Understanding young people’s perception toward forestation as a strategy to mitigate climate change in a post-conflict developing country

Climate change mitigation strategies need both source reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and a significant enhancement of the land sink of carbon dioxide (CO2) through photosynthesis. In recent years, there has been growing attention to forests as an effective way to mitigate climate change as they capture and store large quantities of CO2 as phytomass and in the soil. Numerous forestation programs have been rolled out internationally and governments, mostly in the developing world, have been fostering tree planting initiatives. However, there is a paucity of studies that assess local perceptions to these initiatives and there are virtually no studies that do so in countries recovering from long-term conflict such as Somalia. Here, we analyze the factors that motivate or hinder the perception of young people in Somalia about forestation as a means to mitigate climate change. This demographic was targeted because 75% of the population of Somalia is between the ages of 18 and 35. Our results show that biocentric value orientation, which emphasizes environmental preservation and ecosystem maintenance, has significant positive influence on attitudes towards forestation whereas anthropocentric value orientation, which treats forests as an instrumental value to humans, did not show a significant influence. A surprising discovery was that biocentric value orientation also had a direct positive influence on young people’s intentions to adopt forestation as a strategy to mitigate climate. We also found that risk perception has a significant positive influence on attitude towards forestation as it is a critical driver of collective action against human-induced environmental problems. We conclude the paper with insights and recommendations for policymakers.