Values system as Driver of Urban Forests Conservation: A Multidimensional Model of Pro-Environmental Behavior in a Megacity

Urban forests are key components of urban areas, providing critical ecosystem services that support climate resilience, biodiversity conservation, and human well-being. Their long-term sustainability, however, depends not only on planning and management but also on citizens’ pro-environmental behavior within urban forest settings. While existing urban forestry research has examined cognitive and attitudinal drivers of such behavior, the role of deeply rooted cultural and religious value systems remains insufficiently explored, particularly in non-Western megacities. This study develops and empirically tests a multidimensional value-based model to explain pro-environmental behavior among urban forest visitors in Tehran, Iran. Using survey data from 389 respondents and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), the study examines how cultural and religious values shape biospheric, altruistic, egoistic, spiritual, aesthetic, and hedonic value orientations, and how these values jointly influence conservation-oriented behavior. The proposed model explains 84% of the variance in pro-environmental behavior, indicating strong explanatory power. The results show that religious and cultural values function as foundational drivers of urban forest stewardship, exerting both direct effects on behavior and indirect effects through biospheric, altruistic, and egoistic values. Biospheric and altruistic values positively influenced pro-environmental behavior, whereas egoistic values had a negative effect. In addition, spiritual connection, aesthetic appreciation, and hedonic enjoyment of urban forests significantly promoted environmentally responsible actions, highlighting the importance of experiential and affective motivations. These findings contribute to urban forestry and urban greening scholarship by demonstrating that urban forest stewardship is embedded within broader sociocultural and moral value systems. For policy and practice, the results suggest that effective urban forest governance should integrate value-based and culturally sensitive strategies alongside conventional management approaches.