Support for mushroom picking policy in forests: the role of values and awareness

Mushrooms are of great importance to the well-being of forest eco-systems and of humans. Extensive mushroom picking may threaten the long-term conservation of mushrooms in forests. Regulations governing the amount and types of mushrooms collected in forests may serve as an effective means of combatting the dangers of extensive mushroom picking. Such regulations restrict pickers’ ability to collect mushrooms. Hence, it is important to understand the drivers for supporting such policies. Utilizing a national representative survey in Israel, the present study examined the role of values, environmental awareness, and environmental attitudes in explaining public support for mushroom picking regulations. The results show that environmental awareness, and environmental worldview positively predict support for mushroom regulation, whereas hedonistic values are associated with lower levels of support. The two regulations that received the highest support were picking mushroom species that are not threatened by extinction and picking in areas where there are no mushrooms in danger of extinction. Research findings highlight the importance of intra-personal factors in explaining individual support for such policy as well as the importance of integrating social science research in the study of ecological science. Furthermore, research findings highlight the importance of education and of enhancing public awareness of the mutual connections between mushroom and forests ecology.