遊客對於森林功能及自然環境議題之認知－－以新化林場為例

Visitors' Cognitions on Forest Functions and Nature Environmental Issues－A Case Study of Hsin-Hua Forest Station

本研究旨在探討遊客對於森林功能認知及環境議題的看法，研究區域位於臺灣南部之新化林場，屬於國立中興大學所轄。問卷主要包括三個部份，即森林功能認知、環境議題及遊客背景資料，其中環境議題則直接引用Dunlap et al.（2000）所提出之新生態典範（New ecological paradigm, NEP）量表。由分析結果顯示：遊客在森林功能認知部分，前三名分別是「森林環境可提供民眾參與生態旅遊的好去處」、「森林具有國土保安、涵養水源以及預防土石流失等功能」以及「森林火災是危害森林環境的重要原因，因此防範森林火災發生是很重要的」；而較不被重視後三名分別是「森林的林下可允許種植山蘇、山葵以及咖啡等農業經濟作物」以及「森林可生產木材，以滿足民眾生活上的各種需求」、「當森林內林木遭受到病蟲害時，可將受害林木先行伐除，以防止病蟲害的蔓延，然後再重新造林」，顯示遊客對於森林功能的認知大多著重於公益性功能，反之對於經濟性功能則較不重視。在環境議題部分，本研究對於新化林場遊客測試環境議題認知結果和前人相關文獻進行比較，所得之結果較其他文獻稍低，但在是否修習過環境相關課程部分，於新生態典範量表之「反對人類中心主義」及「反對人類免責主義」兩面向則呈現顯著性差異。 The purpose of this study was to present the visitors' cognition on forest functions and natural environmental issues. The study site was located at Hsin-Hua Forest Station of south Taiwan, one of important Forest Stations belongs to National Chung-Hsing University. Three sections were contained in questionnaire, including cognition of forest functions, natural environmental issues and background of the visitors. We directly cited the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) that developed by Dunlap et al. (2000) to measure natural environmental issues. The results showed that the tree top scores of cognition of the forest functions were: ‘Forest provides us a good place to enjoy eco-tourism , The functions of forests contain ecological conservation, water protection and debris fl ow prevention’, and ‘To prevent forest fi re is very important because fire is a major damage in forest areas in forests’. Whereas, the last three scores were ‘Agricultural crops such as nest fern, Japanese horseradish, and coffee that can be allowed to plant in the understory of forests’, ‘Timbers should be cut down when forests were infected by pests in order to prevent the spread of these pests, and then followed by reforestation’, and ‘Timber production can meet the needs of the people’. It implicated that the visitors’ cognition mostly focuses on ‘public benefi ts’, while less in ‘economical values’ for forest functions. For the natural environmental issues, we compared the scores of our result with the past relevant researches and found that the scores were lower in our study. I n addition, whether or not visitors learned environment-related courses had signifi cant differences in the items of ‘Antianthropocentrism’ and ‘Rejection of exemptionalism’ of NEP.