Socio-economic correlates of stated willingness to change habits for natural resource protection in Albania

Type of the article: Research ArticleAbstract Natural resource protection is vital for sustainable development in Albania, where land, water, forests, and biodiversity support rural livelihoods, agriculture, tourism, and local welfare. The purpose of this study is to analyze socio-demographic and economic correlates of individuals' stated willingness to change habits for natural resource protection in Albania. Primary data were collected through a structured and anonymous questionnaire completed by 250 voluntary respondents between December 2025 and February 2026. An audit of the archived raw dataset against the questionnaire showed that Item 15 contained three response categories: Yes, Not sure, and No. For the Binary Logit analysis, an affirmative response was coded WTC = 1, whereas Not sure and No were coded WTC = 0; 77.2% of respondents gave an affirmative response. Age, education, income, and information were re-specified categorically, sparse adjacent categories were combined where necessary to avoid complete separation, and robust standard errors were used. The re-estimated model is jointly significant (LR = 34.76, p < 0.001; McFadden R2 = 0.129) and shows acceptable calibration (Hosmer-Lemeshow p = 0.449). Frequency of natural-resource use is positively associated with willingness to contribute (p < 0.001). Income categories are jointly associated with willingness to contribute (p = 0.023), but the pattern is not monotonic; gender, age, education, and information are not jointly significant. Probit and nonlinear-age sensitivity checks do not restore the previously reported negative age or information associations. The findings are interpreted as exploratory associations with stated pro-environmental intention, not as monetary willingness to pay or causal relationships.AcknowledgmentThe authors express their gratitude to all respondents who voluntarily participated in the survey and provided the primary data used in this study.