Social Trust and Its Influence on Coastal Management

The increase of illegal All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) use on New Brunswick coasts causes concern for the integrity of sandy beaches and dune systems. These landscape features are important barriers for coastal protection and... [ view full abstract ]

The increase of illegal All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) use on New Brunswick coasts causes concern for the integrity of sandy beaches and dune systems. These landscape features are important barriers for coastal protection and the piping plover, a threatened beach-nesting bird. With the decline of trust in conservation agencies over the recent decades it is vital for conservation agencies to understand the nature of social trust and how this influences support for successful conservation initiatives. To understand the context of the problem, we examined the relationships between shared values, public trust in an agency, and attitudes. Specifically, we examined the role of social trust, the disposition to rely on those who have formal responsibility to develop policies and management guidelines, as a partial mediator between salient value similarity (SVS), whether people share similar values, opinions, actions, and goals with an agency, and attitudes, favour or disfavour for ATV management. Recognizing that the public may not support certain conservation management options because of a lack of trust in an agency, we hypothesized: (i) social trust in the agency will serve as a partial mediator between SVS and attitudes toward ATV use and (ii) ATV users will have a higher social trust in an ATV club agency than conservation agencies. Data were obtained from a self-administered questionnaire randomly distributed to residents in Pointe-Sapin (n=129), Escuminac (n=47), and Miscou Island (n=163) and a Structural Equation Model was used to understand these relationships. In particular, data revealed from three related studies suggest that regardless of the resource problem relations between SVS, social trust, and attitudes towards the resource are similar inferring that SVS and social trust can influence agencies goals, objectives and management. Thus, it is argued that efforts to understand the relationship between SVS, social trust, and attitudes can lead to more effective communication efforts (e.g. persuasion) and better collaboration with constituents.