Public perceptions of ecological restoration within the context of Norwegian landscape management

Ecological restoration is poised to become an increasingly important component of landscape management in the coming years as countries work to halt the rate of biodiversity loss. The success of future restoration projects will depend equally on both achieving biological objectives and on producing conditions that meet public expectations. Yet we often know very little about either how the public perceives the purpose or goals of ecological restoration, or how restoration might fit into public expectations for landscape management. We surveyed a representative sample of the Norwegian population (n = 4,077) to determine how familiar the Norwegian public is with ecological restoration, to explore their perceptions of restoration's purposes and goals, and to assess their preferences for types of common Norwegian landscapes. Survey participants generally had little familiarity with ecological restoration, yet they had a greater tendency to view restoration's purpose as enhancing naturalness than as providing benefits for humans. Public attitudes regarding landscape management were reasonably balanced between preserving cultural landscapes and promoting natural landscapes free from traces of human activity. While participants gave agricultural landscapes the highest scores for desirability, the survey did not reveal any conspicuous variation in landscape preferences among the Norwegian public. Policymakers, land managers, and ecological restoration practitioners should use insights from studies such as ours to help identify which future projects are most likely to enjoy widespread support, and to tailor their communication with stakeholders.