Conservation and Sustainable Use of the Biosphere - WBGU

118 E Diversity of landscapes and ecosystems
the support of groups committed to the conservation
of certain species can be a (symbolic) contribution to
the conservation of the environment. More consternation
with regard to the extinction of species was
found in a study in which older children were questioned
on which people or living beings they most
sympathized with, and in response most frequently
cited animals because they become ill or because
they are threatened with extinction (Szagun et al,
1994). However, in the public perception not all
species carry equal status. Some species are given a
symbolic significance because many people feel emotionally
touched by their fate. These are animals that
are usually especially attractive or appealing (often
childlike), eg seals, or ‘cuddly’, eg koalas, or stand out
due to other special characteristics (Box E 3.3-3).
Many campaigns by environmental and conservation
groups have been successfully based on this principle.
They have an impact on the public and enjoy the
support of the mass media. Examples of this type of
campaign include Greenpeace’s commitment to save
the whale or the WWF campaign to protect the tiger,
the panda or the forest elephant.
In the past, the loss of biodiversity has not been
explicitly discussed in most of the studies on perceptions
of nature and the environment. This is also
reflected in a small media analysis of online daily and
weekly newspapers conducted by the Council (in the
first quarter of 1999), in which only 4–7 per cent of all
articles that appeared on the subject of the environment
and nature contained the key words ‘biodiversity’,
‘biological diversity’, ‘species conservation’ or
‘biosphere’. However – as in national or international
environmental awareness polls – issues relevant
to conservation of the biosphere were frequently
addressed. For example, it can be seen that
environmental problems, such as air pollution, water
pollution, marine pollution and the destruction of
natural landscapes, are deemed to pose a high potential
risk for humankind (Karger and Wiedemann,
1998). A problem awareness exists concerning many
causes of damage to the biosphere, but the specific
importance of biological diversity has not been an
issue to date.
Social science research has not only concerned
itself with the perception of environmental problems,
but also more generally with the perception of the
landscape and nature. This branch of research is concerned
with the question of what nature really is, the
position that nature occupies in human life, which
landscape forms are preferred for recreation and
leisure, etc. Thus it is primarily concerned with the
symbolic and use value of nature and the landscape
(Chapter H). These issues gain practical importance
when it is necessary to estimate likely changes in
evaluation of the landscape, for instance in the context
of environmental impact assessments (eg for
landscapes used for tourism or for landscape management
interventions). Here, too, the fact is that it is
impossible to make sweeping statements about
which landscapes people generally prefer, but at any
rate people can be categorized into types with different
preferences for certain landscapes (sea, high
mountains, etc).
Even the various survey methods on perception
and evaluation of nature and the landscape produce
very different results (Schwahn, 1990). A perception
analysis of landscape reveals large differences
depending on whether the survey is interested in
preferences for use (eg a leisure trip) or an aesthetic
appreciation of the landscape. In an aesthetic evaluation,
landscapes are preferred which appear natural,
ie which have no features showing human influence
(Mausner, 1996; Kaplan and Kaplan, 1989; Gareis-
Grahmann, 1993). In this assessment, quite apart
from cultural variations, group-specific differentiation
also operates. For example, town-dwellers still
consider rural landscape pictures as wild and natural,
whereas the inhabitants of rural areas regard them as
having been influenced by man (Lutz et al, 1999).
Depending on experience, the ‘threshold’ for what is
considered to be natural seems to shift. Age, sex and
familiarity with certain landscape forms also play an
important role in preferences (Kaplan and Kaplan,
1989). Various models have been drawn up in which
an attempt is made to cluster the large number of factors
that influence perception (eg Berlyne, 1974;
Wohlwill, 1976; Kaplan and Kaplan, 1989).According
to these, landscapes become more pleasing, the more
diverse and natural they are. In this respect, diversity
refers to various aspects such as relief diversity, vegetation
diversity (colour impressions, diversity of
flowers, foliage, fruits), diversity of water bodies and
diversity of use (Gareis-Grahmann, 1993).The attractive
aspects of diversity are a certain degree of mystery
and the possibility of discovering new aspects
and information holding out the prospect of variety
to the observer. However, it still has to be possible to
instil order into complexity and diversity and make
them comprehensible to the observer; they have to
offer orientation points and exhibit recognizable features
(Kaplan and Kaplan, 1989).
Attention is paid not just to preferences for certain
landscapes, but also to fear and abhorrence of
nature – albeit to a much lesser degree. Here, people
differ with regard to their ‘level of sensitivity to disgust’,
their wish for comfort or their fear in certain
situations. These are factors that are relevant both to
the evaluation of nature and to dealings with nature.
People who have a negative perception of nature and
the wild (become disgusted readily, eg at the sight of
spiders, snails, slime, dirt), want high levels of comfort