Land-Use Planners and Regulators and the Multi-Species Recovery Plan:
Exposure, Awareness, and Motivations
Janas Sinclair
Florida International University, North Miami, FL
Frank Mazzotti and Jocie Graham
University of Florida, Davie, FL
The South Florida ecosystem has been considerably damaged by development of
natural lands in response to rapid population growth, and the result has been a
growing number of animal and plant species listed as threatened or endangered.
The government has taken action to restore the Everglades and the species that
live in this ecosystem; in 1993 the Federal government began the South Florida
Ecosystem Restoration Initiative, and in 1998 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
completed the South Florida Multi-Species Recovery Plan (MSRP) to address the
Restoration Initiative’s goals concerning biodiversity and threatened and
endangered species. The MSRP identifies recovery and restoration needs of
threatened and endangered species along with their habitats in the South Florida
ecosystem. Success of these efforts, however, may depend on land-use decisions
made at the local level and the motivation of local officials to consider the impact
of their decisions on threatened and endangered species.
In Florida land-use decisions are accomplished at the regional level by Regional
Planning Councils and at the local level by county and municipal governments.
While regional and local planners are, in all likelihood, willing to participate in
the Restoration Initiative, they operate with limited time and resources and may
not be actively seeking scientific input into their decision making process, and
they may not be aware of documents such as the MSRP.
The purpose of this study was to (1) examine the quantity and type of information
land-use decision makers have been exposed to regarding threatened and
endangered species, (2) assess awareness and perceptions of the MSRP, and (3)
identify factors that influence land-use decision makers’ motivations to seek
information about threatened and endangered species. The theory of planned
behavior (TOPB) was employed to accomplish the third objective. The TOPB is
a social psychological theory that predicts motivation to engage in a particular
behavior and models psychological processes that mediate the relationship
between attitudes and behavior. According to the theory, the proximal cause of
behavior is behavior intention, or one’s psychological propensity to engage in the
behavior. Behavior intention is a function of (1) attitude toward personally
engaging in the behavior (attitude toward the act), (2) beliefs about how
significant other people would evaluate one’s engaging in the behavior (social
norms), and (3) perceptions of one’s ability to perform the behavior (perceived
behavioral control). Research has also found past behavior to be a significant
predictor of motives to engage in environmental behavior.
A survey (N = 59) was administered to employees in offices relating to land-use
planning or regulation in the nineteen counties of South Florida as defined as the
boundary of the MSRP. The names and structure of these offices are not uniform
throughout the counties, so county web sites and phone calls were used to identify
relevant offices and personnel in these offices. The first wave of data was
collected through the mail and the second wave was by telephone. The overall
response rate was 28.5%. Respondents were asked how much threatened and
endangered species information they had heard lately from five sources on a fivepoint scale ranging from “absolutely none” to “a great deal.” The means for all
sources were relatively low. The mean for non-profit organizations (M = 3.00,
SD = 1.17) was significantly greater than the other sources at alpha of .05. There
were no statistical differences among the other means: media (M = 2.53, SD =
1.06), state government (M = 2.47, SD = 1.04), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (M
= 2.47, SD = 1.19), Federal government (M = 2.34, SD = 1.17).
When asked whether they had heard of the MSRP, most respondents answered no
(n = 34, 45.9%), while 25 (33.8%) answered yes. Respondents answering yes
were asked to write in how they had heard about the MSRP. The most common
answers were through one’s colleagues or job or through personally having a copy
of the MSRP. Other answers were through conferences and a U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service meeting and notice. Awareness of the contents of the MSRP was
also low. Respondents rated their awareness that the MSRP contained
information about five topics on a five-point scale ranging from “not at all aware”
to “very much aware.” Awareness was significantly higher that the MSRP
contained information about threatened and endangered animal (M= 2.36, SD =
1.73) and plant species (M = 2.33, SD = 1.74) than restoration goals for these
species (M = 2.24, SD = 1.64), habitat requirements for these species (M = 2.23,
SD = 1.64), and ecological communities of South Florida (M = 2.12, SD = 1.58).
The remaining questions assessed the variables of the TOPB; all were measured
with five-point response scales. Behavior intention was assessed by averaging
three items, including “I intend to seek out information about threatened and
endangered species in my region” (scale mean = 3.88, SD = 1.01). Three items
measured attitude toward the act (“In your profession, working to protect
threatened and endangered species is useful/useless;” scale mean = 4.35, SD =
.72). Two items measured social norms, including “My colleagues believe that
good stewardship of threatened and endangered species is very important” (scale
mean = 3.86, SD = .86). Internal and external perceived behavior control (PBC)
were each measured with two items. For internal PBC respondents indicated
whether obtaining information about threatened and endangered species in their
region would be easy/difficult (scale mean = 3.27, SD = .84). For external PBC
questions focused on the degree to which external sources would make it difficult
to protect threatened and endangered species (scale mean = 2.49, SD = 1.16).
Finally, past behavior was measured with a single item, “How much effort would
you say you’ve made in the last 12 months to look for information on threatened
or endangered species in your region” (M = 2.69, SD = 1.30). A step-wise
regression indicated that past behavior, attitude toward the act, and social norms
predicted 42% of the variance in intention to seek information about threatened
and endangered species.
Maximum Predictive Stepwise Regression Model
Model & variables
R2
Standardized beta
1. Past behavior
.17
.53
2. 1 + attitude toward act
.38
.34
3. 2 + social norms
.42
.26
Partial correlations
.56
.38
.29
The results provide direction for communicating with land-use decision makers,
who are not currently receiving a great deal of information about threatened or
endangered species and who are mostly unaware of the MSRP. Motivation to
seek information about threatened and endangered species depended on past
behavior, attitude toward the act, and social norms. Means for these variables
were relatively high. To increase motivation, however, communications should
be designed to provide some experience in accessing relevant data and to support
and build favorable attitudes towards protecting threatened and endangered
species among land-use planners and regulators and their colleagues.
This research was supported by grants from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
and the Center for Natural Resources and the University of Florida.
Sinclair, Janas, Department of Advertising and Public Relations, Florida
International University, North Miami, FL, 33181, Phone: 305-919-5259, Fax:
305-919-5215, sinclair@fiu.edu