The Human Dimensions of Forest and Tree Health

Global Perspectives

Julie Urquhart, Mariella Marzano, Clive Potter, Julie Urquhart, Mariella Marzano, Clive Potter

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9783319769561
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Environmental Science
• Index: Biological Sciences

This book explores the specifically human dimensions of the problem posed by a new generation of invasive pests and pathogens to tree health worldwide. The growth in global trade and transportation in recent decades, along with climate change, is allowing invasive pests and pathogens to establish in new environments, with profound consequences for the ecosystem services provided by trees and forests, and impacts on human wellbeing. The central theme of the book is to consider the role that social science can play in better understanding the social, economic and environmental impacts of such tree disease and pest outbreaks. Contributions include explorations of how pest outbreaks are socially constructed, drawing on the historical, cultural, social and situated contexts of outbreaks; the governance and economics of tree health for informing policy and decision-making; stakeholder engagement and communication tools; along with more philosophical approaches that draw on environmental ethics to consider 'non-human' perspectives. Taken together the book makes theoretical, methodological and applied contributions to our understanding of this important subject area and encourages researchers from across the social sciences and humanities to bring their own disciplinary perspectives and expertise to address the complexity that is the human dimensions of forest and tree health. Chapters 5 and 11 are open access under a CC BY 4.0 license via link.springer.com.

© The Author(s) 2018

Julie Urquhart, Mariella Marzano and Clive Potter (eds.)The Human Dimensions of Forest and Tree Healthhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76956-1_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introducing the Human Dimensions of Forest and Tree Health

Julie Urquhart¹ , Mariella Marzano² and Clive Potter³

(1)

Countryside & Community Research Institute, University of Gloucestershire, Oxstalls Campus, Gloucester, UK

(2)

Forest Research, Edinburgh, UK

(3)

Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London, UK

Julie Urquhart (Corresponding author)

Mariella Marzano

Clive Potter

End Abstract

1 Introduction

Attending to plant health issues is, of course, not new—farmers and growers have had to deal with crop losses caused by diseases or insect pests for centuries (MacLeod et al. 2010). As Williamson et al. (Chapter 2 in this volume) assert, trees have had to contend with a whole range of ‘pest’ threats throughout history, including insects, bacteria, viruses and fungi (Boyd et al. 2013) and various mammal pests such as deer, squirrels, rabbits, beavers and elephants (Gill 1992; Chafota and Owen-Smith 2009; Raum et al. under review). However, while dealing with tree pests may not be an entirely new phenomenon, there is growing evidence that the incidence of invasive tree and pathogen introductions is increasing (see Fig. 1), a trend closely linked to a significant upsurge in global trade and transportation in recent decades (Potter and Urquhart 2017; Brasier 2008). Climate change is also likely to provide new environments in which alien pests and pathogens are able to establish as well as potentially altering the behaviour of native pests.

Fig. 1

The cumulative numbers of new tree pathogens (○) and insect pests (□) identified in the UK shown over time since 1900. The total accumulated number of pathogens and pests are also shown (▲) (Freer-Smith and Webber 2017)

The impacts of these invasive species will have profound consequences for the ecosystem services provided by trees and forests. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment identified pests as one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss and ecosystem service change globally, alongside land use changes, unsustainable use and exploitation of natural resources, global climate change and pollution (MEA 2005). Boyd et al. (2013) and others suggest a wide range of impacts, from tree pests and diseases on biodiversity, carbon sequestration, timber and wood fuel, flood alleviation, air quality, landscape change, recreation, health and cultural values (Boyd et al. 2013; Freer-Smith and Webber 2017; Potter and Urquhart 2017; Marzano et al. 2017), all of which will have implications for human well-being. Humans are also implicated in the increased spread of tree pests and pathogens—much of the recent literature highlights the increase in the global trade in commodities (including plant material, timber and wood products, wood fuel and wood packaging) and human movement as key pathways for new introductions (Brasier 2008; Freer-Smith and Webber 2017; Potter and Urquhart 2017).

Given the potential for substantial human well-being impacts from the effects of invasive species on trees and forest ecosystems and the role of humans in perpetuating their spread, it is surprising that until recently what we broadly define in this volume as ‘the human dimensions of forest and tree health’ has received very little scholarly attention. A search on Elsevier Scopus in December 2017 confirms that around 80% of the 25,663 journal articles on tree pests and diseases were published in agricultural and biological sciences publications, almost 30% in environmental science publications and 19% in biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology publications (see Fig. 2). Despite growing research interest in tree health over the past two decades, with 87% of the journal articles published during this period, much of the existing academic expertise on tree health stems from the natural sciences, notably in the fields of plant pathology, entomology and ecology (see Fig. 3). Less than 2% of published outputs can be classified as social science, with 40% of these published in the last 5 years and less than 0.5% from journals in the arts and humanities or economics. This is perhaps unsurprising, given policy imperatives for decision-making informed by scientific evidence and the need to justify the governance mechanisms currently being adopted. Yet, as Marzano et al. (2017) suggest, there is growing recognition from governments and practitioners worldwide that the social sciences and humanities have valuable contributions to make to addressing tree health issues. For instance, a deeper understanding of the social and human dimensions is influential in determining the success of control or eradication programmes (Crowley et al. 2017) or how tree pest risks are communicated to lay publics (Urquhart et al. 2017a, b).

Fig. 2

Subject area distribution for 25,663 journal articles identified as relating to tree pests and diseases. Search terms used [tree OR forest AND pest OR disease OR pathogen], medicine, physics and related subject areas were excluded. Note Some articles may appear in more than one subject area; thus, the total is over 100%

(Source Elsevier Scopus, 29 December 2017)

Fig. 3

The top 8 journals for publications on tree and forest health

(Source Elsevier Scopus)

2 An Emerging Research Area

What is clear is that while there is emerging scholarly interest, finding a home for research on the human dimensions of tree and forest health can be difficult and to date such work has been published in an eclectic mix of journals, including Landscape Ecology, Forest Policy and Economics and Environmental Science and Policy . An aim of this book is to bring together a wide body of work from the social sciences and humanities in order to provide a point of reference for established and newly interested researchers in the area. This is the first book-length synthesis of the human dimensions of forest and tree health, and it is therefore appropriate to explain the background to the book’s development and some underpinning discussions that are important for its framing.

In the first instance, The Human Dimensions of Forest and Tree Health: Global Perspectives is the product of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations’ (IUFRO) newly formed working party ‘7.03.15 - Social dimensions of forest health’, but has also been stimulated by a series of workshops hosted by the book’s editors as part of the UK’s Tree Health and Plant Biosecurity Initiative (THAPBI). The IUFRO working party, chaired by social anthropologist Dr. Mariella Marzano, represents a subgroup of Division 7 Forest Health of the IUFRO network (https://​www.​iufro.​org/​science/​divisions/​division-7/​70000/​70300/​70315/​). Division 7 includes research on the physiological and genetic interactions between trees and harmful biotic impacts, including invasive pests and diseases, and the impacts of air pollution on forest ecosystems. The 7.03.15 working party was formed in 2015 to explicitly recognise that tree health issues have a social dimension and that studying the impacts and implications of tree pests and diseases cannot be fully understood without consideration of their associated human dimensions. At the same time, Dr. Julie Urquhart and Professor Clive Potter, social scientists based at Imperial College London, hosted a ‘Social Science for Tree Health and Plant Biosecurity Workshop’ in September 2015 and (together with Dr. Marzano and Dr. Hilary Geoghegan) a ‘Human Dimensions of Tree Health and Plant Biosecurity International Workshop’ in August 2016. The workshops sought to bring together those social scientists working on a number of interdisciplinary tree health projects funded as part of the THAPBI programme with international researchers engaged in complementary activities in other countries. The aim was to provide a forum for sharing theoretical, applied and methodological insights from projects undertaken in a range of geographical contexts.

It is in this collaborative spirit that this book seeks to bring together arguments, relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical research findings to consider the specifically human dimensions of the problem. A central theme of the book is to consider the role that social science can play in better understanding the social, economic and environmental impacts of such tree disease and pest outbreaks. This introductory chapter begins by setting the theoretical context for the book’s central argument that in order to fully understand and manage the rise in new tree pest and disease outbreaks, traditional technical risk assessment tools and methodologies need to be integrated with approaches from a range of academic disciplines, such as economics, sociology, environmental psychology, cultural geography, environmental ethics, anthropology and history that consider the human dimensions of outbreaks, alongside the ecological and biological. We need to develop a deeper understanding of the complexity of macro-level governance dimensions, such as policy, regulatory and market forces that provide the context within which b...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introducing the Human Dimensions of Forest and Tree Health
• 2. English Tree Populations: Economics, Agency and the Problem of the “Natural”
• 3. Local Knowledge on Tree Health in Forest Villages in Turkey
• 4. Mountain Pine Beetles and Ecological Imaginaries: The Social Construction of Forest Insect Disturbance
• 5. Indigenous Biosecurity: Māori Responses to Kauri Dieback and Myrtle Rust in Aotearoa New Zealand
• 6. User-Generated Content: What Can the Forest Health Sector Learn?
• 7. The Social Amplification of Tree Health Risks: The Case of Ash Dieback Disease in the UK
• 8. Implementing Plant Health Regulations with Focus on Invasive Forest Pests and Pathogens: Examples from Swedish Forest Nurseries
• 9. The Economic Analysis of Plant Health and the Needs of Policy Makers
• 10. Stated Willingness to Pay for Tree Health Protection: Perceptions and Realities
• 11. The Use of Rubrics to Improve Integration and Engagement Between Biosecurity Agencies and Their Key Partners and Stakeholders: A Surveillance Example
• 12. Enhancing Socio-technological Innovation for Tree Health Through Stakeholder Participation in Biosecurity Science
• 13. Gaming with Deadwood: How to Better Teach Forest Protection When Bugs Are Lurking Everywhere
• 14. The Effects of Mountain Pine Beetle on Drinking Water Quality: Assessing Communication Strategies and Knowledge Levels in the Rocky Mountain Region
• 15. Forest Collaborative Groups Engaged in Forest Health Issues in Eastern Oregon
• 16. Environmental Ethics of Forest Health: Alternative Stories of Asian Longhorn Beetle Management in the UK
• 17. Towards a More-Than-Human Approach to Tree Health
• 18. Towards an Agenda for Social Science Contributions on the Human Dimensions of Forest Health
• Erratum to: The Use of Rubrics to Improve Integration and Engagement Between Biosecurity Agencies and Their Key Partners and Stakeholders: A Surveillance Example
• Back Matter