The role of conservation commitment: extending the theory of planned behavior for visitors in the high-altitude protected area of Deosai National Park, Pakistan

Environmental degradation in high-altitude protected areas is increasing due to tourism pressure and the lack of conservation facilities. Understanding visitors’ behavior in such fragile ecosystems is important to inform sustainable conservation strategies. This research explores the psychosocial factors influencing visitors’ wildlife conservation intentions in these wildlife reserves using the extended theory of planned behavior. The framework includes conservation knowledge, emotional attachment, and conservation commitment to retain the cognitive and affective aspects of conservation behavior. The study employs PLS-SEM and analyzes the survey data collected from 502 visitors. The study findings suggest that conservation knowledge and emotional attachment significantly affect attitudes toward conservation. Such attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control positively affect conservation intentions. Moreover, conservation commitment acts as a mediator between attitudes and intentions, with serial mediation pathways from conservation knowledge and emotional attachment also tested. The research confirms the validity of the extended framework, adds knowledge about high-altitude protected regions in South Asia, and provides insight into the psychological processes underlying place-based sustainability in tourism behavior. Furthermore, the results provide practical recommendations for sustainable conservation strategies, suggesting targeted environmental education programs to enhance conservation knowledge, experiential activities to foster emotional attachment, and commitment-building initiatives to translate attitudes into long-term conservation actions in ecologically sensitive locations.