Dataset Supporting Farmers' Motivational Structures for Biodiversity in Nature-Protected Areas: A Qualitative Focus Group Study

This dataset supports the dissertation "Balancing Biodiversity and Economic Viability: Farmers' Motivation and Challenges in Nature-Protected Areas".
The study explores the potential transfer of farmers' motivations to adopt biodiversity-friendly practices to Maslow's Hierachy of Needs. This investigation employs a multifacetd approach, including qualitative focus group interviews with farmers operating within nature-protected areas and a structured content anaylsis guided by Mayring's methodology.

Data collection and Implementation:
The focus group interviews were conducted in April 2022 by the policy research institue "dimap", commissioned within the framework of the dissertaion project. The study design and focus group guiede were developed by the author in close collaboration with dimap. While dimap moderated, recorded and transcribed the interviews, the coding and analysis were carried out by the author using ATLAS.ti.

The dataset includes:

• Focus Group Guide (Leitfaden): The discussion guide used in the online focus groups.
• Maslow Qualitative Codebook with Example Quotes: A post hoc synthesis of motivational themes, with example quotes aligned to Maslow's Pyramid.
• Combined Codebook Focusgroups: The original detailed German codes used in Atlas.ti, per group (here in excel-format).
• Coding Structure Summary: Summary of the coding methodology.
• Transcripts: A complete set of anonymised transcripts from all four group interviews conducted in April 2022 in German language.

Note: The Maslow Codebook represents an interpretive summary of motivational categories. The actual coded data in the excel files are based on detailed, inductively developed subcodes that were iteratively refined during the course of the original qualitative content analysis.