Cultural Diversity Issues in Biodiversity Monitoring—Cases of Lithuania, Poland and Denmark

Diversity

Deivida Vandzinskaite²  Hanna Kobierska¹  Dirk S. Schmeller³ 

[1] Institute of Environmental Science, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 7, 30-387 Kraków, Poland; E-Mails:;Department of Philosophy and Anthropology, Siauliai University, P. Visinskio 38, 76325 Siauliai, Lithuania;Station d'Ecologie Expérimentale du CNRS à Moulis, USR 2936, 09200 Saint-Girons, France

关键词: amateurs;    biodiversity monitoring;    communist legacy;    human dimension;    cultural diversity;    public participatory;    volunteers;   

DOI  :  10.3390/d2091130

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Public participation is a key element in nature conservation in Europe and a necessity for collecting broad scale data on biodiversity and its dynamics. However, vast societal differences exist between eastern and western European countries, resulting in problems for public participation in post-communist states as compared to western countries. Here, we compare diversity in monitoring practices and public participation in countries with different political histories. Drawing on in-depth ethnographic studies conducted in Lithuania and Poland, as well as a rapid assessment in Denmark, we have focused on the historical, cultural and social determinants of the volunteers’ participation in biodiversity monitoring. Our results indicate the reasons why volunteer involvement—as an expression of a participatory approach—has a lower incidence in the post-communist countries, compared to voluntarism common in occidental democracies. We discuss our results in the context of the main social factors considered to be a legacy of the Soviet regime.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2010 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.