Residents’ interactions with and attachments to Retezat National Park, Romania: implications for environmental responsibility

Abstract

Community residents’ attitudes, behaviours and emotional connections with adjacent natural areas are integral to the optimal management of those areas. Residents in communities proximal to Romanian protected areas have been described in various studies as passive, lacking environmental sensibility and ascribing responsibility for resource protection to authorities. Given little evidence supporting such assertions, this study examined the social and natural landscape interactions and connections of community residents neighbouring a Romanian national park and residents’ perceptions of attachment to the park. The relationship between park attachment and ascribed environmental responsibility was also analysed. Two block model regressions revealed that residents with longer duration of residence, who interacted more with friends and public officials, and those who hiked in the park, reported higher levels of park attachment. Park attachment, time spent in the community, female gender and level of education, positively contributed to the ascription of self-responsibility for environmental protection. Results underscore the importance of the social environment in facilitating attachments to a park. Furthermore, park attachment was found to facilitate increased self-ascription of environmental responsibility. Managerial implications to encourage interactions and ascribed environmental responsibility are discussed.

Keywords:

• place attachment
• landscape interactions
• environmental responsibility
• protected area
• Romania