Adaptation of Canadian private forest owners to climate change: questionnaire form, response dataset, and variable description

This survey aims at collecting data on private forest owners’ adaptation to climate change throughout Canada. It was divided in six sections: general information on the respondents’ woodlots, past changes in their forest management since 2010, opinions and knowledge on climate change, potential (intended) adaptation of their forest practices to climate change, relationship to the world of forestry in the context of climate change, and socio-demographic questions. We chose the 2010-2022 time span considering the duration of private forests’ management plans, the turnover rate of silvicultural operations in even-aged stands, and individual climate memory. The questionnaire was made of 33 questions, first formulated in French, then translated into English. A pilot test conducted on a sample of 14 individuals in June and July 2021 led to minor revisions, and the survey was made available from January, 10 to May, 22 2022. We employed a 7-point Likert scale to measure respondents’ attitudes and opinions throughout the questionnaire. A 7-point scale has been shown to allow for a greater variability of the responses over scales with fewer points, thus leading to a more accurate measure of a respondent’s true views than a 5-point item scale, especially in online-distributed questionnaires (Finstad 2010). Each part of the questionnaire finished with a free comment section to express additional viewpoints or details to previous answers. Respondents were first asked to read an introduction describing the goal, structure and origin of the questionnaire and to provide their consent to partake in the survey. Prior to answering the first questions, they were verified as Canadian non-industrial private forest owners through a self-report of the provinces or territories on which their forests are located. The survey took approximately 25 min to complete. To avoid dropout problems and encourage participation, respondents who completed the questionnaire were offered a chance for a financial reward (lottery draw). We uploaded the questionnaire online using the online tool LimeSurvey. To disseminate the survey, we contacted 183 forest owners’ organizations and associations active in the Canadian forest sector and asked them to cast the questionnaire by email, newsletter and online media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter). Follow-up emails were sent out to those associations not answering after a first contact. To create a snowball effect, respondents were asked to forward the hyperlink of the survey to relatives, friends, or colleagues who may be interested to participate in the study. Among the 1030 forest owners who opened the survey link, 611 (59%) provided usable responses. This research was conducted by Dr. Timothée Fouqueray, postdoctoral researcher at Pr. Jérôme Dupras’ Canada Research Chair in Ecological Economics. It was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the University of Québec en Outaouais (Approval Code: 2022-1765). Written informed consent, was obtained from the participants.本调查旨在收集加拿大全境私有林主适应气候变化的相关数据。 调查共分为六个模块：受访者林地的基本信息、2010年以来其森林经营的过往变动情况、对气候变化的认知与观点、其森林经营活动针对气候变化的潜在（计划中）适应措施、气候变化背景下与林业领域的关联状况，以及社会人口学相关问题。 本次研究选择2010-2022年作为时间跨度，其考量因素包括私有林经营计划的周期、同龄林营林作业的更新速率，以及个体气候记忆。 本次问卷共设33个问题，最初以法语编写，后译为英语。2021年6月至7月期间，我们针对14名个体开展了预测试，据此对问卷进行了小幅修订；调查于2022年1月10日至5月22日正式上线发布。 本次问卷全程采用7点李克特量表（7-point Likert scale）测量受访者的态度与观点。已有研究表明，相较于5点量表，7点量表可使受访者的回答具备更大的变异性，因此能更精准地捕捉受访者的真实观点，尤其适用于网络分发的问卷（Finstad, 2010）。 问卷的每个模块均设有开放式评论区，供受访者补充阐述额外观点或对过往回答进行细节补充。 受访者首先需阅读介绍问卷目标、结构与来源的说明文档，并签署参与调查的知情同意书。在回答首个问题前，需通过自行申报其林地所在的省份/地区，确认其身份为加拿大非工业私有林主（non-industrial private forest owners）。 本次调查预计单份问卷完成时长约为25分钟。为避免作答中途退出并提升参与意愿，完成全部问卷的受访者可参与抽奖赢取现金奖励。 我们通过在线工具LimeSurvey搭建并上线发布了本次问卷。为推广调查，我们联系了183家活跃于加拿大林业领域的林主组织与协会，邀请其通过电子邮件、行业通讯及网络媒体（如Facebook、Twitter）转发问卷链接。针对首次联系未回复的协会，我们后续发送了跟进邮件。 为形成雪球抽样效应，我们邀请受访者将问卷链接转发给可能有意参与本研究的亲属、朋友或同事。 共有1030名林主打开了调查链接，其中611份（占比59%）为有效回复。 本研究由魁北克大学渥太华分校（Université du Québec en Outaouais）生态经济学加拿大研究讲席教授Jérôme Dupras课题组的博士后研究员Timothée Fouqueray博士主导开展。本研究已通过魁北克大学渥太华分校研究伦理委员会审批（审批编号：2022-1765），并已获得所有参与者的书面知情同意。