Climate change in Bavaria: Perceptions of societal groups

Rebekka Riebl1, Theresa Landwehr1
1 Professorship of Ecological Services

P 3.3 in Research Poster Kaleidoscope

Climate change adaptation requires targeted land use planning. In order to ensure the provisioning of ecosystem services and to manage landscapes sustainably, knowledge and perceptions of multiple societal groups must be integrated. The present study explores how perceptions differ among societal actors in Bavaria.

We therefore conducted a survey with the main user groups of Bavarian landscapes, namely farmers, forest owners, environmental managers and citizens. The study was conducted between January and July 2020 at agricultural offices as well as via online questionnaires, and comprised a total of 3281 participants. On the subject of climate change, 1082 farmers, 742 citizens, 196 forest owners and 144 environmental managers stated their perceptions as well as their observations of impacts on croplands, grasslands, forests, gardens, urban green spaces and nature conservation sites.

Our preliminary results indicate that climate change is generally perceived as a concern by all four societal groups. 84% of respondents believe that climate change can be scientifically proven, with comparatively less certainty expressed by farmers. All groups agree that forests are the ecosystems most affected in Bavaria. Correspondingly, climate change impacts were observed by 97% of the participants who own or manage forests.

Further analyses will investigate whether spatial allocations of respondents can explain observed differences in climate change perceptions by incorporating climate variables based on different time periods. Moreover, yield losses and gains reported by farmers will be linked with district yield time series. We also plan to examine the adaptation strategies proposed by the four societal groups to derive practise-oriented recommendations.



Keywords: climate change, perceptions, Germany, stakeholders, gradients
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