Understanding Public Risk Concerns: An investigation into the social perception, interpretation and communication of tree health risks

英国的树木、森林和森林目前受到一系列入侵害虫和病原体的威胁，其中许多是通过国际植物和树木贸易传入的。虽然这些引入野生动物、可进入的空间和珍贵的风景所带来的风险在官方圈子里已经知道有一段时间了，但可以说，直到2012年秋季将白蜡树枯萎病原体引入英国，公众才变得更加广泛地参与其中。媒体的广泛报道、社交媒体的评论以及社区越来越多地参与监测这种疾病的传播并检测其他害虫和病原体的到来，似乎都表明树木健康及其未来的保护已成为公众关注的问题。辩论中的这一转变是一个重要的事态发展，政府、其机构和各利益攸关方需要加以利用，以便为更强有力的措施争取支持，以防止进一步出台措施，并有效地管理目前已建立的措施。尽管如此，我们目前对这一担忧的真正性质以及一旦媒体对特定疫情的报道减少后这种担忧可能持续的程度知之甚少。我们更不知道更具风险意识的公众将在多大程度上被激励改变他们的行为(例如，只从可信的来源购买植物，或者减少他们对需要从英国以外进口大树的即刻木本景观的需求)。这项研究将着眼于最近爆发的三起疫情，我们有文件和其他公众关注的证据，以评估已知接触或参与我们的案例研究疫情的不同类型的人(志愿者、花园和林地游客、当地居民)目前认识到病虫害对树木健康的风险的程度，是否有任何证据表明，通过接触媒体报道和来自政府和其他人的风险沟通，他们的风险认知在疫情过程中发生了变化，以及这在多大程度上使他们更愿意或更不愿意做出行为改变。

The UK's trees, woods and forests are currently threatened by a range of invasive pests and pathogens, many of them introduced through the international trade in plants and trees. While the risk posed by these introductions to wildllife, accessible spaces and cherished landscapes have been known to about in offical circles for some time, it was arguably not until the introduction of the ash dieback pathogen to the UK in autumn 2012 that the public became much more widely involved. Extensive media coverage, social media commentary and the growing involvement of communities in efforts to monitor the spread of this disease and to detect the arrival of other pests and pathogens, all seem to suggest that tree health and its future safeguarding have become issues of public concern. This shift in the debate is an important development which needs to be harnessed by government, its agencies and various stakeholders in order to build support for stronger measures to prevent further introductions and to effectively manage those that are now estbalished. Despite this, we currently know little about the true nature of this concern and the extent to which it is likely to be sustained once media reporting of particular outbreaks declines. We know even less about the extent to which more risk-aware members of the public will be motivated to change their behaviour (for instance by buying plants only from accredited sources or reducing their demand for instant woody landscapes requiring the importation of large trees from outside the UK). This research will look at three recent outbreaks for which we have documentary and other evidence of public concern in order to assess the extent to which different sorts of people known to have had some sort of exposure to, or engagement with, our case study outbreaks (volunteers, garden and woodland visitors, local residents) currently recognise pest and disease risks to tree health, whether there is any evidence that their risk perceptions have changed over the course of outbreaks by being exposed to media coverage and risk communications from government and others and how far this makes them more or less willing to make behavioural changes.