How do the surrounding areas of national parks work in the context of landscape fragmentation? A case study of 159 protected areas selected in 11 EU countries

Europe has unique natural values but also has the highest level of ecosystem fragmentation. Evaluating the effectiveness of protected area management is becoming an increasingly common practice. Our main goal was to assess the dynamics of LULC changes in the buffer zones of 159 national parks in 11 selected European countries on the basis of the CORINE Land Cover database in the period from 1990 to 2018. We used five landscape metrics in order to investigate whether high natural and landscape values in the areas surrounding national parks affect the degree and rate of landscape fragmentation and isolation. We checked the statistical significance of the differences in the measured values among different distances to parks (1, 2 and 3 km) in different years and countries using the two-way ANOVA test. Furthermore, the classical principal component analysis method was applied to measure data grouped by country and then averaged by year and distance factor. We showed that high natural and landscape values in the surrounding areas of national parks affect the degree and rate of landscape fragmentation. The patch density index shows an evident increase, both in dynamic terms (1990–2018) and, mainly, in the spatial aspect. In 2018, there was an increasing rate of the patch density index of approximately 5–7% compared to that in 1990. It should be kept in mind that management efforts focused on the buffer zones of national parks may have limited success. Undoubtedly, the obtained results will contribute to the development of landscape ecology and spatial developments in the context of the effective management of national parks and their surroundings.