Recently, there has been a worldwide interest in local people’s engagement in cultural heritage conservation. However, previous research has not yet profoundly examined how the symbolic values, e.g., Sense of Place (SoP) and attitude, held by local people toward cultural heritage sites affect their behavioral intentions toward the conservation of these sites, especially in the Middle East and North Africa. The present study fills in this gap through an empirical examination of local people’s attitude as a mediator of the roles of SoP in behavioral intentions toward two historic buildings at the Al-Khalifa quarter in Historic Cairo, which gain the local people’s special interest in their conservation. Methods included direct observation, review of related literature and conservation reports, semi-structured interviews with local people, officials and managers, and 200+ collected questionnaires from a sample of local people on the two historic buildings. The data analysis revealed that there is a case in which inserting attitude as a mediator variable substantially improves the prediction of people’s behavioral intentions. Accordingly, the study concluded that testing the mediation of attitude is highly recommended when examining the SoP-behavioral intentions roles, as it may improve the prediction of behavioral intentions under certain conditions. This conclusion could be supported by further examination of several historic buildings with similar characteristics and uses. The study suggests using carefully designed questionnaires to avoid the possible bias that might occur because of the order in which the questions and rating values are listed. In general, this study can guide the official stakeholders on how to maintain sustainable conservation of cultural heritage sites through understanding how the local people perceive and react to these sites.

Giant Japanese horse chestnut (Aesculus turbinata Blume) stands formed in the mountain forests in Japan, and the environmental and social factors influencing the formation of such stands on common land were investigated in this study, which examined the interactions between physical conditions and local forest use. Additionally, this study aimed to identify the similarities and differences in the factors influencing giant A. turbinata forest formation between the common land area examined in this study and private land areas reported in previous studies in the Kutsuki region, Takashima City, Shiga Prefecture, Japan. In terms of the natural environment, this study revealed that the forest tended to grow in the uppermost reaches of the valley and at higher elevations than at the bottom of the valley. This observation indicates that the forest studied here was similar to that in previous studies in terms of the frequency and scale of disturbance, such as landslides and other landform changes, which potentially occur once every several hundred years, even in different valleys. Moreover, the findings revealed the importance of A. turbinata nuts as a local food resource and social factor because the stands of giant A. turbinata trees on common land have been protected from logging pressure and thus have persisted. A common characteristic of the “loose” management of A. turbinata trees was identified in this case study of common land and the other cases of private lands in previous studies.

This study explores the influence of international conservation schemes on wetland management in a developing country. Using Tram Chim National Park (TCNP) in Vietnam as a case study, it employs a mixed-method approach, including in-depth interviews with ten local conservation managers and semi-structured interviews with 30 community members. Research results have shown that since 2003, international conservation schemes have catalyzed reshaping Vietnam’s wetland management policies, enhancing community engagement and contributing to wetland conservation and sustainable utilization. The wetland management policies in Vietnam have transitioned from state-based to co-management involving local communities. However, these policy-level transformations have not effectively translated into practical co-management or Wise Use practices. The Resource Use Groups (RUGs), conceived as part of co-management, yielded only transient gains in augmenting community participation in TCNP wetland management. Tourism development as a manifestation of Wise Use practices has demonstrated only partial efficacy, as the beneficiaries of local tourism did not include impoverished individuals who relied on wetland resources. Despite the long-standing recognition of the role of local communities in wetland conservation due to international schemes and national policies, the execution of wetland management in the TCNP has remained entrenched in conservation without actively encouraging community participation in managing wetland resources. Based on these findings, this study concludes that without a fundamental shift in internal paradigms within the host country, international conservation endeavors can only generate transient co-management systems and incomplete Wise Use practices in developing countries such as Vietnam.