Social perceptions and conservation in protected areas: Taking stock of the literature

This paper conducts a systematic review of the literature (SRL) to update the relevance of social perception (SP) for managing protected areas and conservation spaces that contribute to global and regional efforts to conserve biological diversity and natural resources. Despite their importance, these areas often face complex and conflictive situations between the interest groups of the communities located within or adjacent to them. Therefore, and departing from an SRL, this paper aims to answer the main question about the sociodemographic elements that affect the SP related to protected areas. The results indicate that household income and education are linked to behaviors favoring conservation. Likewise, dissatisfaction regarding social well-being, access to natural resources and management generate behaviors that negatively affect the SP about the conservation role of protected areas. Managers must consider community participation to promote behaviors linked to compliance with regulations in favor of protected areas. •Positive social perceptions influence behaviors are favoring conservation in protected areas.•Increasing household income fosters social perceptions toward conservation.•Community participation in conservation plans contributes to the objectives of protected areas.•Trusting management fosters the formation of positive social perceptions.