Framing Effects on Public Support and Behavioral Responses to Sustainable Forest Management in South Korea

ABSTRACT Despite South Korea's extensive forest coverage, which accounts for approximately 63% of its total land area, the country imports over 83% of its timber needs and has shown a gradual decline in forest carbon sequestration capacity. The Circular Forest Management Policy (CFMP) addresses these challenges through systematic forest resource management aimed at establishing sustainable utilization cycles and enhancing carbon removals. However, public awareness remains low while environmental stakeholders express skepticism toward tree harvesting components, creating fundamental obstacles to policy success and threatening Korea's Nationally Determined Contributions targets. This study examines how communication framing strategies impact citizen support and behavioral intentions regarding CFMP. We conducted a survey experiment ( n = 402) using positive versus negative frames combined with three scenarios: carbon neutrality, economic incentives, and ecological sustainability. Participants were randomly assigned to one of six groups and assessed on policy support and behavioral intentions. Results demonstrate that negative framing significantly increases policy support by activating loss aversion bias. Economic and ecological scenarios each proved more effective than carbon neutrality messaging, though with distinct patterns across outcome measures. These findings indicate that strategic message framing represents a critical component for achieving meaningful policy communication and public engagement in forest management initiatives.