Towards sustainable forest management: an examination of environmental knowledge among forest dwellers in the Kashmir Himalayas

Towards sustainable forest management: an examination of environmental knowledge among forest dwellers in the Kashmir Himalayas | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Towards sustainable forest management: an examination of environmental knowledge among forest dwellers in the Kashmir Himalayas Irshad Ahmad Thoker, M. Shafi Bhat, Shamim Ahmad Shah, Fayaz Ahmad Lone, and 3 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-2796905/v2 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 03 Apr, 2024 Read the published version in Environment, Development and Sustainability → Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Abstract Environmental knowledge, attitude and sustainable behaviour of the people have become fundamental elements of sustainable forest management. Kashmir Himalayas is an ecologically fragile region, inhabited by various ethnic and tribal communities with low levels of education and heavy dependence on forest resource utilization. The lack of adequate environmental knowledge and appreciation of ecological values among the inhabitants has negatively affected the forest resources. The study aims to ascertain the levels of environmental knowledge and identify the factors that influence attitude and sustainable behaviour among forest dwellers. The study is based on primary data, with a sample size of 600 households, which was analyzed with the help of Weighted Average Index (WAI), and the Binary Logistic Regression Model (BLRM). The findings indicate that forest dwellers in the region exhibit low levels of environmental knowledge, along with a moderate attitude and moderate levels of sustainable behaviour. Environmental knowledge regarding emerging global environmental issues such as the role of forests in combating global warming, greenhouse gas emissions, climate change, and ecological imbalance was found to be very low, primarily on account of low levels of education. In addition, the attitude towards wildlife conservation was non-congenial due to increasing man-animal conflicts in the region. The study reveals that education, age, and gender were key determinants influencing people’s environmental knowledge, attitude, and sustainable behaviour. This study validates that knowledge, sustainable behaviour, and attitude scales could be used as premier tools for monitoring sustainable forest management initiatives in similar environments across mountainous regions. Forestry Renewable Resources Biogeography Attitude Environmental knowledge Kashmir Himalayas Sustainable behaviour Sustainable Forest management Figures Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 03 Apr, 2024 Read the published version in Environment, Development and Sustainability → Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-2796905","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":291833427,"identity":"64d3dea3-57a5-425a-a8be-08e1b3ace303","order_by":0,"name":"Irshad Ahmad Thoker","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABBElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACCQZmMAlCkh8qJORAggce4NHBg6xFWuKMhTFYSwJhLVBdvG0ViQ0gDj4t9tLNhw0+7rHIl5/d/PCGZJtE+vywww+BttjJ6TbgsEXmWHLijGcSlhvuHDO2KDgnkbvxdpoBUEuysdkBXA7LMT7Mc0DCwEAiwUxCogyoZXYCSMuBxG34tPwBapGfkf5NgodNIt1wdvoHglqSGYBaGG7kmEnwtEkkyEvnELDlRlqyYQ/IYTdyiq0lzkgYbpDOKTiQYIDbL+wzkg9L/DhQB3LYxpsfKurk5Wenb/7wocJODpcWTGAAVmlArHIQkG8gRfUoGAWjYBSMBAAAgXxeD98ErDsAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8374-2437","institution":"University of Kashmir, Srinagar, India.","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Irshad","middleName":"Ahmad","lastName":"Thoker","suffix":""},{"id":291838460,"identity":"3c9f9675-8ba5-4bb0-8651-31dc83743970","order_by":1,"name":"M. 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