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Cultural dimensions of forest conservation under global change: the case of relict Mediterranean fir forests

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Abstract

Context

West Mediterranean relict firs (Abies pinsapo Boiss. and Abies marocana Trab.) are closely related species threatened by global change. Government authorities in Morocco and Spain have established protected conservation areas around remaining fir groves but concerns linger regarding their effectiveness in light of emerging global environmental challenges.

Objectives

We collected data on stakeholder perspectives in 3 protected fir forests in Morocco and Spain. The goal was to reveal preferences regarding emerging conservation threats in these landscapes; land use, climate change, and wildfires as well as describing local and indigenous management practices. We hypothesized that park manager preferences would not align with those of local resource users, suggesting underrepresentation of local and indigenous views on current conservation policies.

Methods

We employed Q methods and analysis to explore this hypothesis. 38 park managers and local resources users were asked to numerically sort their preferences regarding 23 Q statements, 3 of which were photos depicting fir forests with markedly different structural states of conservation. Additionally, we conducted in-depth follow up interviews to allow stakeholders to identify local and indigenous management practices.

Results

Through a principal components analysis of Q scores, we found 4 factors that help explain 63% of the variance amongst stakeholder responses. The factors showed statistically significant similarities between the perspectives of local resource users in Morocco and Spain and differences with park manager and NGO perspectives.

Conclusions

Our analyses reveal divergent cultural frames among government managers and local resource users regarding landscape preferences and sustainable use, suggesting areas in which current conservation and management strategies may be improved.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the efforts of our survey anonymous respondents: park directors, forest agents, NGO representatives and shepherds and farmers in Morocco and Spain who took valuable time away to participate in this work and had the patience to participate in our Q study. We would particularly like to thank Mchich Derak, Rafael Haro and José López-Quintanilla for their help in organizing interviews in Talassemtane and Sierra de las Nieves National Parks, respectively.

Funding

FS, JCL, RS-S, and MAZ were supported by grants RTI2018-096884-B-C32 and RTI2018-096884-B-C33; MICINN, Spain.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs, Instituto de Empresa, C/Maria de Molina, 31, 28006, Madrid, Spain

    Francisco Seijo

  2. Área de Ecología, Departamento de Sistemas Físicos, Químicos y Naturales, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Crta de Utrera km.1, 41013, Sevilla, Spain

    Juan Carlos Linares & Raúl Sánchez-Salguero

  3. Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences of Tetouan University Abdelmalek Essaâdi, Tetouan, Morocco

    Lahcen Taiqui

  4. Forest Ecology and Restoration Research Group, Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad de Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), Campus Universitario, 28805, Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), Spain

    Miguel A. Zavala

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  1. Francisco Seijo
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  2. Juan Carlos Linares
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  4. Lahcen Taiqui
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  5. Miguel A. Zavala
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection was performed by FS, LT, JCLC, RS-S, MAZ. Data analysis was performed by FS and JCLC. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Francisco Seijo and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Francisco Seijo.

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Seijo, F., Linares, J.C., Sánchez-Salguero, R. et al. Cultural dimensions of forest conservation under global change: the case of relict Mediterranean fir forests. Landsc Ecol 38, 3675–3694 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-023-01750-7

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