Place Attachment and Pro-environmental Behaviors: Explaining the Dimensions and Effects(Case Study: Visitors to Sofeh Mountain Park in Isfahan))

Mountain parks are recreational environments in open spaces, which are considered pleasant places to spend leisure time and seek new experiences in interaction with nature. The popularity of these desirable areas of tourism can lead to increased visits to the environment and, consequently, increase the pressure on environmental resources. Therefore, researchers, professionals, and environmental practitioners attempt to find solutions to protect natural resources. In this regard, environmental behavior has recently received special attention as a tool to increase the sustainability of tourism attractions. Some previous studies have shown that when people feel attached to an environment, they tend to contribute to the protection of the environment through their behavior. On the other hand, according to the findings of some studies, those park visitors who generally feel more responsible for the environment, are more likely to engage in park-specific pro-environmental behaviors.Sofeh Mountain Park with an area of more than 39 hectares located in the city of Isfahan, is a significant place of entertainment and recreation for citizens and domestic and foreign tourists. With the development of space, facilities, and tourism services in this natural environment, as well as the increasing number of visitors to this unique mountain park, the issue of environmental protection becomes of considerable importance and necessity. Given that the behaviors of visitors in the visited environment directly affect all aspects of environmental sustainability, the present study investigates the effect of visitors’ place attachment and their general pro-environmental behaviors on the park-specific pro-environmental behaviors.

The present study, through studying a sample of 400 visitors to Sofeh Mountain Park in Isfahan city, has examined the effects of place attachment and general pro-environmental behaviors on the park-specific pro-environmental behaviors. The required data for the research were collected through a questionnaire in November 2019. The questionnaire consisted of two sections, including general attributes of respondents and the main part consisted of a set of questions regarding visitors’ place attachment and pro-environmental behaviors, which mainly adopted from Halpenny (2010). This part of the questionnaire was composed of 41 questions, of which 16 were about three dimensions of place attachment including place identity (6 items), affective attachment (6 items), and place dependence (4 items). Thirteen items measured general pro-environmental behaviors, and 12 questions were related to the park-specific pro-environmental behaviors. Analysis of data was conducted by applying some statistical tests and using SPSS software. Given that all values of skewness and elongation of the variables are in the range -2 to +2, parametric statistical tests including Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis were used.

The findings showed that general pro-environmental behaviors and two dimensions of place  attachment (place identity and place dependence) had a statistically significant and positive effect on park-specific pro-environmental behaviors in such a way that 56.3% of the variance of park-specific pro-environmental behaviors was explained by mentioned variables. Accordingly, it can be interpreted that if people consider themselves committed to the protection of the environment and also if they develop a sense of place identity and place dependence towards the park environment, they will be more concerned about protecting the environment of Sofeh Park. As a result, their behavior will be supportive of the park environment.The findings of this study on the effect of place attachment on pro-environmental behaviors are in line with the findings reported by some researchers, for example, Saif (2017), Abedi Sarvestani (2014), Halpenny (2010), Walker and Chapman (2003), Raymond et al. (2011), Ramkissoon et al. (2013), Buta et al. (2014), and Ramkissoon and Mavondo (2017). However, some contradictory findings reported by a number of researchers makes the generalization of the findings of the present study questionable. It is worth mentioning that the differences in findings can be due to the difference in the conceptualization of place attachment and pro-environmental behaviors that should be examined in future studies.

Overall, the findings of the present study showed that both place attachment and general pro-environmental behaviors positively influenced park-specific pro-environmental behaviors. However, the general pro-environmental behaviors were more powerful than place attachment in explaining and predicting the park-specific pro-environmental behaviors. These findings can be considered in the planning and management of Sofeh Mountain Park and similar recreation environments. On the one hand, the positive effect of place attachment on the park-specific pro-environmental behaviors implies that the deeper sense of place identity people develop toward the environment, the more favorable visited environments are in providing the tourism and recreational functions desired by the visitors.Some factors can play a positive role in strengthening the visitors’ place attachment. For example, security, safety, landscape beauty, lighting quality, services and amenities, a variety of recreational activities, and park's well management. Providing enough information about the unique features of the park can also be effective in creating a sense of attachment to the park. In addition, by providing opportunities for individuals’ participation in the park improvement and conservation programs, their sense of place attachment can be strengthened. The results also showed that people who generally are committed to doing pro-environment activities are concerned about preserving the park environment as well. Accordingly, one of the effective ways to develop pro-environmental behaviors in all environments is to strengthen people’s sense of responsibility and commitment to the environment. In this regard, raising the level of knowledge and awareness of people about the importance of the environment and various ways of protection can be effective, which, of course, requires in-depth research and studies.