This paper aims to examine the attitudes of the consumers in Greece towards the use of biotechnology in forest plantations and their potential purchases of forest transgenic products. Three groups of factors related the consumers' attitude on the use of biotechnology in forest plantations with the potential purchases of transgenic forest products: (a) the potential negative environmental impacts (b) the potential positive impacts on production processes, and (c) economic impacts. Furthermore, this study indicated that consumers who intent to buy paper products derived from Genetically Modified (GM) forest trees, were concerned for the environmental impacts of the GM trees and then on the production process that was followed by economic issues. No significant relationships were found between the consumers who declared that they intent to buy wood and woody biomass energy products derived from GM trees and the importance of the factors that affect their attitudes towards the adoption of biotechnology in forest plantations.
It has been argued that the use of biotechnology in commercial forest plantations
would contribute to increased forest productivity, improved pulp for paper and
biofuel production, climate change mitigation, preservation of biodiversity and
reduction of energy, pesticides and fertilizers utilization
Specifically, the use of GM trees in forest plantations may provide several
economic advantages. Aside from increasing the trees’ viability and reducing losses
to folivores, fungi and bacteria, these types of modifications could also decrease the
need for pesticides and consequently affect the costs associated with tree production
On the other hand, the use of biotechnology in forest plantations could lead to a
decrease in the perceived social and economic value of natural forests, as the
economic gains from these types of forests would not be as large as those received
from GM forest plantations (Haynes 2001). A further economic concern relates to the
fact that low income wood producers might not be able to have access to GM trees
given their relatively high cost
As no food safety issues are involved (although cellulose is sometimes used a
filler in foods) the extent to which retail consumers might resist transgenic wood
products appeared to depend largely on their environmental and philosophical
concerns (Serdjo 2004). Therefore, it is important to know therefore how the attitude
of the consumers of potential forest transgenic products in Greece would affect their
buying decision. In this context, the aim of this study was to explore the attitudes of
the consumers towards the use of biotechnology in forest plantations in an E.U.
country, Greece and to profile them according to their willingness to buy products
that could derived from GM trees. Further, this work was coordinated within the
frame of the European COST ACTION FP0905 that focused on various biosafety
aspects, such as analyses of the efficiency of existing gene containment strategies to
avoid or to minimize gene flow or evaluation of methods to monitor GMTs in the
whole production chain
A survey was implemented to identify the factors that affect the consumers’ attitudes towards the use of biotechnology in forest plantations. Furthermore, it explored the association between the consumers’ attitudes towards the use of biotechnology in forest plantations and their intention to buy products.
Therefore this study examines the rejection of the following research null hypotheses: • • •
Ho1: There are some main factors that do not affect consumers’ attitudes towards the use of biotechnology in forest plantations.
Ho2: The factors affecting consumers’ attitudes towards the use of biotechnology in forest plantations are not significantly associated with their intention to buy products derived from GM forest trees.
Ho3: The factors affecting consumers’ attitudes towards the use of biotechnology in forest plantations are not significantly associated with consumers’ classification regarding their buying behaviour towards transgenic tree derived products.
The information for the survey was gathered through field interviews following a
systematic stratified sampling method
The size of the selected sample was based on Siardos’ methodology
Based on the literature, the factors that affected the development questions involved in the questionnaire were the consumers’ behaviour towards GM forest trees derived products and the consumers’ attitudes towards the development of transgenic plantations. Furthermore, the questionnaire was designed in order to meet the research’s objectives and it was pre-tested in academics, marketing experts and consumers. In order to verify any modifications at the structure of the questionnaire, a pilot survey of 30 consumers was conducted in October of 2011. The results from this pilot survey indicated that there was need for further modification and therefore, the main survey was conducted between November and December of 2011.
Multivariate analysis techniques were performed for a total of 418 consumers to reveal the key information contained in the responses. Particularly, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to identify the variables that accounted for the maximum amount of variance within the data in terms of the smallest number of uncorrelated variables (components). The anti-image correlation matrix was used as well as Bartlett’s test of sphericity and the measure of sampling adequacy (MSA) in order to check the appropriateness of the data for subsequent factor analysis. The variables that had a high proportion of large absolute values of anti –image correlations as well as MSA less than 0.5 were removed before analysis.
PCA reduced the 8 key attitude variables, which relate to consumers’ opinion
about the use of biotechnology in forest plantations to a smaller set of underlying
factors. An orthogonal rotation (varimax method) was conducted and the standard
criteria of eigenvalue = 1, scree test and percentage of variance were used in order to
determine the factors in the first rotation
Statistical tests based on the outcomes of the factor analysis presented above were used to test three hypotheses presented in previous section. 3
Principal Components and Factor Analyses (through a varimax rotation) were conducted to identify the key consumers’ attitudes towards the use of biotechnology in forest plantations, and the latent root criterion (eigenvalue =1), the scree plot test and the percentage of variance were used to determine the number of factors.
PCA identified three factors that affect consumers’ attitudes towards the use of biotechnology in forest plantations (Table 1).
In particular consumers’ attitudes towards the use of biotechnology in forest plantations were mainly influenced by: (a) the potential negative environmental impacts of the adoption of such technology that retain negative impacts on biodiversity conservation, the environment and possibility to harm human health, (b) Potential positive impacts on production processes, such as the reduction of production losses whilst they consider the use of GM technology in forest trees as an important factor for biomass production, and (c) economic impacts, such as reduction of production costs and increase of the returns from the forest plantations.
Therefore, the hypothesis Ho1: “There are some main factors that do not affect consumers’ attitudes towards the use of biotechnology in forest trees” may be rejected.
Moreover, the non-paramateric Friedman Test was performed to explore the association between the factors that affect the consumers’ attitudes towards the use of biotechnology in forest plantations in Greece and their intention to buy each category of GM forest products; specifically, (a) paper-, (b) wood-and (c) woody biomass energy products. Hence, this study indicated that consumers who intent to buy paper products derived from GM forest trees, were mainly concerned for the environmental impacts of the GMTs and then on the production process that was followed by economic impacts (Table 2). No significant relationships were found between the consumers who declared that they intent to buy wood and woody biomass energy products derived from GM trees and the importance of the factors that affect their attitudes towards the adoption of biotechnology in forest plantations.
Therefore, the research hypothesis H2: “The factors affect consumers’ attitudes towards the use of biotechnology in forest plantations are not significantly associated with their intention to buy GM forest products” may be rejected.
Tsourgiannis et. al. (2015) identified four groups of consumers according to their potential buying behaviour towards forest products derived from transgenic-trees : (a) consumers who were interested in the product’s quality, (b) consumers who were orientated towards lower prices, (c) consumers who were influenced by labelling and curiosity issues and (d) consumers who were interested in health safety issues and the environmental impacts. In this study the Friedman one way non parametric test was employed in order to explore which factors affected consumers’ attitudes towards the use of biotechnology in forest plantations in Greece that have an impact on each group of consumers (Table 3).
The test indicated that most of the consumers who were influenced by the labelling and curiosity issues paid attention mainly on the environmental impact that the adoption of biotechnology might have in the forest tree sector and then on economic issues and lastly on the positive impact on production processes. No significant association was found between the other three groups of consumers and the importance of the factors that affect their attitudes towards the adoption of biotechnology in forest plantations.
Hence, the hypothesis Ho3: “The factors affect consumers’ attitudes towards the use of biotechnology in forest plantations are not significantly associated with consumers’ classification regarding their buying behaviour towards transgenic tree derived products”, may be rejected.
This study investigated the main factors that affect the attitude of potential consumers towards the utilization of transgenic trees and their products and influence their willingness to buy those products. It showed that consumers’ attitudes towards the use of biotechnology in forest plantations were mainly affected by the impact of that technology might have on the environment, biodiversity, and human health, as well as by its positive impact on production processes and economic impact.
This study supports the findings of other studies according to which consumers were mainly affected in their preferences towards transgenic trees and their potential products, from their environmental and philosophical concerns. Consumers appeared positively orientated towards the use of biotechnology in forest plantations, probably because the products derived from forest trees are not food and therefore they were considered less dangerous to human health.
A limitation however of this survey needs to be mentioned. The adopted statistical methodology although it explored the factors that affect consumers’ buying behaviour, which is useful for marketing analysis and strategy development can not measure the demand of a product or determine the importance of the characteristics of a product that affect consumers’ behaviour. These measurements can be made with the use of other statistical techniques such as conjoint analysis and contingent valuation.
Nevertheless, the current study is of value, since according to our knowledge, this is the first attempt to explore the consumers’ attitudes towards the development of transgenic trees and their products, as well the factors that affected their attitudes towards the adoption of such technology in forest plantations. According to the results of the study the potential developers of such forest tree plantations and paper, wood and woody biomass energy products should structure their marketing and promotion mix and focus on environment protection, and economic efficient production methods. Furthermore, campaigns that will aim to inform public about the use of biotechnology in forest plantations and its advantages and disadvantages should take place. 20. Moser, C. A. (1958).
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