5. Public Preferency Survey
The work done contributes to Sub-Tasks 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 of the Technical Annex.
According to F. Petermann (Germany, 1979) and U. Proebstl (Germany,
1988) questionnaire surveys as well as in-depth interviews are two adequate
methods of social-empirical research for assessing the public attitude
towards a problem which is to assess. While in-depth interviews in certain
cases are even a tool to investigate the behaviour of the interviewee,
it is not permitted to deduce the respondent's real behaviour from the
results of a written survey.
To identify what the public preferences towards forest aesthetics and forestry
are, a quantitative survey was chosen as suitable tool. The complexity
of the questions asked in the survey regarding the project themes is the
reasoning behind the necessity of using in-depth interviews as a qualitative
research study to investigate why the public like or dislike certain forest
landscape elements.
5.1.1 In-Depth Interviews
During the 3rd Project Meeting held in Spain (May/June 1996)
a decision is arisen from diverse discussions between all Partners that
within the framework of the FORAM-Project in-depth interviews would be
a supplementary tool for getting detailed and personal information about
what preferences people have regarding forest aesthetics and forestry issues
and where these preferences emerge from. This second aspect is quite important
in view of further guidelines. Like group-discussions in-depth interviews
can be classified as „exploratory methods". They are suitable for
structuring a new problem which yet has not been clarified, and for gathering
a person's deeper opinions and motives if these need to be considered.
The advantage is that the interrogator has the possibility to go more into
the personality of the interviewee and to identify the reasoning behind
stated preferences. Nevertheless it must be taken into account that for
any reasons the interrogator might influence the opinion of the interviewed
person. To reduce this danger as well as possible the interviews will be
carried out by a well trained and experienced psychologist (Institute of
Prof. Keppler at Stuttgart/Germany) together with a professional forest
scientist from the Faculty of Forestry / University of Munich to grant
for the expert knowledge regarding forestry issues. A limited number of
the local population within the selected Study Area will be invited for
carrying out the interviews. The written and spoken comments concerning
these issues will be recorded and analysed to identify the reasoning behind
the mentioned preferences.
5.1.2 Public Survey Questionnaires
Normally a written survey is carried out by a questionnaire which
is sent to a limited number of persons. It has to be taken into consideration
that the readiness for answering the questions only depends on the accompanying
letter and the thema of the survey. One of the disadvantages of a written
survey is that often there is a very low return flow rate. This fact might
result in a falsification of the basic random sample and the elimination
of the representativeness of the survey.
In order to compensate this problem we have decided not to send the survey
questionnaires to a limited number of the national population but to combine
the written questionnaire with interviewing people who are taking part
in local meetings or conferences, at schools or at the door of private
houses. The surveying will be carried out in Study Area Upper Danube Valley
during winter time.
There will be two types of questions: Questions which are comparable between
FORAM Partner Countries, i.e. questions which will be included in the general
survey questionnaire. Questions which handle forest landscape issues specific
to Germany and specific to Study Area Upper Danube Valley.
5.2 Development of Public Survey Questionnaire
5.2.1 Drafts and Reviews
A number of drafts have been worked out by the Project Coordinators
which were discussed and reviewed by each Partner. Following every discussion
a new draft version of a German (translated) questionnaire was developped
by our team refining the latest versions both of the Coordinators and ourselves
(see quest1.doc, quest2.doc,
quest3.doc, quest4.doc
).
5.2.2 Final German Questionnaire
The latest version of the German survey questionnaire has still
to be refined because of new ideas and findings. Nevertheless we think
that the questionnaire has to have a certain structure to make the answering
easier and logical.
The preliminary structure is shown in the following table:
Questionnaire Structure
I. Accompanying Letter
II. Questions
The survey will include questions for comparison of preferences between FORAM Design Partner Countries as well as questions to investigate issues specific to the 6 individual Partner Countries. In addition a number of external and internal forest images will be integrated which will be to be evaluated by the respondents with respect to overall aesthetic quality.