Marcel Hunziker

Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL | WSL · Economics and Social Sciences Research Unit

Recreational activities have increased remarkably and may negatively affect native wildlife populations. A nationwide campaign in Switzerland (Respektiere deine Grenzen) tries to manage the behaviour of winter-sports participants through awareness raising and by using on-site intervention instruments. Following an experimental survey design, the ca...

Dramatically increasing urbanization is observable worldwide and brings pressure on space within urban areas as the built environment intensifies. Considerable evidence suggests that contact with nature is important for city dwellers, although it is not known whether residents' appreciation of the forms of urban green spaces is constant across diff...

In recent years, both environmental policy and research have emphasized the importance of involving the public in decision-making. This push for more participation is driven by considerable optimism about its ability to improve the quality of decisions and developments. There is, however, a lack of empirical research to support this assumption. The...

Studies of the “human dimension” of landscapes have become increasingly important in landscape also as a “place” with its meanings and contributions to societal identity. In this chapter, we present some of the key theories of landscape experience and empirical research related to those theories. They are grouped around three concepts: First, we su...

This study examines the social acceptance of the reintroduction of large herbivores. Focusing on a representative case study of European bison ( Bison bonasus ) in Switzerland, this research was carried out alongside a reintroduction project in its early stages in order to measure regional acceptance of human–wildlife coexistence. A representative...

We explain in this public-oriented article why a landscape is perceived as beautiful – on the background of theories and studies.

Das Schweizer Energiesystem soll gemäss Energiestrategie 2050 massgeblich mit Photovoltaik- (PV) und Wind-energieanlagen umgestaltet werden. Jedoch beeinflussen diese Anlagen die Wahrnehmung der Landschaft durch die Bevölkerung und können zu Konflikten mit verschiedenen gesellschaftlichen Interessen führen. Auch der Wald steht zunehmend in der Disk...

Lockdown measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic led to a rise in people’s visits to forests and urban green spaces. However, as vaccination efforts progressed and infection rates declined, it remained uncertain whether forest visitation levels would return to pre-pandemic norms or even decreased. To explore the post-crisis status of fore...

This study examines the siting scenarios for renewable energy installations (REI) in a mountainous region of Europe (Switzerland), incorporating the external costs of ecosystem services and, innovatively, social preferences. This approach challenges the prevalent techno-economic siting paradigm, which often overlooks these externalities. To minimiz...

Mehrjährige Forschungsarbeiten der WSL zu erneuerbaren Energien können Antworten liefern auf Fragen wie die folgenden: Wovon hängt die Akzeptanz von Anlagen für die Erzeugung erneuerbarer Energie ab und wie lässt sich die Akzeptanz steigern? Was vereinfacht die Planung solcher Anlagen und wie fördert der Einbezug der Bevölkerung ihren Ausbau? Was k...

Les travaux de recherche que mène le WSL sur plusieurs années peuvent fournir des réponses à diverses questions, par exemple: de quoi dépend l'acceptation des installations d'énergie renouvelable et comment peutelle être améliorée? Quels sont les facteurs qui simplifient la planification de telles installations et comment la participation de la pop...

In most studies, forest attractiveness is determined by visual aspects. However, forest perception is not only influenced by visitors’ visual impressions—all sensory dimensions play a role. In order to capture other sensory perceptions, we conducted seven go-along interviews, during which forest visitors were accompanied by an interviewer on their...

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many nations to implement a certain degree of lockdown measures to contain the spread of the virus. It has been reported that recreational visits to forests and green spaces increased in response to the lockdown. In this study, we investigated the effect of the policy-induced changes in working conditions during the loc...

Die Regionalen Naturpärke von nationaler Bedeutung wurden mit Hilfe des Monitoring-Instrumentes Landschaftsbeobachtung Schweiz (LABES) auf ihre Landschaftsqualitäten hin untersucht. Erhoben wurden dabei sowohl physische Landschaftsindikatoren als auch die Beurteilung der Landschaftsqualität durch die Bevölkerung. Dabei wurden die LABES-Indikatoren...

The resurgence of wolf populations in Germany is causing controversies regarding their management policies. Through 41 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders, we found that respondents favored the management directives predicated on the narratives they entertained, i.e., beliefs about wolves and nature more broadly. We identified 18 narrative...

A sustainable energy transition is inevitably linked to landscape change triggered by renewable energy infrastructure. This is a topic where society's view is often subject to other interests. This article provides insights into people's preferences in the context of evaluating scenarios from different landscapes and different renewable energy infr...

Increased recreational use of green spaces in and around cities leads to conflicts between user groups such as bikers and hikers. This study evaluates a broad set of measures to reduce such conflicts in the Uetliberg urban forest in Zurich. Data about conflict perceptions of hikers, bikers and people involved in both activities from three surveys w...

Human dimensions research has proposed a multitude of variables impacting the viability of wildlife populations. Extant approaches to systematizing these variables have mostly focused on human relations to only one animal species or taxon and are largely descriptive, rather than explanatory. In this study, we provide a three-layer framework for und...

Forest policy and management traditionally rely on physical forest data from National Forest Inventories (NFIs). Nationwide questionnaire surveys on the other hand provide information on the relationship between the human population and the forest, but data on the link to the physical forest is missing. In order to monitor outdoor recreation, both...

Urban forests provide multiple ecosystem services for a range of user groups. However, teenagers are commonly underrepresented in studies about forest recreation and cultural ecosystem services. This paper examines teenagers' forest use and perception of ecosystem services compared to adult populations. We used an online panel survey to elicit moti...

Zur Untersuchung des Verhältnisses der Schweizer Bevölkerung zum Wald wurden bereits seit 1978 Umfragen durchgeführt, 1997 erstmals im Rahmen des sogenannten «Waldmonitoring soziokulturell » WaMos. Der vorliegende Bericht beschreibt die Ergebnisse der nationalen WaMos3-Befragung 2020. Für die Umfrage wurde das Online-Panel des Marktforschungsinstit...

This paper examines how mixes (wind, PV, power lines) of different renewable energy infrastructure (REI) impact people's preferences for various landscape types. This does not only involve the visual character but also meanings that are assigned to these landscapes, which together influence the perceived landscape quality. The research is based on...

Biological invasions strongly increased during the last centuries and are challenging environmental managers worldwide. In this context, public acceptance of management measures is a key factor determining the long-term success of the control of invasive species. However, in the case of charismatic and iconic invasive species, the public has often...

Zur Untersuchung des Verhältnisses der Schweizer Bevölkerung zum Wald wurden bereits seit 1978 Umfragen durchgeführt, 1997 erstmals im Rahmen des sogenannten «Waldmonitoring soziokulturell » WaMos. Der vorliegende Bericht beschreibt die Ergebnisse der nationalen WaMos3-Befragung 2020. Für die Umfrage wurde das Online-Panel des Marktforschungsinstit...

Forest policy and management traditionally rely on physical forest data from National Forest Inventories (NFIs). Nationwide questionnaire surveys on the other hand provide information on the relationship between the human population and the forest, but data on the link to the physical forest is missing. In order to monitor outdoor recreation, both...

Das Thema «Landschaft als Erholungsort» zeigt gut wie Forschung und Praxis gemeinsam neues Wissen generieren können. Die Kultur der Co-Produktion von Wissen erleichtert es, die «Einbahnstrasse des Wissens» von der Forschung zur Praxis zu überwinden. Die Erfahrung zeigt, dass diese Kultur mithilft, theoretisch gut untermauerte, tragfähige Lösungen z...

Landschaften von hoher Qualität sind zentral für die Bevölkerung, sowohl für die aktive körperliche Betätigung als auch die geistige Erholung vom Alltag. Das Programm Landschaftsbeobachtung Schweiz (LABES) misst in regelmässigen Abständen den Zustand und die Veränderung der Landschaften in der Schweiz (BAFU 2013, 2017). In der Erhebung 2020 wurde d...

Nach Ausbruch des COVID-19-Virus wurden in den meisten Ländern der Welt Massnahmen ergriffen, um dessen Ausbreitung einzudämmen. Während Regierungen in manchen Ländern zu Beginn der Pandemie Besuche von Wäldern und Grünflächen verboten, erlebten Wälder in anderen Ländern einen regelrechten Besucherboom. Die Studie untersucht, inwiefern die COVID-19...

Outdooraktivitäten liegen im Trend. Diese Entwicklung führt jedoch zu erheblichen Störungen von Wildtieren im Alpenraum. Entsprechende Kampagnen sollen daher wildtierverträgliches Verhalten der Natursportlerinnen und Natursportler mittels Information und Sensibilisierung herbeiführen und fördern. Die Kampagne «Respect Wildlife» richtete sich dabei...

This article explores the reasons for the local rejection of a proposed national park in Switzerland. Using a mixed-methods approach and resorting to qualitative and quantitative data, we follow the thread of trust issues in the participatory planning process of a protected area. Different rationales and discourses, both project-specific but also m...

Context It is essential for policy-making and planning that we understand landscapes not only in terms of landscape ecological patterns, but also in terms of their contribution to people's quality of life. Objectives In this study our objective is to test relationships between landscape ecology and social science indicators, by investigating how l...

Social forest functions including recreation are important for increasingly urbanised societies. For effective management of forest recreation areas, monitoring visitor frequencies is crucial. Increasingly, attempts are being made to incorporate recreational use data into National Forest Inventories (NFI), but given the large scale of national asse...

In response to the effects of climate change, many countries are realigning their energy systems to the principle of sustainability. An energy system change will lead to the development of substantial renewable energy infrastructure (mostly wind and photovoltaic) in landscapes with effects on perceived landscape quality and socio-political acceptan...

Finding the “right” sites for developing renewable energy systems (RES) is one of the major challenges in planning strategies for energy transitions. The visibility aspects of such infrastructure are important factors that explain local opposition. Classical visibility and viewshed analyses of RES disregard people’s perceptions and estimations of n...

Raumbeobachtungsdaten reichen nicht zur Beurteilung der Landschaftsqualität. Das Schweizer Landschaftsmonitoringprogramm «LABES» verfolgt deshalb einen integrierten Ansatz und misst auch die Sicht der Bevölkerung auf ihre Umgebung. Damit hat es weltweiten Pioniercharakter.

In the context of significant landscape changes, understanding how residents perceive landscape quality is crucial for landscape policy-making and planning. However, while significant advancements have been made in measuring physical landscape change, social indicators assessing visual landscape quality perceived by the public are still underdevelo...

We present stated preference data based on a national representative Swiss online panel survey related to preference of mixed renewable energy infrastructure in landscapes. Data were collected between November 2018 and March 2019 via an online questionnaire and yielded 1026 responses. The online questionnaire consisted of two main parts – (1) quest...

Conceptual and methodical re-design of the the Swiss landscape monitoring program LABES, including a comprehensive review of landscape-preference theories and concepts, its operationalisation in LABES and analysis of a respective pilot survey as well as an integrated model comprising physical and social data. (in German)

Die von Expertinnen und Experten identifizierten Herausforderungen sind zahlreich und thematisch breit gefächert. Die Herausforderungen reichen beispielsweise von der wirkungsvollen Umsetzung des Raumplanungsgesetzes über die Herausforderung einer fehlenden integralen Sicht auf Landschaft in der Planung, bis hin zu finanziellen Fehlanreizen durch l...

In acht UNESCO Biosphere Reserves (BR) in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz wurde mittels quantitativer Umfragen untersucht, wie Akzeptanz, Identifikation und Engagement hinsichtlich der BR in der lokalen Bevölkerung ausgeprägt sind. Wir diskutieren die Ergebnisse und Unterschiede zwischen den BR. Auf dieser Grundlage erörtern wir Handlungsan...

Information about social aspects of forest is frequently collected with questionnaire surveys. Several countries conduct nationwide surveys in order to monitor outdoor recreation and the relationship of the people to the forest. While this gives a representative picture of the respondents' preferences and activities, it is not possible to link thei...

Im Projekt «Waldmonitoring soziokulturell Schweiz» WaMos wird das Verhältnis der Schweizer Bevölkerung zum Wald analysiert. Dabei ist die Walderholung ein wichtiger Aspekt. Nationale Umfragen fanden 1997 und 2010 statt, die Ergebnisse der aktuellsten Umfrage werden erst in einem Jahr vorliegen.

Landscape quality has become a fundamental issue in the development of renewable energy (henceforth abbreviated RE) projects. Rapid technological advances in RE production and distribution, coupled with changing policy frameworks, bring specific challenges during planning in order to avoid degradation of landscape quality. The current work provides...

Die vorliegende Studie befasst sich mit den Präferenzen der Schweizer Bevölkerung in Bezug auf Infrastrukturen zur Produktion erneuerbarer Energie (engl. IPRE: Wind, Photovoltaik) in charakteristischen Schweizer Landschaften. Es wurde eine repräsentative Online-Panelumfrage (n = 1063) durchgeführt, die ein visuelles Entscheidungsexperiment beinhalt...

Die vorliegende Studie befasst sich mit den Präferenzen der Schweizer Bevölkerung in Bezug auf Infrastrukturen zur Produktion erneuerbarer Energie (engl. IPRE: Wind, Photovoltaik) in charakteristischen Schweizer Landschaften. Es wurde eine repräsentative Online-Panelumfrage (n = 1063) durchgeführt, die ein visuelles Entscheidungsexperiment beinhalt...

Report prepared for the Council of Europe, Work Program for the implementation of the European Landscape Convention.

The article is a product of the COST RELY Action, it is a glossary: definitions related to renewable energy and landscape quality.

Invasive alien species (IAS) can cause ecological and economic damages. To reduce or prevent these damages different management and prevention strategies aim to impede new establishments or a further spreading of IAS. However, for these measures to be successful, public knowledge of risks and threats of IAS as well as public support for eradication...

Forest is an important element of Swiss landscape, with about 30% of the country covered by it, forming a finely structured patchwork together with water bodies, agricultural land and settlements. It is highly valued by residents as part of their everyday living and recreational environment. The aim of this paper is to provide knowledge about how r...

Context People’s well-being is influenced by the ability to establish a bond with a place and attach meanings to it. Many studies show that the longer people reside in a place, the stronger their place attachment becomes. In today’s global societies, the length of residency is vastly reduced because of, e.g., individualistic lifestyles, global work...

Conflicts caused by interactions between humans and large carnivores involve complex phenomena and therefore both the biological and social aspects of the phenomena need to be considered. In this paper, we concentrate on people's attitudes towards brown bears (Ursus arctos). The main aims of the study were 1) to detect attitudes towards bears and t...

Outdoor recreation activities have increased all over the world. This development however frequently leads to conflicts with wildlife, particularly in mountainous regions such as the Alps. Respective campaigns should induce and foster wildlife-responsible behaviour of snow-sports people by informing and sensi-tising them. One of these campaigns foc...

The current land use planning discourse in Switzerland highlights the need for urban redensification and the limitation of sprawl. However, little is known of the population's residential choice and preference related to urban or rural surroundings and how sub- and peri-urban residential environments are judged. We therefore analyse preferred and p...

Urban green infrastructure provides a number of cultural ecosystem services that are greatly appreciated by the public. In order to benefit from these services, actual contact with the respective ecosystem is often required. Furthermore, the type of services offered depend on the physical characteristics of the ecosystem. We conducted a review of p...

Das Forschungsprogramm Raumansprüche von Mensch und Natur untersuchte von 2012 bis 2015, wie die Siedlungsentwicklung Lebensqualität und Biodiversität beeinflusst und welche Konflikte daraus resultieren. Das Forschungsprogramm konzentrierte sich auf von der Siedlungsentwicklung besonders stark betroffene Räume ausserhalb der grossen Zentren und Agg...

Le programme de recherche Les exigences spatiales de l’homme et de la nature a étudié de 2012 à 2015 les influences de l’urbanisation sur la qualité de vie et la biodiversité, ainsi que les conflits qui en résultent. Il s’est concentré sur les zones particulièrement concernées, situées à l’extérieur des grands centres et agglomérations. Le Seetal l...

Regional nature park is one of the categories for „parks of national importance“ in Switzerland. Many such park projects are in progress but some of them are struggling with lack of acceptance by a majority of the inhabitants. The research project presented here investigated the origins of these problems by including basic values and prevalent expe...

Le 100e anniversaire du Parc national suisse fut pour l’Académie suisse des sciences naturelles (SCNAT) l’occasion de consacrer son Congrès annuel 2014 à la protection de la nature en Suisse, de ses origines aux perspectives actuelles des zones protégées et des parcs d’importance nationale. Ce volume résume les interventions et les conséquences tir...

As the world's population increases, settled areas expand, agricultural areas become more intensively managed, and ecosystems become increasingly fragmented as habitat elements are removed to make way for agricultural production. Reversal of fragmentation by enhancing ecosystem connectivity is a key step in halting biodiversity loss in agricultural...