APPLIED ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH, 2024 (SCI-Expanded)
This study aims to compare the perspectives of academics and forest engineers in the public on the impact of forest road construction on forest ecosystems. Two expert groups were involved in the study, including 163 forest engineers working in public institutions and 121 academics in T & uuml;rkiye. A survey consisting of 20 statements was given to expert groups and evaluated with a 5-point Likert scale. Cronbach's alpha coefficients were calculated for academics, forest engineers, and all experts as 0.764, 0.693, and 0.718, respectively. As a result of the MANOVA analysis, the awareness of the academics on the environmental impact of roads varies according to age (Wilk' Lambda = .015, p < .05) and work experience (Wilk' Lambda = .003, p < .05) and however, no variation was observed related to gender (Wilk' Lambda = .574, p > .05). It was found that the awareness of forest engineers working in the sector did not differ according to their demographic characteristics. However, it was found that there was a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of awareness of the environmental impact of roads among the expert groups (Wilk' Lambda = .706, p < .05). According to results of the chi-square test, while there was a difference in 16 statements (p < 0.05), it was determined that there were only 4 statements that showed no differences (p > 0.05).