Natura 2000 Areas and Sites of National Interest (SNI): Measuring (un)Integration between Naturalness Preservation and Environmental Remediation Policies

Lucia Saganeiti,Beniamino Murgante,Francesco Scorza,Angela Pilogallo

doi:10.3390/su12072928

Lucia Saganeiti, Beniamino Murgante + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072928

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Apr 7, 2020
Citations: 38	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Basilicata

Abstract

The Natura 2000 network was established as a tool to preserve the biological diversity of the European territory with particular regard to vulnerable habitats and species. According to recent studies, a relevant percentage of Natura 2000 sites are expected to be lost by the end of this century and there is widespread evidence that biodiversity conservation policies are not fully effective in relation to the management plans of the protected areas. This paper addresses the issue by analyzing a specific case in which there is a problem of integration between different competences and sectoral policies that leads to the lack of a monitoring system of territorial management performances. The study area, located in the Basilicata Region (Southern Italy), includes a Site of National Interest (SNI), for which several reclamation projects are still in the submission/approval phase, and a partially overlapping Natura 2000 network site. The tool used to monitor biodiversity in the study area is the degradation map obtained through the “habitat quality and degradation” InVEST tool which is used to assess the current trend and thus define a baseline for comparison with two medium and long-term scenarios applicable to the SNI’s procedure of partial and total remediation. The proposed methodology is intended to be a part of a larger and more complex monitoring system that, developed within the framework of ecosystem services, allows for the overcoming of the limits related to fragmentation and contradictions that are present in land management by offering a valuable support to decision makers and the competent authorities in biodiversity conservation policy design.

Highlights

According to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) [1] about 25 per cent of both animal and plant species are threatened and around 1 million species already face extinction, many within decades
If the current challenges included in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) point toward balancing the often conflicting objectives of human development and biodiversity conservation [5], the aims of biological diversity preservation and the protection of vulnerable habitats and species have already been addressed by the European Union (EU) through the Birds and Habitats Directives and the subsequent establishment of the Natura 2000 network (N2K network)
The aim of this work is to describe and explain the conflict between Site of Community Interest (SCI)/Special Protection Area (SPA) and Site of National Interest (SNI) sites in our case study via ecosystems’ services (ES) land-use analysis and produce an estimation of the positive effects that remediation actions produce on the environmental components in medium and long-term scenarios

Summary

Introduction

According to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) [1] about 25 per cent of both animal and plant species are threatened and around 1 million species already face extinction, many within decades. If the current challenges included in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) point toward balancing the often conflicting objectives of human development and biodiversity conservation (see SDGs 1, 2, and 8) [5], the aims of biological diversity preservation and the protection of vulnerable habitats and species have already been addressed by the European Union (EU) through the Birds and Habitats Directives and the subsequent establishment of the Natura 2000 network (N2K network). As a matter of fact, protected areas should be considered as reservoirs of biological diversity and as the sustainers of an ecosystem resilience and the fundamental providers of functions, goods, and services that are essential for human well-being and wealth [7,8]. The N2K network potential for the achievement of the conservation objectives is widely recognized [9], the results to date are not considered to be fully satisfactory [10,11], and a number of studies have been carried out in order to identify the main weaknesses [12,13,14,15]

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