of shows the average scores for each of the exhibited significantly higher (F[1, 1048] = 5.98; forest extension (Fig. 3, Fig. 4), results environmental issues. Climate change was p < 0.05) Connectedness to Nature scores show a generalized tendency to overesti- judged as the most important issue, while (3.9 ± 0.73) compared to urban residents mate the percentage of forest surface cov- wood/biomass production was judged as (3.7 ± 0.74). er in their own region, country, and in the the least important. Likewise, when asked We also examined the correlations be- EU, independently of region of residence. about the ability of forests to tackle each tween the Connectedness to Nature scores In general, participants expressed a posi- of these major environmental issues, re- and the main variables included in the tive opinion about the need for human in- spondents registered high scores (>3.5). questionnaire. Overall, the CNS scores tervention in forest management. As re- Again, climate change was judged as the showed an interesting pattern of signifi- ported in Tab. 2, the average score in this environmental issue for which forests cant positive correlations with the other item was 4.17 on a scale ranging from 1 to could play the most important positive variables, although the size of these corre- 5. However, this opinion varied signifi- role. lation is small-to-medium. Connectedness cantly across the different geographical re- We then analyzed the perceived impor- to Nature was positively correlated to the gions (F[2, 1057] = 3.69; p < 0.05). Participants tance of forests to produce different mate- perceived extension of forests in the re- from Central Italy yielded the highest rial goods and non-material services for hu- gion (Pearson’s r = 0.086; p = 0.005; N = scores in terms of need of human interven- man society. Forests were judged as highly 1052). More interestingly, CNS scores were tion (4.27), while participants from North- important for each of the goods/services also positively correlated to the perceived ern Italy produced the lowest (4.08). listed, with average scores above 3. In- importance of forests for sports, relaxation terestingly, however, some differences and illness prevention (r = 0.304; p < 0.001; Beliefs about general environmental emerged in relation to participants’ geo- N = 1047) and to the perceived importance issues and importance of forests graphical region of residence (North-Cen- of forests for social cohesion and commu- Lastly, we explored participants’ beliefs tral-South), especially for the more “social” nity identity (r = 0.245; p < 0.001; N = 1045). about the importance of forests to address goods and services such as social cohesion Lastly, CNS scores emerged as positively a number of environmental issues, and and sense of community, environmental correlated to participants’ perceived im- about the importance of different material education, health and well-being, and pro- portance of biodiversity conservation as a and non-material products and services reduction of medicines and nutraceuticals. general environmental issue (r = 0.285; p < lated to forests for human benefit. All the With regard to social cohesion and sense 0.001; N = 1049) and to the perception of major environmental issues listed in our of community (F[2, 1046] = 11.26; p < 0.001), forests as a useful tool for biodiversity pro- questionnaire were judged as rather impor- and environmental education (F[2, 1047] = tection (r = 0.288; p < 0.001; N = 1045). tant by respondents, with average scores 11.52; p < 0.001), the highest importance

Fig. 3 - Perception of forest surface cover in participants’ own Fig. 4 - Perception of forest surface in Italy (A) and the entire region. EU (B) across respondents’ geographical regions.

326 iForest 13: 323-328 Public perceptions of forests across Italy y

was attributed to forests by residents of r t

Southern Italy, while less importance was s e

attributed by people living in Northern and r

Central Italy. The importance attributed to o F forests for the promotion of social cohe- d sion also varied as a function of urban-rural n a residence, with higher importance scores s expressed by rural participants (F[1, 1045] = e c

3.85; p = 0.05). On the contrary, concerning n e health and well-being (F[2, 1049] = 56.41; p < i c

0.001) and the production of medicines s and nutraceuticals (F[2, 1048] = 12.31; p < o e

0.001), the highest importance was attrib- g o uted to forests by residents of Central Italy i B in comparison to people living in Northern – and Southern Italy. t s e Discussion and conclusions r o

In this study, we aimed at exploring the F perceptions of forests among the general Fig. 5 - Perceptions of importance attributed to major environmental issues. i public in Italy through a self-reported survey. We began from the assumption, which should lead us to focus more heavily on the dicts individuals’ perception of the impor- is generally shared in the scientific commu- need to communicate facts and numbers tance of global environmental issues, and nity in forestry and environmental science, regarding forests in Italy to enhance public of the importance of forests to tackle com- that forests play a crucial role for ensuring knowledge. One can argue that overesti- plex global challenges such as biodiversity ecosystem function and quality of environ- mating the presence of forests could lead protection, as well as the positive role of ment on the planet for humans and non- people to underestimate their crucial role forests for health promotion and social co- human species. Our approach is also based in the functioning and quality of ecosys- hesion. An interesting issue for future re- on the extensive body of literature, devel- tems as well as the quality of human life. search could be to ascertain to what ex- oped in environmental psychology and Indeed, a negative correlation emerged tent the public perceptions and evaluation other social and behavioral science disci- from our data between the estimated per- of forests is also linked to automatic and plines, regarding the positive role of for- centage of forest surface area and the per- unconscious processes, as it has been al- ests and contact with nature and green ceived importance of forests for the pro- ready suggested for nature in particular spaces for human health and well-being tection of biodiversity (Pearson’s r = -0.07; (Schultz et al. 2004) and for other aesthetic (Nilsson et al. 2011). It is therefore impor- p = 0.03; N = 1056). However, since the pat- judgments in general (Mastandrea et al. tant to assess and monitor people’s per- tern of this correlation is not so distinct, 2011, Mastandrea & Maricchiolo 2014). ceptions, attitudes and beliefs in relation this issue deserves further investigation in Some limits of our study must be acknow- to forests. In fact, understanding the views future studies. ledged. In fact, although we dealt with a of the public opinion on forests, as well as An interesting theme stemming from our considerable sample size and took care of on other relevant environmental and eco- findings is also connected to the perceived recruiting respondents in Northern, Central logical issues, provides relevant informa- importance of major environmental issues and Southern Italy, and in both urban and tion that could offer useful insights to sci- and on the perceived importance of forests rural areas, we did not adopt a national entists, practitioners and decision makers for tackling such issues. Although we de- representative sample. Thus, to generalize in the environmental domain (Bain et al. tected some interesting variations in rela- our results to the entire Italian population 2019). tion to the different geographical contexts would require further corroboration Our work is also based on theories on the where the respondents live, the overall pic- through more robust sampling. social construction of human relations to ture is one of generalized high scores given In conclusion, the present findings could the natural world and relevant environ- to these items. This pattern suggests that represent a starting point for a deeper un- mental issues (Graumann & Kruse 1990, while there might still be some public understanding of how forests are perceived Carrus et al. 2009, Pol et al. 2006). Under- certainty on the quantitative aspects that and represented at the level of general standing these processes of representa- characterize public perception of forests in public opinion in Italy. In addition, these tion, attribution of psychological and cul- Italy, there is enough public awareness on perceptions and representations could pro- tural meaning, and valuation is crucial if we the important function of forests in pres- vide useful information to develop better wish to promote citizenship awareness and ent-day society. Again, this result is in line strategies for the transition to sustainabil- a more participated management of envi- with empirical research carried out exten- ity and the pursuit of more sustainable life- ronmental resources and territories. sively in the last three decades within many styles among the Italian population. Interestingly, our results confirm that an different disciplinary fields, such as envi- accurate correspondence between objec- ronmental psychology, urban forestry or Acknowledgments tive and subjective indicators of human re- landscape ecology, showing how people is This study was funded by Società Italiana lationships to the relevant environmental increasingly aware of the ecological and so- di Selvicoltura e Ecologia Forestale (SISEF). aspects of their lives should not be taken cial values of forest and trees in contempo- Individual contributions of authors: GC for granted, as many studies on the differ- rary society (Nilsson et al. 2011). In fact, re- wrote the main text, AP performed the sta- ences between experts’ and laypersons’ spondents to our survey do share the per- tistical analysis and contributed to write assessments of environmental issues and ception that forests have a crucial value for the results section, JIA, MM, RM, GT and quality have frequently reported (Sanesi et a wide number of human needs and activi- GS contributed to write and review the al. 2006). Respondents to our survey ties, including the less material ones, al- main text. GS, AP and GC supervised the showed a generalized tendency to overes- though they tend to overestimate the ex- data collection process. timate forest surface area not only in their tension of forest surfaces in Italy and the own and more immediate surroundings EU. Interestingly, our findings also show References (e.g., region) but also in their whole coun- how Connectedness to Nature could be a Abel T (1998). Complex adaptive systems, evolu- try and the entire EU. These findings psychological factor that positively pre- tionism, and ecology within anthropology: in- iForest 13: 323-328 327 Carrus G et al. - iForest 13: 323-328 y

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