As much as 60 percent of Slovaks believe that nature protection should receive priority over economic growth. The Institute for Sociology at the Slovak Academy of Sciences found this out last year during a survey conducted within the European Values Study. In total, 1,432 people took the survey in Slovakia.
On the other hand, 30 percent consider the creation of conditions for economic growth and the growth of jobs as paramount, even at the cost of a negative impact on environment. In particular, respondents with basic education and from cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants would prefer economic growth to environment.
Almost one third of the respondents, 28 percent, would be willing to give up a portion of their income if allocated for nature protection. A bigger portion, 38 percent, are against this. The willingness of Slovaks to contribute has been decreasing since 1991. The institute explains this decline by the scope of possible answers extended by the middle position.
The survey further demonstrated the small support of Slovaks to attitudes downplaying the importance of nature protection and an increasing trust in environmental organisations.
