{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,12]],"date-time":"2025-10-12T03:25:44Z","timestamp":1760239544539,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":47,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"22","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,19]],"date-time":"2020-11-19T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1605744000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001871","name":"Funda\u00e7\u00e3o para a Ci\u00eancia e a Tecnologia","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["SFRH\/BD\/129529\/2017","UIDP\/50017\/2020+UIDB\/50017\/2020","UIDB\/05748\/2020 and UIDP\/05748\/2020"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["SFRH\/BD\/129529\/2017","UIDP\/50017\/2020+UIDB\/50017\/2020","UIDB\/05748\/2020 and UIDP\/05748\/2020"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001871","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sustainability"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Natura 2000 is the European Union\u2019s key strategy to address the current sharp decline in biodiversity. However, according to a recent survey, most Europeans have never heard about it. The present study intended to further explore the perceptions of residents in Portugal about this network of protected areas through the nationwide implementation of a survey. Overall, 232 questionnaires were fulfilled, which showed that most respondents (n = 126, 54%) had never heard of Natura 2000. Furthermore, even the respondents who knew what Natura 2000 is were not well-informed about it. For instance, on average, they were only able to name 2.8 \u00b1 2.2 sites within Portugal; plus, 66% (n = 65) could not correctly name any wild species that inhabited their favourite site. Surprisingly, literacy levels were not significantly correlated with the number of visits to the network (rs = 0.181, p = 0.082), and they were only weakly correlated with the frequency that the respondents engaged in ecological behaviours (rs = 0.277, p = 0.007). Overall, the current findings are in agreement with similar studies carried out in Poland that revealed that the population was poorly informed about this important network of protected areas. This scenario is especially worrisome, considering that public participation is regarded as a key factor for successful nature conservation initiatives.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/su12229663","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,19]],"date-time":"2020-11-19T10:46:26Z","timestamp":1605782786000},"page":"9663","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Awareness and Knowledge of Portugal Residents about Natura 2000"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Sofia S.","family":"Oliveira","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"CIIMAR\u2014Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research, 4450-208 Matosinhos, Portugal"},{"name":"Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7573-6184","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Joana","family":"Pereira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CESAM\u2014Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies, Department of Biology, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2537-5904","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Paulo","family":"Santos","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CIIMAR\u2014Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research, 4450-208 Matosinhos, Portugal"},{"name":"Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6857-5968","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ruth","family":"Pereira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal"},{"name":"GreenUPorto\u2014Sustainable Agrifood Production Research Centre, 4485-646 Vair\u00e3o, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Millennium Ecosystem Assessments (2005). 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