Abstract
Reintroduction of wood in rivers for restoration purposes is now recognized in a positive way by scientists. Nevertheless, the perception of wood in riverscapes is strongly affected by the socio-cultural environment. This cultural influence might explain why wood reintroduction is accepted and promoted in some regions of the world but not in others, despite the demonstrated ecological benefits. From an extensive student perception survey, we show that most of the groups from nine countries in the world considered riverscapes with wood to be less aesthetic, more dangerous, and needing more improvement than riverscapes without wood. By contrast, this way of thinking was not observed in Germany, Sweden, and Oregon (USA), where the first instances of wood reintroduction occurred.
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Acknowledgments
We thank C. Arrese-Igor, I. P. Balabina, K. G. Bondareva, D. Borchhardt, T. A. Budykina, B. Chocat, S. Dufour, F. Y. Dzerzhinskiy, L. Erriondo, K. Forest, J. Given, B. Gumiero, C. Jackson, P. Joly, V. Kale, J. Kippenberger, L. Kshirsagar, J. Lach, R. Loire, C. Montoya, O. Ormaetxea, S. Painter, A. A. Protsenko, A. Radecki-Pawlik, M. Reich, A. I. Stifeyev, N. E. Voinova, L. Wang, and N. A. Yasamanov for helping during the survey process and data downloading and validation. The first author would also like to thank the European Community (Life Program Forests for Water, 2003–2007) for providing funding for studying the effect of the forest on rivers as well as the Zone Atelier Bassin du Rhône (CNRS) for providing an active spot for developing interdisciplinary research. We also thank V. H. Dale, the Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Management and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.
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Piégay, H., Gregory, K.J., Bondarev, V. et al. Public Perception as a Barrier to Introducing Wood in Rivers for Restoration Purposes. Environmental Management 36, 665–674 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-004-0092-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-004-0092-z