How does cultural values influence public willingness to protect wetlands? - Take Tibetan cultural values as an...

Public support and participation are crucial for the success of wetland conservation efforts. Individuals' willingness to protect wetlands is influenced not only by psychological factors but also by cultural values. However, the impact of cultural values on pro-environmental intention and the underlying mechanisms remain unclear, especially in Tibetan regions with unique folk customs and culture. Notably, the influence of Tibetan traditional culture on local herdsmen' s wetland conservation intention has rarely been explored. Therefore, this study integrates Tibetan cultural values into the Theory of Planned Behaviour, expanding its framework. A questionnaire survey was conducted among Tibetan herdsmen residing near alpine wetlands in the eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Structural equation modeling was utilized to examine the psychological factors and mechanisms influencing Tibetan herdsmen' s wetland conservation intention. The key findings of this study are as follows: (1) Tibetan cultural values have direct positive impact on Tibetan herdsmen' s wetland conservation intention. (2) Tibetan herdsmen' s attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, and wetland conservation knowledge all exhibit direct positive effects on wetland conservation intention. (3) Wetland conservation intention is indirectly affected by Tibetan cultural values through attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. (4) Demographic factors such as age, education, total annual income, and private grassland area have varying effects on each psychological factors, with education demonstrating the most significant impact across all. (5) According to the motivation of influencing the local herdsmen' s wetland conservation intention, we proposed to establish an information publicity platform, strengthening the publicity and protection of traditional culture, increasing environmental education, and providing multiple types of compensation to enhance the herdsmen' s wetland conservation intention.