Intentions to engage in forest law enforcement in Romania: An application of the theory of planned behavior

Bogdan Popa, Mihai Daniel Niță and Aureliu Florin Hălălișan

Forest Policy and Economics, 2019, vol. 100, issue C, 33-43

Abstract: Despite numerous positive achievements, the institutional reforms in the forest sector in Central and Eastern European countries are still facing numerous problems. In Romanian case, the relatively new created Forest Inspectorates (FI) have not reached the initial expectations of applying and monitoring the forest-specific regulations. Theory of Planned Behavior was used in this context. FIs employees' intention to engage in forest law enforcement effort was investigated using a questionnaire-based survey including all the FIs employees and having a 77% rate of response. The intention to engage in forest law enforcement was predicted from employees' attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control factors. A rather neutral FIs employees' intention to engage in forest law enforcement was satisfactory explained according to the theory of planned behavior. Particularly, the limited perceived power to affect factors like unsuited training, FIs improper planning & management and unsuited legislation influenced the behavioral intention. Because the effectiveness of new institutions is affected by the engagement of their employees, the conclusions of the study are useful for formulating recommendations on how effectiveness of FIs can be improved by supporting the employees to perform the required engagement in their work. The main recommendations of the study are: to build the capacity of FIs through training and improved management arrangements and to reform the legislation to make it more stable, predictable and easy to implement and monitor.

Keywords: Attitudes; Socio-psychological theory; Forest law enforcement; Romania (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:forpol:v:100:y:2019:i:c:p:33-43

DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2018.11.005

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