Comparative analysis of students’ attitudes toward implementation of genetically modified trees in Serbia

doi:10.3832/ifor1305-007

Genetically-modified (GM) trees represent a new frontier in biotechnology, though many environmental concerns associated to the commercial use of GM trees and their products have been recently raised. In general, GM trees involve no safety issues related to human health, therefore public attitudes toward their commercial use should depend on environmental concerns or personal philosophical viewpoints, but also on educational level and background. To assess the relevance of the educational level and background on attitudes toward acceptance of commercial GM tree cultivation, a survey was conducted in January 2014 among 400 students from the Faculty of Forestry of the University of Belgrade and from the Faculty of Applied Ecology “Futura” at the University Singidunum (Belgrade). The aim was to determine whether different educational profiles and educational level significantly affect students’ attitudes toward GM trees. Results showed no significant differences in the responses among students from both faculties. All students showed a good knowledge of GM trees and agreed that different genetic modifications of forest trees would be very important for their country. Also, more than a half of students from both faculties would agree with commercial planting of GM trees and would purchase their final products. However, 70 to 90% of students from both faculties considered the hazards associated with the commercial use of GM trees as “serious hazard” or “slight hazard”. The implication of the above results are discussed.

Keywords

Genetic Modifications, Forest Trees, Biotechnology, Survey

Authors’ address

(1)

Faculty of Forestry, University of Belgrade, Belgrade (Serbia)

(2)

Faculty of Applied Ecology “Futura”, Singidunum University, Belgrade (Serbia)

Corresponding author

Uroš Radojević
uros.radojevic@futura.edu.rs

Citation

Nonić M, Radojević U, Milovanović J, Perović M, Šijačić-Nikolić M (2015). Comparative analysis of students’ attitudes toward implementation of genetically modified trees in Serbia. iForest 8: 714-718. - doi: 10.3832/ifor1305-007

Academic Editor

Elena Paoletti

Paper history

Received: Apr 03, 2014
Accepted: Aug 09, 2014

First online: Jan 08, 2015
Publication Date: Oct 01, 2015
Publication Time: 5.07 months

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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Articles citing this article

List of the papers citing this article based on CrossRef Cited-by.

(1)

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Nonić M, Vettori C, Boscaleri F, Milovanović J, Šijacić-Nikolić M (2012)
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Nonić M, Nedeljković J, Radojević U, Vettori C, Šijačić-Nikolić M (2014)
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Steinbrecher RA, Lorch A (2008)
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