AWARENESS, ATTITUDES, AND WILLINGNESS TO PARTICIPATE IN COMMUNITY-BASED FOREST MANAGEMENT: A CASE OF SONG HINH PROTECTION FOREST, VIETNAM

Abstract

Community-based forest management (CBFM) has increasingly been recognized as an important approach for promoting sustainable forest governance and enhancing local community participation in forest conservation. This study aimed to assess the current state of knowledge and attitudes, and to identify the factors influencing local communities’ willingness to participate in a CBFM program at the Song Hinh Protection Forest Management Board, Dak Lak Province, Vietnam. Data were collected through a sociological survey of 155 households and analyzed using a binary logistic regression model. The findings reveal a paradox between willingness and depth of awareness. Although the proportion of respondents willing to participate CBFM was very high, at 89.0%, and the vast majority expressed positive attitudes toward the role of local communities, at 89.1%, only 29.7% demonstrated a clear understanding of the program, while 51.6% possessed only superficial awareness. The binary logistic regression results indicate that marital status was the strongest predictor of willingness to participate, with Exp(β) = 58.614, followed by attitude, with Exp(β) = 22.197, and awareness, with Exp(β) = 12.349. Notably, conventional socio-economic factors, such as income, education level, and gender, did not exert a significant influence on willingness to participate in this context. Based on these findings, the study proposes several key solutions, including innovating environmental education approaches, enhancing the transparency of benefit-sharing mechanisms, and prioritizing the mobilization of core household groups. These measures are expected to transform community willingness into substantive and sustainable forest protection behavior.

Keywords: Attitude, Awareness, Protected forest, Willingness to participate.