The new environmental paradigm scale: Wildlife and environmental beliefs in British Columbia

Abstract Societal attitudes toward and values placed on wildlife are in transition. Increasing public and environmental group involvement in decision making has resulted in conflicts with established users of the natural environment. Resolution of such conflicts may be aided by identification of people's environmental values and beliefs. The article examines the new environmental paradigm (NEP) scale, which focuses on and assesses generic environmental dispositions or primitive beliefs. It reports the application of the scale to three sample populations in a study of conflicts between fishing interests and marine mammal protection in British Columbia. Environmentalists and the general public exhibited strong support for the NEP and the ecologically benign world view that it embodies. Commercial fishers, however, displayed a strong rejection of all aspects of the NEP scale. It is suggested that the NEP provides a useful referential framework of environmental beliefs in which to understand attitudes and to attempt resolution of wildlife management conflicts.