Sustainable access to linear environmental protection infrastructure in regions with a high percentage of areas protected by law

Abstract

The research presented in this paper covered the areas of the Warmia-Mazury voivodeship, which is characterized by a large share of legally protected areas. Based on statistics published by the GUS and data provided by GDOŚ and RDOŚ in Olsztyn, an analysis was carried out taking into account the horizontal and vertical division of rural, urban and urban-rural communities. The analysis included changes in the access to linear environmental protection infrastructure and changes in the share of legally protected areas in three types of municipalities in the years 2005–2012. The research revealed large disparities in the availability of environmental infrastructure in different types of municipalities, although these disparities slowly decreased. At the same time, rural communities with limited access to environmental infrastructure had significantly higher shares of legally protected areas than urban and urban-rural areas. However, the rate of change in the case of protected areas has been constant since 2007.