Urban Residents’ Willingness to Finance Public Park Tree-Planting: The Role of Biodiversity Loss Perceptions and Park Visits

Financial support from urban residents represents a potentially important resource for sustaining and expanding public parks, particularly tree-planting initiatives that contribute to biodiversity and human well-being. This study applies the Granular Interaction Thinking Theory (GITT) and Bayesian inference to examine how residents’ perceptions of the consequences of biodiversity loss and their park-visit frequency relate to willingness to donate to tree-planting projects in public parks. Based on survey data from 535 Vietnamese residents, the results indicate that perceived loss of ecological knowledge and more frequent park visitation are associated with higher willingness to donate, whereas perceived health-related losses receive moderate posterior support for a positive association. Perceived reductions in economic growth are positively related to park visitation frequency, which, in turn, is associated with greater willingness to donate. In contrast, perceived losses from nature-based recreation are linked to lower visitation frequency and subsequently weaker willingness to make indirect donations. These findings suggest that communication and engagement strategies that emphasize personally and community-relevant benefits may be associated with stronger financial support intentions for urban tree-planting initiatives. As the study focuses on stated willingness rather than observed financial behavior, the implications pertain to intention-based support rather than realized contributions.