Visitors' attitudes and perceptions towards biodiversity conservation in production forests: the case study of University Forest Sailershausen in southern Germany

In recent years, the social acceptance of biodiversity conservation in forests is taking on increasing importance at an international level, both in the scientific community and among policy makers. In literature, many studies have investigated people's preferences for biodiversity conservation in protected areas, while there is a knowledge gap on the social acceptance of biodiversity conservation in production forests. The aim of this study is to investigate visitors' attitudes and perception towards biodiversity conservation through the creation of a Saproxylic Habitat Sites (SHSs) network in a case study in Germany (University Forest Sailershausen). To this end, a questionnaire survey was administered to a sample of 119 visitors from June to September 2023. The results show that the target of visitors is mainly composed by