Biological Conservation 180 (2014) 206–213

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Biological Conservation
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biocon

Responses of South African land-use planning stakeholders to the

New Ecological Paradigm and the Inclusion of Nature in Self scales:
Assessment of their potential as components of social assessments
for conservation projects
Angelika Wilhelm-Rechmann, Richard M. Cowling ⇑, Mark Difford
Department of Botany, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, P.O. Box 77000, Port Elizabeth 6031, South Africa

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale is a commonly used tool to investigate the degree of ecocentric-
Received 4 June 2014 ity of participants, i.e. the extent to which they endorse pro-nature views. Here we used the scale as part
Received in revised form 6 September 2014 of the formative research for a conservation project aimed at persuading land use planning stakeholders
Accepted 8 October 2014
associated with municipalities to use the conservation priority maps produced by conservation planners.
Available online 28 October 2014
In order to assess its capacity to differentiate between groups of stakeholders according to their degree of
ecocentricity, we applied the NEP scale to 53 participants comprising 16 officials responsible for land use
Keywords:
planning issues and 37 locally elected councilors (politicians) from South African municipalities. We also
Conservation planning
Culture
applied the Inclusion of Nature in Self (INS) scale – a single-item graphic measure – to the councilors in
Eastern Cape our sample who all hold anti-conservation views, in order to explore their connectedness to nature. The
Ecocentricity NEP scale scores were effective in differentiating councilors and officials, and people of Xhosa and other
Local government cultural groups, suggesting that the scale has good potential as a component of a social assessment for
Stakeholder segmentation conservation projects. We found little concordance between the NEP and the INS scales, owing largely
to Xhosa participants who mostly scored low for the former, and high for the latter scale. We recommend
the use of both scales for social assessments for conservation projects in multi-cultural contexts.
Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction issues (Cowling and Wilhelm-Rechmann, 2007; Mascia et al.,

Conservation projects often fail owing to the lack of an assess-
ment of the beliefs, attitudes and worldviews of the stakeholders
tasked with implementing their outcomes (Campbell, 2005;
Cowling and Wilhelm-Rechmann, 2007; Knight et al., 2006;
Mascia et al., 2003). In the field of conservation planning specifi-
cally, pleas have been made to include social assessments as part
of the project’s data collection stage (Cowling et al., 2003; Knight
et al., 2006; Stephanson and Mascia, 2014). Minimally, such assess-
ments should provide insights into the way stakeholders perceive
biodiversity conservation issues (Wilhelm-Rechmann and Cowling,
2011). Most spatial prioritization studies are not implemented by
the relevant stakeholders (Knight et al., 2008), possibly because
of problems arising from differences in the way in which conserva-
tionists and other stakeholders frame biodiversity conservation
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +27 42 2980259.
E-mail addresses: angelika.wilhelm@gmx.com (A. Wilhelm-Rechmann), richard.
cowling@nmmu.ac.za (R.M. Cowling), markdifford@gmail.com (M. Difford).
2003; Stephanson and Mascia, 2014).
In many parts of the world, conservation scientists have used
conservation assessment software to develop spatially explicit
maps that indicate which areas are most valuable for biodiversity
protection (Kukkala and Moilanen, 2012; Margules and Pressey,
2000). The practical aim of developing the maps is to steer devel-
opment away from areas with high biodiversity value (Pierce
et al., 2005; Pressey and Tully, 1994). To achieve this goal, institu-
tions responsible for land use changes need to adopt these conser-
vation planning products (Pierce et al., 2005; Theobald et al., 2000).
In South Africa, like in many other countries, the decision making
power for land development lies primarily in the hands of locally
elected politicians (Van Wyk, 1999).
In this study, we investigated two tools to assess the conserva-
tion related beliefs, attitudes and world views of stakeholders (offi-
cials and elected councilors) involved in land use planning at the
local (municipal) government scale in six coastal municipalities
in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province. We were interested in
finding out whether these tools hold promise as components of a

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2014.10.012
0006-3207/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 A. Wilhelm-Rechmann et al. / Biological Conservation 180 (2014) 206–213
social assessment of stakeholders that would enable conservation
practitioners to better understand the barriers to implementing
actions arising from planning and other conservation-related pro-
jects in local government contexts. The tools we used are the
New Ecological Paradigm scale (Dunlap et al., 2000) and the Inclu-
sion of Nature in Self (INS) scale (Schultz, 2001; Schultz et al.,
2004).
The New Environmental Paradigm and the New Ecological Par-
adigm scales, both abbreviated as ‘NEP scale’, are among the most
widely used tools for investigating the attitudes, beliefs, or world-
views of people about the natural environment (Dunlap, 2008). The
New Ecological Paradigm scale is the current revision of the origi-
nal twelve-question New Environmental Paradigm scale published
in 1978 (Dunlap and Van Liere, 1978); various other adaptations of
the scale have been used e.g. Hawcroft and Milfont (2010). The
revised scale (Dunlap et al., 2000) features 15 questions that
address five facets of environmental beliefs: limits to growth (the
global resource base cannot sustain human population growth
indefinitely), balance of nature (natural ecosystems are vulnerable
to the growing impact of humans), anti-anthropocentrism (species
other than humans also have a right to exist), the human exemp-
tionalism paradigm (the notion that humans, unlike other species,
are exempt from the constraints of nature), and the possibility of
an eco-crisis (the likelihood of catastrophic environmental
changes). Only the first three dimensions are addressed in the ori-
ginal scale. Unlike the original scale, which aimed to investigate
the transition from a dominant social paradigm to a new environ-
mental paradigm, the new scale is currently used predominantly to
assess the degree to which people endorse an environmental or
ecological attitude, belief or worldview, i.e. their degree of ecocen-
tricity (Dunlap, 2008).
The INS scale (Schultz, 2001) is one of seven measures used to
assess the extent to which humans are connected to nature
(Tam, 2013). INS is a single-item, graphical measure described thus
by Schultz et al. (2004) (p. 32): ‘At one extreme is the individual
who believes that s/he is separate from nature—that people are
exempt from the laws of nature and superior to plants and animals.
At the other end of the continuum is the individual who believes
that s/he is just as much a part of nature as are other animals
and that the same rights that apply to humans should apply to
plants and animals’. Schultz (2001) posits that INS concords with
the cognitive aspects of self and nature whereas the other mea-
sures focus on the emotional aspects (Tam, 2013); consequently,
it may resonate better with the African (isiXhosa-speaking) partic-
ipants in our study system since their perspectives of nature are
rooted in cognitive rather than emotional beliefs (Cocks, 2006;
Cocks et al., 2012). We also chose the single-item INS over other
scales because of it took very little time to implement. Since this
concept was introduced after the 15-item NEP questionnaire, we
wanted, by using a short measure, to avoid participant exhaustion.
As stated above, the overall aim of our study was to assess
whether these two tools yield results that would be useful for con-
servation practitioners charged with identifying strategies for
implementing planning and other conservation-related projects
in a local government context. In order to achieve our aim, we
addressed the following questions: Is the NEP scale a tool that is
suitable for the context and target group of this study? Is the
NEP scale effective for distinguishing between groups of stakehold-
ers? Do the NEP and the INS scales provide comparable results for
the target audience?
2. Study system
We worked with participants concerned with land use planning
in six coastal municipalities in the Eastern Cape Province, South
207
Africa. Of these municipalities, two are mostly urbanized, metro-
politan municipalities with relatively high levels of technical and
governance capacity, and infrastructure and service-related devel-
opment (Nelson Mandela Bay and Buffalo City); two are largely
rural municipalities that have intermediate levels of capacity and
development (Kouga and Ndlambe); and two are rural municipal-
ities with low levels of capacity and development (Koukamma and
Great Kei). The Eastern Cape Province is the country’s second poor-
est province: 87.5% of the population is African (mainly isiXhosa
speaking), 7.4% Coloured (Afrikaans speakers of mainly Khoe-Khoe
descent), 4.7% White (of European descent speaking either English
or Afrikaans) and 0.3% Asian (largely from the Indian subcontinent)
(Statistics South Africa, 2012). All of the selected municipalities are
characterized by disparities in wealth and land ownership, and
high levels of poverty and unemployment. The majority of Black
Africans live in impoverished conditions; the White minority owns
most of the wealth, whereas Coloureds occupy a socio-economic
status that is intermediate between these two groups (Davenport
et al., 2012).
The coastline associated with all of these municipalities is
under pressure from urbanization driven by migration of impover-
ished Blacks seeking employment and, to a lesser extent, wealthy
Whites seeking improved lifestyles (Nel and Binns, 2003; Palmer
et al., 2010). Pressures on biodiversity are greatest in the two rel-
atively well-capacitated metropolitan municipalities, intermediate
but rapidly growing in the two municipalities with intermediate
capacity (Kouga and Ndlambe), and relatively low in the two
poorly capacitated municipalities (Great Kei and Koukamma)
(Cowling et al., 2003).
Participants comprised people associated with the administra-
tive and the political component of the land use planning process,
namely 16 officials employed by municipalities to perform land-
use-planning and environmental functions (hereafter officials),
and their political leadership – 37 locally elected councilors (here-
after councilors). Ultimately, councilors make the final decisions on
development initiatives although these decisions may be over-
turned by environmental officials at the provincial tier of govern-
ment if the environmental and biodiversity impacts exceed
legislative thresholds. Since our research has shown that the two
metropolitan municipalities have well-capacitated land use plan-
ning organizations that respond to guidelines derived from conser-
vation plans (Wilhelm-Rechmann and Cowling, 2013), largely
independent of political interference, we restricted our interviews
to councilors from the smaller, less capacitated municipalities.
3. Methods
3.1. Data collection
At the end of in-depth interviews for our formative research
(see Wilhelm-Rechmann and Cowling, 2013; Wilhelm-Rechmann
et al., 2014 and Appendix S1 for details on interview format, loca-
tion and language), one of us (AW-R) presented the 15 NEP-scale
questions in English – the dominant working language of both offi-
cials and councilors – to the 53 stakeholders in the six local munic-
ipalities described above. The questions are shown in Table 1. The
participant sample included all relevant stakeholders who agreed
to the survey. This comprised 68% of the officials and 62% of the
councilors. We categorized participants as follows: profession
(official (categorized as land use planner or environmental officer),
councilor), municipality (Buffalo City, Nelson Mandela Bay, (offi-
cials only) Great Kei, Kouga, Koukamma, or Ndlambe (officials
and councilors)), culture (Afrikaans, Coloured, English, or Xhosa)
and, for councilors only, membership of a political party (African
National Congress (ANC), Democratic Alliance (DA)). South Africa’s
208 A. Wilhelm-Rechmann et al. / Biological Conservation 180 (2014) 206–213

Table 1
Responses of land use planning stakeholders to the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale items. Mean is the mean of the ecoscores on a five-point scale for each question; values in
brackets for even-numbered questions = 5.00 – mean (see text). SA = strongly agree, MA = mildly agree, U = unsure, MD = mildly disagree, SD = strongly disagree, StD = standard
deviation.

Question Frequency (%) Mean StD

SA MA U MD SD
Q1: We are approaching the limit of the number of people the earth can support 41.5 22.6 11.3 13.2 11.3 3.70 1.42
Q2: Humans have the right to modify the natural environment to suit their needs 22.6 35.8 7.5 15.1 18.9 3.28 (2.72) 1.46
Q3: When humans interfere with nature, it often produces disastrous consequences 49.1 30.2 3.8 15.1 1.9 4.09 1.15
Q4: Human ingenuity will insure that we do NOT make the earth unlivable 24.5 24.5 24.5 11.3 15.1 3.32 (2.68) 1.37
Q5: Humans are severely abusing the environment 52.8 28.3 1.9 13.2 3.8 4.13 1.19
Q6: The earth has plenty of natural resources if we just learn how to develop them 67.9 20.8 1.9 7.5 1.9 4.45 (1.55) 0.99
Q7: Plants and animals have as much right as humans to exist 77.4 11.3 3.8 3.8 3.8 4.55 1.01
Q8: The balance of nature is strong enough to cope with the impacts of modern industrial nations 13.2 20.8 13.2 18.9 34.0 2.60 (3.40) 1.47
Q9: Despite our special abilities, humans are still subject to the laws of nature 60.4 30.2 3.8 1.9 3.8 4.42 0.95
Q10: The so-called ecological crisis facing humankind has been greatly exaggerated 17.0 15.1 9.4 22.6 35.8 2.55 (3.45) 1.53
Q11: The earth is like a spaceship with very limited room and resources 34.0 34.0 3.8 11.3 17.0 3.57 1.49
Q12: Humans were meant to rule over the rest of nature 41.5 28.3 3.8 9.4 17.0 3.68 (2.32) 1.52
Q13: The balance of nature is very delicate and easily upset 47.2 35.8 5.7 5.7 5.7 4.13 1.13
Q14: Humans will eventually learn enough about how nature works to be able to control it 43.4 22.6 7.5 7.5 18.9 3.64 (2.36) 1.56
Q15: If things continue on their present course, we will soon experience a major ecological catastrophe 49.1 28.3 13.2 5.7 3.8 4.13 1.09

history of racial classification means that race and culture are inex-
tricably interconnected. Thus, Whites, who were advantaged by
apartheid, include the Afrikaans (of Dutch, German and French
descent) and English (of British descent) cultural groups identified
above. Black groups, who were oppressed by apartheid, include the
Coloured and Xhosa groups. Note that Coloured people mostly
speak Afrikaans and, although mainly of Khoe-Khoe descent, have
interbred widely with Afrikaners, and were classified by the apart-
heid regime as being of ‘‘mixed race’’. The Xhosa cultural group
comprises indigenous African isiXhosa speakers. Our sample
included no Asians or Africans other than Xhosas.
Of the 37 councilors, 57% were Xhosa, 22% were Coloured, 16%
were Afrikaans and 5% were English; 35% were employed by the
Kouga Municipality and 22% were employed by each of the other
small municipalities; 76% represented the ANC and 24% repre-
sented the DA. Of the 16 officials, 38% were Afrikaans, 25% were
Coloured, 25% Xhosa and 12% were English; 45% were employed
by Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, 25% by Ndlambe, 12% by
Kouga and Buffalo City, and 6% by Koukamma.
AW-R asked participants to read the NEP questions and tick on
the five-point Likert items (Dunlap et al., 2000) according to what
they felt was closest to their feeling. She also pointed out, that
there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer and remained present but
silent, giving participants the opportunity to enquire if needed.
We applied the INS scale to a subset of the participants, namely
the 37 councilors from the four rural municipalities. We did this
because the in-depth interviews indicated that almost all of these
participants held strong anti-conservation views (Wilhelm-
Rechmann et al., 2014). We thus applied this scale in an attempt
to see whether it could identify their degree of ecocentricity differ-
ently than the NEP scale. After completing the NEP questionnaire,
AW-R presented each councilor with two paper disks, one featur-
ing the term ‘nature’, the other one the term ‘me’. She then
enquired to what degree the disks overlapped: if the participant
felt as ‘being one’ with nature (full overlap) or ‘completely sepa-
rate’ from nature (no overlap). When participants handed their
estimate back, AW-R made a drawing and verbally assessed with
the participant how large the overlap was when expressed as a
percentage.
3.2. Data analysis
Following Dunlap et al. (2000) we used Cronbach’s a (Alpha)
(Cronbach, 1951) to test for internal consistency of the NEP dataset.
While Cronbach’s Alpha is the most widely applied coefficient of
internal consistency reliability in the psychometric literature, it
has, however, recently been found to over-estimate the proportion
of variance displayed by scores when attempting to develop a valid
scale (Zinbarg et al., 2005). This bias occurs when questions reflect
multiple (as opposed to a single) dimensions of a factor – a feature
common to many datasets. Alpha also does not estimate the dimen-
sionality of a scale, though it often is mistakenly taken as doing so
(Revelle and Zinbarg, 2009; Sijtsma, 2009). Therefore, we carried
out an hierarchical factor analysis to (a) analyze the scale in detail
and (b) compute two forms of McDonald’s Omega, namely Hierar-
chical Omega (xh) and Total Omega (xt) (McDonald, 1999).
McDonald’s Omega coefficients are regarded as amongst the most
reliable coefficients of internal consistency and dimensionality
(Zinbarg et al., 2005). Acceptable thresholds reported for Cron-
bach’s Alpha vary from 0.70 (Nunnally, 1978) to 0.80 (Rossiter,
2002). For McDonald’s Omega, Knight et al. (2010) suggest as
acceptable a value of 0.60. We also carried out a conventional
exploratory factor analysis in order to examine factor structure.
We used ordered logistic regression (Harrell, 2001) to model
relationships between ecocentricity and the characteristics of the
participants. The response variable used was an ‘ecoscore’, com-
puted by using an ordinal scale where – for odd numbered ques-
tions – ‘strongly agree’ was allocated a value of 5 (maximum
ecocentricity) and ‘strongly disagree’ was allocated 1 (minimum
ecocentricity). For even-numbered questions, we inverted the scor-
ing. This resulted in a maximum ecoscore of 75, reflecting the high-
est degree of ecocentricity. The explanatory variables were
participant’s political affiliation, profession, culture and municipal-
ity, all of which are relevant to local government contexts in South
Africa (Nel and Binns, 2003). Note that the aim of our analysis was
to assess whether the NEP scale is a useful tool for segmenting
local government stakeholders for conservation-related projects;
it was not our aim to predict responses to the tool in terms of
socio-economic variables such as age, gender and educational
background. Owing to co-linearity between political affiliation
and profession, we could not fit a model that included all explan-
atory variables. Therefore, two models were fitted: model 1
excluded political affiliation and model 2 excluded profession.
We further explored the relationship between participant’s NEP
scores and culture and profession, using between-class principal
components analysis, a special case of principal component analy-
sis on instrumental variables when the predictor matrix is a factor
(Jolliffe, 2002).
 A. Wilhelm-Rechmann et al. / Biological Conservation 180 (2014) 206–213
We used an Exact Wilcoxon signed rank test (paired) (Wilcoxon,
1945) to statistically assess concordance between the NEP scale
and the INS scale.
All analyses were carried out using R (R Development Core
Team, 2010), supplemented by the contributed packages psych
(Revelle, 2014), for determining Cronbach’s Alpha and McDonald’s
Omega coefficients, and rms (Harrell, 2013), for fitting the ordered
logistic regression models.
4. Results
Cronbach’s Alpha was 0.76 for our data set, suggesting an
acceptable degree of internal consistency reliability for the NEP
scale when applied to our sample. This was confirmed by the
results of an hierarchical factor analysis, which provided us with
estimates of McDonald’s Omega coefficients (Hierarchical: 0.54,
Total: 0.83). Omega Hierarchical was on the margin of acceptabil-
ity, indicating that the NEP scale might be multidimensional rather
than unidimensional, which Dunlap et al. (2000) conceded it might
be. Conventional factor analysis indicated that between one and
three factors were present, depending on the criterion used:
Velicer’s (1976) MAP criterion indicated one, Revelle and
Rocklin’s (1979) ‘‘Very Simple Structure’’ index indicated two,
and Horn’s (1965) parallel analysis indicated three. A bootstrap
analysis (5000 replications) of the estimate of Alpha gave 95% per-
centile confidence intervals of 0.65 and 0.83.
Despite some indication of multidimensionality, we treated the
scale as if it is unidimensional. In deciding to do so we were influ-
enced by the following considerations: (a) the weak and inconclu-
sive nature of the evidence of multidimensionality; (b) the views of
Dunlap et al. (2000, especially, p. 431) and Dunlap (2008) on how
to treat the scale when there are indications of multidimensional-
ity; (c) the views of Reise et al. (2010) on the merits of treating
somewhat multidimensional scales as unidimensional ones; and
(d) Bernstein and Teng’s (1989) finding that multi-category items
(like Likert items) give the spurious impression of multidimension-
ality even though the scale is unidimensional.
Table 1 summarizes stakeholder’s responses to the NEP scale.
The overall ecoscore was 56.2 (out of a maximum of 75) and mean
rating of 3.75. Questions reflecting non-ecocentric views among
participants were Q. 2 (humans have the right to modify the natural
environment to suit their needs), where 58.4% agreed (SA + MA);
and Q. 6 (the earth has plenty of natural resources if we just learn
how to use them), where 88.7% agreed. The latter reflects that the
vast majority of participants do not accept the ‘‘limits to growth’’
facet of an ecocentric worldview. The most strongly ecocentric
views were associated with Q. 7 (plants and animals have as much
right as humans to exist), where 88.7% of participants agreed
(SA = 77.4%); and Q. 9 (despite our special abilities, humans are still
subject to the laws of nature), where 90.6% agreed.
The two ordered logistic regression models (model 1 excluding
political affiliation and model 2 excluding profession) both had
Table 2
Results of the proportional odds models to predict the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) total score for the data set. Model 1 excludes political affiliation and model 2 excludes
profession (these two explanatory variables showed a high degree of colinearity).
Model likelihood ratio test
Obs Model L.R. v2
a
Model 1 53 29.13
Model 2b 53 29.13
Model 1: Odd-numbered itemsc 53 22.57
Model 1: Even-numbered itemsc 53 21.58
a
NEP Score  profession + municipality + culture.
b
NEP Score  party + municipality + culture.
c
NEP Score QType  profession + municipality + culture, where QType refers to odd- or even-numbered questions.
209
acceptable statistical and predictive properties, with good ROC
and Brier scores, despite their simple structure (Table 2). The anal-
ysis of deviance (Table 3) showed that in both models, culture con-
tributed the most to explaining the total NEP score of participants.
Other significant contributors were profession (model 1) and polit-
ical affiliation (model 2). Generally, the odds were substantially
higher that officials would be more ecocentric than councilors
(Fig. 1). In terms of culture, the odds were higher that participants
of Xhosa origin would have lower ecocentricity than other cultural
groups. With regard to political affiliation, the odds of holding eco-
centric were higher for members of the DA than members of the
ANC. There were no meaningful differences in ecocentricity
amongst municipalities.
The between-class principal components analysis also showed a
strong relationship between NEP response and participant’s cul-
ture and profession (Fig. 2). The horizontal axis represents a gradi-
ent of ecocentricity with low values clustered to the left of the
origin and high values to the right. Both ordinations showed clear
structure that was supported by highly significant Monte Carlo
tests. The analyses showed that participants of English culture held
the most ecocentric views while those of Xhosa culture held the
least ecocentric views; Coloured and Afrikaans participants occu-
pied an intermediate position. Anti-ecocentric views, were most
strongly determined by responses to (in decreasing order) Q. 6
(no limits to growth), Q. 14, (humans are exempt from nature’s
constraints), Q. 10 (ecological crisis is exaggerated) and Q. 2
(humans have the right to modify nature) (also see Table 1). Pro-
ecocentric views were most strongly determined by responses to
Q. 1, Q. 5, and Q. 11, which reflected a limits-to-growth and the
possibility of an ecocrisis perspective. In terms of profession cate-
gories, officials held the most ecocentric views and councilors the
least ecocentric views. Here, anti-ecocentric views were most
strongly determined by responses to Q. 14 (humans are exempt
from nature’s constraints), Q. 6 (no limits to growth), Q. 2 (humans
have the right to modify nature) and Q. 12 (human dominance over
nature). Pro-ecocentric views were most strongly reflected by the
same three questions as the culture-level analysis.
Among the subset of participants (councilors from rural munic-
ipalities) who were assessed using the INS scale, those of Xhosa cul-
ture scored the highest values (median = 100%); the median for the
remainder was 55% (Fig. 3) Similarly, INS scores at the municipal
level were positively related to the proportion of councilors belong-
ing to the Xhosa culture. In the Kouga municipality, where only 38%
of participants were of Xhosa culture, the median INS score was
50%, compared to 100% where councilors of Xhosa culture domi-
nated. Participants of ANC affiliation had a median score of 100%
whereas those belonging to the DA had a score of only 50%.
Overall, there was no significant relationship between the INS
and NEP scores recorded for councilors (Table 4). There was, how-
ever, a good correspondence between the two scales for the Kouga
municipality, and for all municipalities after the Xhosa councilors
were excluded from the analysis.
Statistics related to predictive performance
d.f. p ROC Dxy Gamma Tau-a R2N Brier
9 0.001 0.711 0.421 0.444 0.406 0.424 0.174
10 0.001 0.712 0.424 0.447 0.409 0.424 0.174
9 0.007 0.707 0.415 0.438 0.394 0.348 0.186
9 0.010 0.686 0.372 0.392 0.355 0.336 0.192
210 A. Wilhelm-Rechmann et al. / Biological Conservation 180 (2014) 206–213

Table 3
Analysis of deviance tables of the two proportional odds models to predict the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) total score.

Wald statistics for model 1 Wald statistics for model 2

2
Predictor v d.f. p Predictor v2 d.f. p
Profession 5.67 1 0.0172 Political affiliation 5.67 2 0.0588
Municipality 5.97 5 0.3094 Municipality 5.97 5 0.3094
Culture 13.97 3 0.0029 Culture 11.71 3 0.0084
Total 24.62 9 0.0034 Total 24.61 10 0.0061

log odds
-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 log odds
-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
cat - Official:Councilor
party - DA:ANC
mun - Buffalo City:Kouga
party - none:ANC
mun - Great Kei:Kouga
mun - Buffalo City:Kouga

mun - Koukamma:Kouga mun - Great Kei:Kouga

mun - Ndlambe:Kouga mun - Koukamma:Kouga

mun - Ndlambe:Kouga
mun - NMM:Kouga
mun - NMM:Kouga
cult - afrikaans:xhosa
cult - afrikaans:xhosa
cult - coloured:xhosa
cult - coloured:xhosa

cult - english:xhosa cult - english:xhosa

(a) model 1 (b) model 2

Fig. 1. Summary of the results of the two proportional odds models (see Tables 2 and 3). (a) Model 1 excludes political affiliation and (b) model 2 excludes profession. Each
predictor (left of the colon) is compared to a reference level (right of the colon) and the odds of being more or less ecocentric are presented. The comparisons where the
triangle-marker on the confidence bar is positioned on the positive side of the scale show that the predictor encompasses individuals who are more ecocentric than
individuals belonging to the reference level. Confidence levels are described by the shading on the confidence bar: light gray = 90%, dark gray = 95%, black = 99%.
cat = profession, mun = municipality, cult = culture, ANC = African National Congress, DA = Democratic Alliance, NMM = Nelson Mandela Bay.

Fig. 2. Summary of a between-class principal component analysis using (a) culture and (b) profession as the classifying factors. The barycentres of the groups (class-labels)
represent a weighted arithmetic mean of the scores to the questions of the NEP scale. Ellipses are data ellipses (not confidence ellipses) and enclose approximately 68% of the
members of the class; their orientation and shape indicate the main axis of variation of the class. The null hypothesis that there are no differences between the classes of the
cross-identifier was tested using Monte-Carlo permutation tests (50,000 permutations). For both analyses, the null was rejected with a high degree of significance (p-values of
0.0014 and 0.0078, respectively). See Appendix S2 for further details on the two analyses.
 A. Wilhelm-Rechmann et al. / Biological Conservation 180 (2014) 206–213
Fig. 3. Relationship between New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) ecoscore and
Inclusion in Nature (INS) score for 37 councilors from the four rural municipalities
differentiated according to (a) culture, (b) political affiliation, and (c) municipality.
ANC = African National Congress, DA = Democratic Alliance.
5. Discussion
Despite a small sample of culturally heterogeneous participants,
our NEP results were robust, showing an acceptable degree of
internal consistency when compared with the results of a meta
analysis of 69 studies from 36 nations (Hawcroft and Milfont,
2010). Furthermore, Cronbach’s Alpha for our sample was not sub-
stantively different from that of the USA population sample
(Dunlap et al., 2000), being 0.76 compared to 0.83, the upper 95%
confidence interval of Alpha for our sample being 0.83. We con-
clude that the NEP scale is a meaningful and reliable tool for
assessing ecocentricity in the South African local government
context.
However, South Africans showed more variation in beliefs and
less uncertainty as compared to the Dunlap et al. (2000) sample.
While the high variation can be expected in our culturally and
socio-economically heterogeneous sample, the low level of uncer-
tainty – reflected by few participants choosing the ‘unsure’ Likert
item – is surprising. The reaction of participants when presented
with the questionnaire often revealed considerable insecurity; at
times they even clearly expressed a lack of understanding of the
questions. Five of the 37 councilors interviewed asked a question
of understanding, e.g. ‘what do you mean ‘‘we are approaching
211
the limit of the number of people the earth can support’’?’ or ‘what
do you mean by ‘‘spaceship’’?’. A further nine of them clearly dis-
played signs of uncertainty. All of those expressing uncertainty
were associated with the historically disadvantaged Black majority.
While various forms of the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale
have been applied to a wide range of participants (Hawcroft and
Milfont, 2010), ours is the first application on the African conti-
nent. We recorded a mean rating of 3.75 which is similar to an
overall mean 3.69 for 38 samples using the 15-item scale from
developed countries, and 3.77 for 18 developing countries
(Hawcroft and Milfont, 2010).
Our NEP results showed that this tool has good potential to seg-
ment the stakeholders in our survey and, therefore, shows promise
as a tool for conducting social assessments for conservation pro-
jects in a complex social context. Social assessments have much
potential to contribute meaningful input for devising conservation
strategies (Knight et al., 2006; Cowling and Wilhelm-Rechmann,
2007; Knight et al., 2010; Stephanson and Mascia, 2014). We
showed that profession and culture are the key factors that differ-
entiate groups in our dataset according to their NEP scores. The
emergence of profession as a predictor of NEP scores is consistent
with Hawcroft and Milfont’s (2010) results from a meta analysis of
NEP studies, which showed that environmentalist and white collar
workers scored higher, and blue collar workers lower, than sam-
ples representative of the population. The result that ‘culture’ is a
key predictor of the total NEP score concords with NEP studies that
have used African American participants; these show lower levels
of ecocentricity in this ethnic group when compared to Whites (e.g.
Johnson et al., 2004; Bun Lee, 2008). Considering the colonial and
apartheid history of South Africa, it is likely that ‘culture’ is a com-
plex, multi-faceted factor (Beinart, 2003; Cousins et al., 2007).
Clearly participants associated with the previously disadvantaged
Black majority (Xhosa and Coloured) tend to show lower – and dif-
ferent – levels of ecocentricity than members of the White minor-
ity. These differences are likely underpinned by a wide range of
factors, notably higher poverty and lower educational levels but
also a strong appreciation for the primacy of economic growth as
a means for overcoming poverty, and mistrust of the motives of
the conservation sector (Wilhelm-Rechmann and Cowling, 2011;
Wilhelm-Rechmann et al., 2014). Interestingly, Sheppard (1995)
showed that African American adults eschewed ideas of limits to
growth and were more likely to prioritise economic growth over
environmental concerns than their White counterparts.
However, for the purpose of conducting a social assessment for
conservation projects, we consider noteworthy the finding that
responses to the NEP questions show differences among profes-
sions, especially between councilors and officials, implying that
different approaches are required for these two groups when
developing strategies for implementing conservation projects. In
the same vein, a detailed analysis of the scores of specific questions
could guide the development of appropriate arguments and pro-
motional material that is suitable for the specific target audience
(Jacobson, 1999). Our results suggest that approaches that propa-
gate ‘limits to growth’ arguments are likely to raise considerable
opposition among Xhosa councilors and officials, who dominate
the political and administrative spheres in Eastern Cape municipal-
ities. Indeed, this aspect is also clearly mirrored in the interviews
we conducted with the 37 councilors (Wilhelm-Rechmann and
Cowling, 2011) that demonstrated a marked antipathy to environ-
mental protection owing to the perceived anti-growth and devel-
opment pronouncements of its proponents.
Conversely, there is a notably strong agreement in our target
audience – the councilors – with the notion that plants and ani-
mals have as much right as humans to exist; this was also mirrored
in the interviews (Wilhelm-Rechmann et al., 2014). Furthermore,
councilors clearly showed in the interviews that they do value
212 A. Wilhelm-Rechmann et al. / Biological Conservation 180 (2014) 206–213

Table 4
Exact Wilcoxon signed rank test (paired) of the coherence between the Inclusion in Nature (INS) score and New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) ecoscore within different groups.

Comparison n Statistic (V) p-value 95% Conf int. Sample estimate

(pseudo) median
Lower Upper
Complete dataset 37 535 1e 04 11.43 37.14 25.36
Excluding Xhosa Councilors 16 65 0.7927 16.79 18.21 1.25
Great Kei municipality 8 36 0.0078 25.71 62.86 45.00
Kouga municipality 13 33 0.6111 22.14 20.00 8.04
Koukamma municipality 8 28 0.0156 28.57 42.86 36.07
Ndlambe municipality 8 31 0.0703 0.71 54.29 25.00
Xhosa 21 207 9.537e 06 30.00 51.43 42.50
Afrikaans 6 9 0.8125 29.29 44.29 7.5
Coloured 8 19 0.9453 27.14 31.43 1.43
English 2 1 1 27.14 5.71 10.71

their natural environment personally as well as for its tourism
value, despite rather critical assessments of the conservation
endeavor and a pronounced lack of understanding of the term ‘bio-
diversity’ (Wilhelm-Rechmann and Cowling, 2011).
Ecocentricity was higher for members of the DA (predominantly
White and Coloured membership) than the ANC (predominantly
Black membership). This is unlikely to be a consequence of the
environmental policies of the two organizations since these are
broadly similar, both upholding the three legged stool model of
sustainability (where sustainability is underpinned by equal
emphasis on social, economic and environmental issues) (Dawe
and Ryan, 2003), and giving scant attention to biodiversity conser-
vation per se (ANC, 2013; DA, 2013). The ANC policy does pay expli-
cit attention to the integration of environmental principles into
planning and development. However, both organizations put an
emphasis on human concerns, particularly safeguarding of ecosys-
tem services and protection of the poor and otherwise vulnerable
from the impacts of environmental degradation.
NEP and INS measure similar albeit not clearly defined con-
structs about nature-related beliefs and values. Schultz (2001)
and Schultz et al. (2004) report a correlation between NEP-scale
and INS of 0.20 and 0.30 (p < 0.01), respectively. However, we
showed a very poor relationship between these two scores, driven
largely by the Xhosa participants, the majority of whom had max-
imum INS scores and relatively low NEP ecoscores. Xhosa culture is
deeply embedded in nature in terms of both habitats and species:
people of all socio-economic backgrounds (including city dwellers
who seldom interact directly with nature) rely on wild places and
numerous indigenous species for fostering cultural, spiritual and
emotional relationships (Cocks, 2006; Dold and Cocks, 2012). Our
results suggest that Xhosa people see themselves as part of, rather
than separate from nature; this is consistent with the notion that
the INS scale reflects cognitive beliefs on the overlap between
humans and nature (Schultz, 2001; Tam, 2013). On the other hand,
Whites and Coloureds, while generally having higher NEP scores,
had lower INS scores. This may reflect the influence of Judeao-
Christian belief systems adopted by these groups, which empha-
sizes the separation of humans from wild nature (Colchester,
1997; Schultz et al., 2000).
Finally, the NEP questions and INS disks were very useful not
only for measuring, but also for initiating thinking about, the argu-
ments investigated. Nearly all participants engaged in a discussion
with the interviewer after having completed the questionnaire,
raising specifics surfaced by the exercise. Beyond its usefulness
as a measurement tool, the NEP and INS should be used in practical
settings as a tool to engage the audience and to spark discussion.
6. Conclusions
Our study suggest that both the NEP and INS scales hold prom-
ise as components of a social assessment for assisting with the
development of strategies to implement the outcomes of conserva-
tion projects in the South African local government context, where
sample sizes are often small and culturally heterogeneous. Both
scales were effective in segmenting the stakeholders into sub-
groups that required different approaches for mainstreaming con-
servation concerns into local government policy and practice. In
particular, Xhosa participants, who comprise the vast majority of
all stakeholder groups in our study domain, are more likely to res-
onate with messages that de-emphasize ecocrisis and limits to
growth scenarios. More research is required on how the cultural
values of biodiversity perceived by Xhosa people, particularly their
sense of being part of nature, can be harnessed for conservation
projects (Cocks et al., 2012).
Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge all participants for their openness
and time. Funding was provided by the National Research Founda-
tion (Pretoria), the South African National Biodiversity Institute
and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) Research
Committee. Shirley Pierce and Kent Redford made valuable com-
ments on an earlier draft. The Research Ethics Committee of
NMMU for provided ethical clearance for this research.
Appendix A. Supplementary material
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in
the online version, at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2014.10.
012.
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