Ecological Networks are an Issue for All of US

Abstract

The concept of ecological networks is not new. Ecological networks have been developed in several European countries, including in Estonia during the 1970s and 1980s and in former Czechoslovakia during the 1980s. In these countries, a strong tradition in land-use planning had created the institutional environment for allocating functions at the landscape scale and habitats were becoming increasingly fragmented due to economic development. We now recognise this as the translation of landscape ecological knowledge in homogenisation and fragmentation processes in the landscapes of Europe that diminished ecosystem functions and natural populations. Fragmentation explains much of the decline in natural species, and we now realize that, for many natural species, existing nature reserves and national parks are too small (Somma, 2006). The concept of ecological connectivity is implicit in several international conventions (e.g. Ramsar convention, Bern Convention), European agreements (Habitats and Species directives), and related EU policy implementation (Natura 2000). It has also become operational in national and European strategies (National Ecological Networks, the Pan-European Ecological Network and Pan European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy (PEBLDS). The initial aim of establishing ecological networks is predominantly protection of nature and biodiversity. Its development is stimulated by science and nature management practice. For example (in Rientjes and Roumelioti, 2003), in PEBLDS, the Pan-European Ecological Network aims to ensure that: