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Protected areas (PAs) are the main strategy to conserve natural values and reduce biodiversity loss. However, with increasing global food requirements, using land for protecting landscapes and species is becoming increasingly diff...
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Protected areas (PAs) are the main strategy to conserve natural values and reduce biodiversity loss. However, with increasing global food requirements, using land for protecting landscapes and species is becoming increasingly difficult to justify. Here, we argue that framing PM as spatial assets provides an ideal platform for generating investment and increasing their political/cultural resilience. Specifically, we define and characterize PM in terms of their biophysical, human, infrastructure, institutional and cultural assets, making explicit the forms of value they create and for whom, and identifying types of investment needed to generate value in the medium and long term. These assets can be protected, managed and/or invested in to generate (monetizable and non-monetizable) forms of value. They can also be at risk from a variety of factors. Building on contemporary conservation policy, our asset framework provides an innovative approach to the development and management of PAs in the 21st Century.
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摘要 :
Protected areas (PAs) are the main strategy to conserve natural values and reduce biodiversity loss. However, with increasing global food requirements, using land for protecting landscapes and species is becoming increasingly diff...
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Protected areas (PAs) are the main strategy to conserve natural values and reduce biodiversity loss. However, with increasing global food requirements, using land for protecting landscapes and species is becoming increasingly difficult to justify. Here, we argue that framing PM as spatial assets provides an ideal platform for generating investment and increasing their political/cultural resilience. Specifically, we define and characterize PM in terms of their biophysical, human, infrastructure, institutional and cultural assets, making explicit the forms of value they create and for whom, and identifying types of investment needed to generate value in the medium and long term. These assets can be protected, managed and/or invested in to generate (monetizable and non-monetizable) forms of value. They can also be at risk from a variety of factors. Building on contemporary conservation policy, our asset framework provides an innovative approach to the development and management of PAs in the 21st Century.
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The central challenge for sustainable forest policies is their legitimacy among the people: are the political decision-making processes and their outcomes perceived as just according to prevalent social values? However, there is n...
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The central challenge for sustainable forest policies is their legitimacy among the people: are the political decision-making processes and their outcomes perceived as just according to prevalent social values? However, there is no established theoretical basis for the legitimacy research in the forest sector. This study develops a valid and comprehensive conceptual framework for empirical studies on legitimacy. The theoretical analysis is verified by detailed empirical illustrations from the public discourse on the Finnish forest regime. The theoretical framework analyzes the objects of support, patterns of legitimacy, performance evaluations, and how these relate to one another. The objects of political support can be classified as political community, regime norms, regime institutions, and actors. The patterns of legitimacy can be analyzed at different levels: (A) democracy and other forms of government, (B) different forms of participation, and (C) normative principles. The principles can be further classified into (1) core regime, (2) input, (3) throughput, and (4) output principles. Moreover, all these patterns of legitimacy can be usefully arranged in (1) democratic, (2) extra-democratic, and (3) counter-democratic classes.
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Protecting systematically selected areas of land is a major step towards biodiversity conservation worldwide. Indeed, the identification and designation of protected areas more often than not forms a core component of both nationa...
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Protecting systematically selected areas of land is a major step towards biodiversity conservation worldwide. Indeed, the identification and designation of protected areas more often than not forms a core component of both national and international conservation policies. In this paper an overview is provided of those Special Protection Areas and Ramsar Sites that have been classified in Great Britain as of 1998/99 for a selection of wintering waterbird species, using bird count data from the Wetland Bird Survey. The performance of this network of sites is remarkable, particularly in comparison with published analyses of networks elsewhere in the world. Nevertheless, the current site-based approach, whilst having the great benefit of simplicity, is deliberately biased towards aggregating species at the expense of the more dispersed distribution species. To ensure that the network continues successfully to protect nationally and internationally important waterbird populations, efforts now need to concentrate on the derivation of species-specific representation targets and, in particular, the ways in which these can be incorporated into the site selection process. Although these analyses concern the performance of protected areas for waterbirds in Great Britain, the results have wide-ranging importance for conservation planning in general and the design of protected area networks
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Developments in ecological theory indicate that ecological processes have major implications for sustaining biodiversity and the provision of ecosystem services. Consequently, conservation actions that focus solely on particular s...
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Developments in ecological theory indicate that ecological processes have major implications for sustaining biodiversity and the provision of ecosystem services. Consequently, conservation actions that focus solely on particular species, vegetation communities, habitats or sites ('assets') are unlikely to be effective over the long term unless the ecological processes that support them continue to function. Efforts to sustain biodiversity must embrace both 'assets' and 'process-oriented' approaches. Existing knowledge about ecological processes, incomplete though it is, has not been adequately considered in government decision making. It is, therefore, necessary to consider how to build consideration of ecological processes into legislative and institutional frameworks, policy and planning processes, and on-ground environmental management. Drawing on insights from interviews, a facilitated workshop, and a literature review, this paper identifies a suite of policy priorities and associated reforms which should assist in ensuring that ecological processes are given more attention in policy-making processes. It is concluded that a multi-pronged approach is required, because there are no 'silver bullets' for sustaining ecological processes.
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Bees are important both ecologically and economically for the ecosystem service role they play as pollinators. Documented global decline in bees has sparked the formation of a global policy framework for pollinators, primarily thr...
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Bees are important both ecologically and economically for the ecosystem service role they play as pollinators. Documented global decline in bees has sparked the formation of a global policy framework for pollinators, primarily through the International Pollinator Initiative within the Convention of Biological Diversity. There are now regional Pollinator Initiatives, along with regional and national conservation legislation, that can impact on the conservation of bees. The creation of bee Regional Red Lists, under guidance from the International Union for Conservation of Nature, along with conservation priority lists offer another mechanism for streamlining bees into regional, national or subnational conservation policy and practice. These structures, if utilised properly, can form a coordinated and effective policy framework on which conservation actions can be based.
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Protected Landscapes (PLs) are increasingly used in Norway to conserve cultural (human modified) landscapes. In many cases the maintenance of agricultural activities in PLs is required to preserve landscape character. Whilst resea...
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Protected Landscapes (PLs) are increasingly used in Norway to conserve cultural (human modified) landscapes. In many cases the maintenance of agricultural activities in PLs is required to preserve landscape character. Whilst research exists on land conservation policies in general, the particular effects of PL on management and adjustment of the farms involved have not received attention in the literature. We present results from a questionnaire sent to owners of agricultural land within PLs in Norway. Whilst landowners were divided upon the effects of PLs on farm management, the economic situation of the farm was little affected. Furthermore, changes in farm management after the establishment of a PL did not seem to have been driven by the establishment of the PLs per se. Most importantly, farm management changes were related to potential options to develop the farm and its land. A statistical model showed that PL-farms did not differ significantly from farms outside PL in the development of their land use or animal husbandry. Our findings thus indicate that the establishment of PL played a minor role as a driving force of changes in farm management and farm income.
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Trends and status of species and habitats need to be measured to assess whether global biodiversity policy targets have been achieved. However, it is impossible to monitor all species and habitats with a justifiable effort. Theref...
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Trends and status of species and habitats need to be measured to assess whether global biodiversity policy targets have been achieved. However, it is impossible to monitor all species and habitats with a justifiable effort. Therefore, it is critical to prioritize the monitoring of specific biodiversity components. Priorities must be linked to key nature conservation policies to ensure that monitoring efforts are relevant to policy needs, achieve maximum impact, and obtain governmental support. Here we discuss priority setting in biodiversity monitoring in view of monitoring obligations and priorities in supranational biodiversity legislation and policies in Europe and assess overlaps in priorities among policies. While most supranational biodiversity regulations require monitoring of biodiversity, obligations are legally enforceable only for the Nature Directives, the Water Framework Directive, and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive of the European Union. Of the assessed international conventions and other relevant policy instruments about 50% explicitly designate priority species and most focus on vertebrates. Lower emphasis is given to habitats and geographical priorities are even less pronounced. Also, an overarching system for monitoring prioritization is still missing. Our prioritization system is based on three main criteria: (1) legal requirement for reporting, (2) wording used to define priority or importance, and (3) inclusion in lists that indicate importance of monitoring due to e.g. threats or relevance of a region for a species. Our system contains five main priority levels, within which an additional division differentiates priorities according to national/European responsibility criteria. Based on this system, we provide recommendations for allocating species and habitats enlisted by the reviewed policy tools to explicit non-overlapping priority levels. Our approach will facilitate synergies between monitoring activities for different policy needs, and contribute to alleviate the notorious resource shortage for biodiversity monitoring.
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In policy analysis, studies on policy termination are rare. This article offers such a study. It presents the story of how, despite attempts by the government to terminate it, Dutch nature policy on ecological corridors continued ...
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In policy analysis, studies on policy termination are rare. This article offers such a study. It presents the story of how, despite attempts by the government to terminate it, Dutch nature policy on ecological corridors continued to be implemented by regional governments and in the field. A case analysis is presented that integrates theories and insights not only from the termination literature but also from the literature on implementation. The different factors identified in the literature that enable or constrain implementation and termination have served as a basis for developing possible explanations of the case study. They cannot, however, serve as generic theories with predictive power. Policy termination as well as policy implementation are highly contextual processes and the question which factors will enable or constrain policy termination and implementation can only be answered on a case by case basis.
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Natura 2000 is a network of natural sites whose aim is to preserve species and habitats of relevance in the European Union. The policy underlying Natura 2000 has faced widespread opposition from land users and received extensive s...
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Natura 2000 is a network of natural sites whose aim is to preserve species and habitats of relevance in the European Union. The policy underlying Natura 2000 has faced widespread opposition from land users and received extensive support from environmentalists. This paper addresses the ethical framework for Natura 2000 and the probable moral assumptions of its main stakeholders. Arguments for and against Natura 2000 (as presented in official EU documents and the position papers and statements of different stakeholders) were analysed and classified according to "strong" or "weak" versions of the three main theories of environmental ethics: anthropocentrism, biocentrism, and ecocentrism. Weak (intergenerational) anthropocentrism was found to underlie the Natura 2000 network itself and the positions of environmentalists, while strong (traditional) anthropocentrism pervaded the positions of economic developers. Land users seemed to fall somewhere between weak and strong anthropocentrism. The paper discusses the relation between ethics and different attitudes towards Natura 2000, highlighting some of the implications for the network's ongoing implementation. It is shown that Natura 2000 achieves a strong reversal of the burden of proof from conservation to economic development and land use change under anthropocentrism. It is argued that the alleged theoretical divide between anthropocentrism and non-anthropocentrism in relation to the burden of proof does not seem to hold in practice. Finally, it is predicted that the weak versions of anthropocentrism, biocentrism, and ecocentrism, are likely to converge extensively in respect to nature conservation policy measures.
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