A Causal Analysis of the Processes of Evaluation for Forest Environmental Tax

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the decision-making processes in evaluating the need for a forest environmental tax by setting up a new model based on the HSM (Heuristic Systematic Model), using the date of social research and through a structural equation modeling. In addition, we examine the varying effects that the level of interest in local forests and forest environmental tax had on the decision-making process through multiple group analysis.
We had the following results: the trust in local government’s forest management and the policy effect of a forest environmental tax was a direct factor in evaluating the need for forest environmental tax; the policy effect had a greater influence than the trust; the procedural fairness in introducing a forest environmental tax indirectly contributed to the evaluation of the need for a forest environmental tax by exerting an effect on the trust and the policy effect; the trust for low interest group in local forests had a relatively greater influence when compared to high interest group; the trust was not a factor at all in judging the need for a forest environmental tax for the high interest group.