Factors influencing perception of protected areas—The case of Natura 2000 in Polish Carpathian communities

Establishing protected areas has emerged as one of the key aims in global and EU conservation policy. In the EU, the particular role of providing biodiversity conservation was bestowed on the European Ecological Network Natura 2000. However, public perception of this initiative has been negative in most countries. In this manuscript, we present a representative description of knowledge and attitudes of inhabitants of Polish Carpathians’ municipalities included into Natura 2000. The research was conducted in six municipalities among 906 respondents. Majority (92%) of respondents believe that it is a good measure to legally protect nature in their area. Additionally, we analysed how selected features of respondents influence their perception of protected areas. Level of education, the fact that respondents moved to their current place of residence in adulthood and that they are self-employed, are the characteristics that most significantly influence their knowledge of Natura 2000. Moreover, ownership of a business, familiarity with Natura 2000 and the respondents’ age affect their level of satisfaction with a Natura 2000 site designated in their region. We focus on differences in awareness and acceptance of the programme among different municipalities’ inhabitants – in the municipality fully covered by a Natura 2000 site, inhabitants are most knowledgeable about nature conservation issues but at the same time they opposed it most strongly. In a typical agricultural municipality, knowledge on nature conservation issues is low while in the touristic-type, the vast majority of residents have no opinion on designation of new protected areas at all. Based on the results of the following study we suggest that development of tools on how to manage the protected areas effectively should rely both on traditional ecological analysis and that of a social type.