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Explora: Environment
and Resource COVID-19 impact on forest biodiversity attitudes

2. Literature review and hypotheses charcoal production, subsistence farming, new settlement
development and land migration, natural disasters, human-induced
forest fires, and fuelwood as direct drivers of forest
This section reviews key studies on human-wildlife deforestation and degradation. In addition, Symes et al.
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conflicts, climate change, deforestation, biodiversity reported that 89% of species suffered habitat losses of
loss, and the impact of COVID-19 on attitudes toward 16% and exploitation directed to population declines of
biodiversity conservation. It brings together findings from 37%. Reviewing the joint impacts of deforestation and
various fields and develops hypotheses to be tested. exploitation signifies that the losses of exploited species
2.1. Research context: Forests and biodiversity are much more significant, almost doubling the regionally
endemic species threatened with extinction that should be
Forests play an important role in sequestering carbon, International Union for Conservation of Nature Red Listed.
supporting biodiversity, and providing habitats for many Ecosystem degradation, including biodiversity loss, is the
plant and animal species. Jalil and Sharif emphasize the most severe threat to sustainable development. 11
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importance of knowledge in raising awareness about
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biodiversity conservation. Abugre and Sackey found that According to Kouassi et al., perceived effects related
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mining, property disputes, illegal logging, and agriculture to deforestation included land degradation, biodiversity
lead to deforestation, while knowledge and policies can loss, global warming, and livelihood assets loss. The
reduce it. Furthermore, they reported a 22% decline in result 14,15 further shows that most of the respondents
natural ecosystems, highlighting the urgent need for consented that deforestation accounts mainly for climate
conservation. change. Furthermore, many of the respondents portrayed
the impacts of deforestation on climate change as severe.
Basak et al. found that the most frequent human- Many studies have highlighted the effects of deforestation.
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wildlife conflict responses were personal anxiety, property Results from Wolff et al. emphasize the function of forests
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intrusion, and crop destruction, which rose significantly in normalizing the local climate. This ecosystem service is
over the decade, and these respondents preferred nonlethal highly threatened, yet increasingly crucial for preventing
methods to mitigate conflicts. Based on Caro et al., the heat-related illnesses and facilitating adaptation to
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most urgent climate change’s wide-ranging effects are global climate change. Therefore, deforestation will
habitat loss and overexploitation. One of the key reasons for lead to floods and landslides. Findings from Schebella
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this loss and over-exploitation is deforestation. Different et al. recommend that perceived biodiversity is better
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constructs, that is, perception toward deforestation, forecaster of wellbeing benefits. The measured biodiversity
biodiversity loss (i.e., bird extinction, mammal extinction, characteristics, and vegetation covers regularly correlated
and plant extinction), and community attitude toward most powerfully with psychological benefits. Stress
biodiversity conservation, are discussed in the literature reduction and mood improvement were the highest in
review. Furthermore, an existing literature review has nature parks and the least in pocket parks.
increased the importance of COVID-19, and the study has
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included it to check the impact on biodiversity loss and Results from Peng et al. imply that future climate
the attitude of the community to increase the awareness of and land-cover transformations will lower protected
environmental sustainability. areas’ effectiveness, and the spatial prioritization of
biodiversity conservation should reflect the influences on
Natural ecosystems, including forests, absorb carbon and biodiversity in the future. Therefore, it is recommended
support biodiversity by enabling environments or habitats that the rehabilitation of degraded lands and conservation
for plants and animals. According to Jalil and Sharif, of remnant natural ecosystems should be embarked on
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knowledge is the most significant influence on people’s to enhance sustainable development. Habibullah et al.
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awareness of biodiversity conservation. Abugre and Sackey stress how wealthy and how “good institutional standing”
illustrated that mining activities, ownership rights conflict, a nation is; protecting biodiversity has a tremendous
illegal logging, and agricultural endeavors positively positive impact. According to Develey and Phalan, there
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impacted deforestation. In contrast, population, knowledge are positive trends in Brazil the deforestation rate has
of forests, and policy had negative indirect impacts on decreased, forest restoration and recovery are rising, and
deforestation. Specifically, Senbeta’s study revealed more people are paying attention to birds and joining in
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that natural ecosystems such as forests, woodlands, and citizen science. In contrast, the study of Ratnasingam et al.
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grasslands have declined by 22% during the study period. found that smallholder farmers have trivial knowledge and
Ken et al. found illegal logging, commercial wood awareness of the forest plantation scheme, and there is a
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production, land clearing for commercial agriculture, view that the forest plantation is not environment-friendly,

Volume 1 Issue 1 (2024) 3 doi: 10.36922/eer.3615