IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i7p3469-d524999.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Variability in Forest Visit Numbers in Different Regions and Population Segments before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Magdaléna Pichlerová

    (Faculty of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Technical University in Zvolen, T. G. Masaryka 24, 960 01 Zvolen, Slovakia)

  • Dilek Önkal

    (Department of Marketing, Operations and Systems, Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK)

  • Anthony Bartlett

    (Tacit Bio, Bennett Corner House, 33 Coleshill Street, Sutton Coldfield B72 1SD, UK)

  • Jozef Výbošťok

    (Faculty of Forestry, Technical University in Zvolen, T. G. Masaryka 24, 960 01 Zvolen, Slovakia)

  • Viliam Pichler

    (Faculty of Forestry, Technical University in Zvolen, T. G. Masaryka 24, 960 01 Zvolen, Slovakia)

Abstract

In view of the prevailing preferences for health and recreation revealed by previous studies as the main expected benefits of forest visits, the research presented herein focuses on whether such expectations would translate into a significant increase in the number of forest visits (NFV) following pandemic outbreaks. In this context, a Slovak nationwide survey on forests was conducted, with the main objective of casting light on possible changes in NFV as a coping mechanism or behavioral response to the discomfort and severe restrictions stemming from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the related measures. The survey was administered on a statistically representative sample after the pandemic’s first wave ebbed and restrictions were eased in the summer months of 2020. Collected data were assessed using ANOVA, the results of which supported the importance of forests as places providing opportunities for restoration of mental and physical resources. Forest accessibility as represented by forest coverage and settlement size emerged as a paramount factor affecting NFV rates both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic and its accompanying measures affected the relationships between NFV and average per capita income, type of employment, and most importantly age, highlighting possible vulnerabilities and disadvantages in certain population segments.

Suggested Citation

  • Magdaléna Pichlerová & Dilek Önkal & Anthony Bartlett & Jozef Výbošťok & Viliam Pichler, 2021. "Variability in Forest Visit Numbers in Different Regions and Population Segments before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-9, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:7:p:3469-:d:524999
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/7/3469/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/7/3469/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Norimasa Takayama & Takeshi Morikawa & Ernest Bielinis, 2019. "Relation between Psychological Restorativeness and Lifestyle, Quality of Life, Resilience, and Stress-Coping in Forest Settings," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-21, April.
    2. W. Kip Viscusi, 2020. "Pricing the global health risks of the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 101-128, October.
    3. Wenbiao Zhang & Degang Yang & Jinwei Huo, 2016. "Studies of the Relationship between City Size and Urban Benefits in China Based on a Panel Data Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(6), pages 1-18, June.
    4. Abildtrup, Jens & Garcia, Serge & Olsen, Søren Bøye & Stenger, Anne, 2013. "Spatial preference heterogeneity in forest recreation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 67-77.
    5. Agota Giedrė Raišienė & Violeta Rapuano & Kristina Varkulevičiūtė & Katarína Stachová, 2020. "Working from Home—Who Is Happy? A Survey of Lithuania’s Employees during the COVID-19 Quarantine Period," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-23, July.
    6. Fitalew Agimass Taye & Jens Abildtrup & Marius Mayer & Milan Scasny & Niels Strange & Thomas Lundhede, 2019. "Childhood experience in forest recreation practices : Evidence from nine European countries," Post-Print hal-02444467, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vilém Jarský & Petra Palátová & Marcel Riedl & Daniel Zahradník & Radek Rinn & Miroslava Hochmalová, 2022. "Forest Attendance in the Times of COVID-19—A Case Study on the Example of the Czech Republic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-15, February.
    2. Fiona Nevzati & Martti Veldi & Mart Külvik & Simon Bell, 2023. "Analysis of Landscape Character Assessment and Cultural Ecosystem Services Evaluation Frameworks for Peri-Urban Landscape Planning: A Case Study of Harku Municipality, Estonia," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-19, September.
    3. František Petrovič & Katarína Vilinová & Radovan Hilbert, 2021. "Analysis of Hazard Rate of Municipalities in Slovakia in Terms of COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-12, August.
    4. Alex Bumbera & Daniel Halaj & Iveta Hajdúchová, . "Will cultural and regulatory forest services provide enough balance to provisioning services in forest enterprise portfolios in future? Marketing case studies of selected forest enterprises in Slovaki," Journal of Forest Science, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 0.
    5. Anna Széchy & Zsuzsanna Szerényi, 2023. "Valuing the Recreational Services Provided by Hungary’s Forest Ecosystems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-16, February.
    6. de Pater, Catharina & Verschuuren, Bas & Elands, Birgit & van Hal, Iris & Turnhout, Esther, 2023. "Spiritual values in forest management plans in British Columbia and the Netherlands," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    7. Murphy, Martin & Cullen, Paula & O'Donoghue, Cathal & Ryan, Mary & Ní Dhubháin, Áine, 2024. "A natural experiment: Assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic upon forest recreation use and preferences in Ireland," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Serge Garcia & Pierre-Alexandre Mahieu, 2017. "Selected papers from the 2015 Workshop on Non-market Valuation (WONV) in Nancy," Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies, Springer, vol. 98(3), pages 145-148, December.
    2. Boncinelli, Fabio & Riccioli, Francesco & Marone, Enrico, 2015. "Do forests help to keep my body mass index low?," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 11-17.
    3. Jesper Akesson & Sam Ashworth-Hayes & Robert Hahn & Robert Metcalfe & Itzhak Rasooly, 2022. "Fatalism, beliefs, and behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 64(2), pages 147-190, April.
    4. Patrick Carlin & Brian E. Dixon & Kosali I. Simon & Ryan Sullivan & Coady Wing, 2022. "How Undervalued is the Covid-19 Vaccine? Evidence from Discrete Choice Experiments and VSL Benchmarks," NBER Working Papers 30118, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Czajkowski, Mikołaj & Bartczak, Anna & Giergiczny, Marek & Navrud, Stale & Żylicz, Tomasz, 2014. "Providing preference-based support for forest ecosystem service management," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1-12.
    6. Agimass, Fitalew & Lundhede, Thomas & Panduro, Toke Emil & Jacobsen, Jette Bredahl, 2018. "The choice of forest site for recreation: A revealed preference analysis using spatial data," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 31(PC), pages 445-454.
    7. St-Amour, Pascal, 2024. "Valuing life over the life cycle," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    8. Ernest Bielinis & Jianzhong Xu & Aneta Anna Omelan, 2020. "A Novel Anti-Environmental Forest Experience Scale to Predict Preferred Pleasantness Associated with Forest Environments," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-18, September.
    9. Cécile Hérivaux & Philippe Le Coent, 2021. "Introducing Nature into Cities or Preserving Existing Peri-Urban Ecosystems? Analysis of Preferences in a Rapidly Urbanizing Catchment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-34, January.
    10. Rini Rachmawati & Ulfah Choirunnisa & Zat Ayuningsih Pambagyo & Yosi Atikah Syarafina & Rizki Adriadi Ghiffari, 2021. "Work from Home and the Use of ICT during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Indonesia and Its Impact on Cities in the Future," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-17, June.
    11. Oviedo, José L. & Caparrós, Alejandro & Ruiz-Gauna, Itziar & Campos, Pablo, 2016. "Testing convergent validity in choice experiments: Application to public recreation in Spanish stone pine and cork oak forests," Journal of Forest Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 130-148.
    12. Nilmini M. Rathnayake & Pivithuru J. Kumarasinghe & Ajantha S. Kumara, 2022. "How Do Different Types of University Academics Perceive Work from Home Amidst COVID-19 and Beyond?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-19, April.
    13. Shimaa Elkomy & Tim Jackson, 2024. "Health resilience and the global pandemic: The effect of social conditions on the COVID‐19 mortality rate," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(5), pages 2342-2371, July.
    14. Brad R. Humphreys & Gary A. Wagner & John C. Whitehead & Pamela Wicker, "undated". "Willingness to pay for COVID-19 environmental health risk reductions in consumption: Evidence from U.S. professional sports," Working Papers 21-05, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University.
    15. Rolfe, John & Windle, Jill, 2015. "Multifunctional recreation and nouveau heritage values in plantation forests," Journal of Forest Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 131-151.
    16. Conti, G.; & Giustinelli, P.;, 2022. "For Better or Worse? Subjective Expectations and Cost-Benefit Trade-Offs in Health Behavior: An Application to Lockdown Compliance in the United Kingdom," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 22/14, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    17. Johannes Buckenmaier & Eugen Dimant & Ann-Christin Posten & Ulrich Schmidt, 2021. "Efficient Institutions and Effective Deterrence: On Timing and Uncertainty of Formal Sanctions," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 62(2), pages 177-201, April.
    18. Murphy, Martin & Cullen, Paula & O'Donoghue, Cathal & Ryan, Mary & Ní Dhubháin, Áine, 2024. "A natural experiment: Assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic upon forest recreation use and preferences in Ireland," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    19. Ernest Bielinis & Jenni Simkin & Pasi Puttonen & Liisa Tyrväinen, 2020. "Effect of Viewing Video Representation of the Urban Environment and Forest Environment on Mood and Level of Procrastination," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-23, July.
    20. Yonko Dodev & Miglena Zhiyanski & Maria Glushkova & Bilyana Borisova & Lidiya Semerdzhieva & Ivo Ihtimanski & Stelian Dimitrov & Stoyan Nedkov & Mariyana Nikolova & Won-Sop Shin, 2021. "An Integrated Approach to Assess the Potential of Forest Areas for Therapy Services," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-30, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:7:p:3469-:d:524999. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.