Framing environmental policy by the local press: Case study from the Dadia Forest Reserve, Greece

This paper critically examines the way environmental policy is framed by the press. Focusing on the Dadia Forest Reserve (Greece), we investigated the article content of a local newspaper across three subsequent periods of ecotourism development and three item topics, namely 'ecotourism', 'forest management' and 'environmental awareness'. Content analysis of newspaper articles was based on a pre-defined coding scheme. Overall, time trends as reflected in the local press implied a change in environmental policy stirring from an expert-led towards a more participatory approach. Gradually, balanced schemes dominated environmental policy, where both environmental and economic considerations were taken into account under a diverse spatiotemporal range. Social consensus seems to have been established during the second period of ecotourism development. Ecotourism as an item topic was less connected to environmentalist motives compared to economic ones; the opposite was revealed for the forest management topic. However, our reconstruction of environmental policy in the local press, showed that environmental and economic motives did hardly intercross. Additionally, the ability of the local press to produce and limit meaning was manifested by the sealing of any production process including the one that apparently produces the ecotourism product. Implications for environmental policy and forest management are discussed.

Environmental Representations of Local Communities’ Spokespersons in Protected Areas

Despite the popularization of the environmental discourse, rural environmental belief-systems should not be viewed as homogenous. Focusing on the largest protected area in Greece, we examined heterogeneity in local environmental views. Local spokespersons elicited word associations to two stimulus terms, namely, ‘environmentalists’ and ‘protected area’. Based on association categories for both terms, we identified two sample segments. ‘Naturalists’ appealed to a naturalistic image, which shaped the core compartment of their representations. On the other hand, ‘skeptics’ provided both environmentalist claims and critical accounts. Our findings revealed that the environmental discourse was widely diffused among local spokespersons. Issues of power and participation in decision-making processes within protected areas are discussed. For instance, dimensions of power and legitimacy were reflected in the frequency of association categories and their allocation among sample segments. Specifically, environmentalist accounts were overtly expressed by both ‘naturalists’ and skeptics, while a more socially, politically and critically inclined view was revealed by a small percentage of associations that were all elicited by ‘skeptics’. We conclude that appreciating the heterogeneity of rural environmental views can reinforce the democratic mandate in environmental policy-making. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Evolution in European and Israeli school curricula – a comparative analysis

The contribution of school curricula to public understanding and acceptance of evolution is still mostly unknown, due to the scarcity of studies that compare the learning goals present in different curricula. To overcome this lack of data we analysed 19 school curricula (18 European and one from Israel) to study the differences regarding the inclusion of learning goals targeting evolution understanding. We performed a quantitative content analysis using the Framework for the Assessment of school Curricula on the presence of Evolutionary concepts (FACE). For each country/region we analysed what this educational system considered the minimum evolution education a citizen should get. Our results reveal that: (i) the curricula include less than half of the learning goals considered important for scientific literacy in evolution; (ii) the most frequent learning goals address basic knowledge of evolution; (iii) learning goals related with the processes that drive evolution are often not included or rarely mentioned; (iv) evolution is most often not linked to its applications in everyday life. These results highlight the need to rethink evolution education across Europe.</p

Determinants of visitor pro-environmental intentions on two small greek islands: Is ecotourism possible at coastal protected areas?

A relatively under-researched question is whether there is a possibility of influencing environmentally aware tourists regarding ecotourism at destinations that continue to develop under a pattern of mass 'seaside' tourism. Our objective was to assess the pro-environmental intentions of visitors at two small Greek islands, which are within a Natura 2000 site, specifically Paxoi and Antipaxoi. Intentions involved willingness to receive information about the protected area, willingness to accept pro-environmental limitations on recreational experience, and willingness-to-pay a conditional environmental conservation value added tax. In addition, we aimed to identify determinants of visitor pro-environmental intentions among visitor and visit characteristics, visitor satisfaction, and self-reported environmental knowledge, as well as anticipated outcomes of tourism development and suggestions for protected area management. We randomly collected 324 usable questionnaires during the summer season; 242 (74.69 %) by Greek visitors and 82 (25.31 %) by foreign visitors. Visitor satisfaction was quite high; however, visitors reported low levels of environmental knowledge. Our findings showed that the unique characteristics of the destination were not salient among visitors and that there is a lack of effective outreach campaigns, interpretation, and on-site environmental education programs. However, our study revealed high levels of visitor pro-environmental intentions that might support the promotion of ecotourism on the two islands. We provide recommendations based on determinants of visitor pro-environmental intentions, which might assist towards advancing visitor participation in environmental education projects, environmentally responsible behavior among visitors, and financial contribution to environmental conservation by visitors. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC