Benefits for visitors provided by protected areas in Bulgaria and willingness to become a conservation volunteer

Abstract

Protected areas in Bulgaria (PAB) provide valuable ecosystem services. Maintaining of ecosystem health is of great importance for human wellbeing. The environmental volunteering is a valuable tool in solving local ecological problems. The main objective of the present research was to identify ecosystem services offered by PAB and attitude to participation in conservation volunteering using online survey and face-to-face interviews. Most respondents regularly use ecosystem services offered by PAB. Being well-informed about significance of maintaining ecosystem health, a lot of them declared willingness to become conservation volunteers. Online surveys could be used not only for data collection, but as also as a tool to involve people in environmental protection.