Consumers' Attitudes Towards the Development of Transgenic Forest Trees and their Products in Greece

This paper aims to examine the attitudes of the consumers in Greece towards the use of biotechnology in forest plantations and their potential purchases of forest transgenic products. Three groups of factors related the consumers’ attitude on the use of biotechnology in forest plantations with the potential purchases of transgenic forest products: (a) the potential negative environmental impacts (b) the potential positive impacts on production processes, and (c) economic impacts. Furthermore, this study indicated that consumers who intent to buy paper products derived from Genetically Modified (GM) forest trees, were concerned for the environmental impacts of the GM trees and then on the production process that was followed by economic issues. No significant relationships were found between the consumers who declared that they intent to buy wood and woody biomass energy products derived from GM trees and the importance of the factors that affect their attitudes towards the adoption of biotechnology in forest plantations.