Institutional changes in Polish landscape parks and their influence on the efficiency of governance

The article presents the effects of the changes in the legal regulations, introduced in 2008 and 2009, on the efficiency of administering environmental protection of landscape parks in Poland. These changes concerned the transfer of some human resources and parks’ properties to Regional Directorates for Environmental protection (RDOŚ) as well as handing the responsibilities for these parks by the Voivodeship governors over to the voivodeship self-governments. The analysis of the documents and the questionnaire research was carried out in 49 park boards, RDOŚ as well as Marshall Offices and enabled the evaluation of the effects in the scope of: structure of park administration, number and scope of responsibilities of park workers, condition of accomplishment of park protection plans, functioning and members of park councils as well as property and finances of their boards. Evaluation – confirmed by the respondents’ answers – shows that there are much more negative effects than positive ones, which lead towards lower efficiency of parks’ protection and gradual degradation of their values.