Abstract
Since the entry into force of the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) on 9 June 1994, the Natura 2000 Network has become the tool conceived by the Community authorities to lead the implementation of the environmental commitments on European territory, to which they were bound in application of their accession to international conventions. Natura 2000 pursues the conservation of biodiversity in Europe by harmonizing the conservation of natural heritage with the support and promotion of traditional human activities. The Habitats Directive formulated the principles, objectives, management measures and procedures to preserve, maintain or, where appropriate, restore biological diversity, which each State was subsequently responsible for transferring to the jurisdiction. The standard does not impose any specific method to be used in the designation of the sites, the type of management to be developed or the measures to be implemented, but it does establish control mechanisms over their application. The designation of a Natura 2000 site provides an invaluable opportunity to stimulate the sustainable rural development of the area and to promote plans and activities compatible with the conservation of habitats and protected species. Dialogue and concertation are the mechanisms to be put into practice when it comes to resolving conflicts arising from the design of management models that articulate the recovery of the environmental heritage. The model by which the Natura 2000 Network has been implemented so far in Spain, and specifically in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, has been based on technocratic-formal processes. The inclusion of the area in the Natura 2000 network tends to be perceived by the inhabitants of the rural world as a bureaucratized process, disconnected from local plans and collective projects. The considerable delay in the designation of areas protected by the Natura 2000 network has contributed to the delay in adopting appropriate measures to promote biodiversity and achieve the objective of halting biodiversity loss in Europe in the short term. Despite having redoubled efforts in favor of conservation, the processes of environmental degradation have been increasing.
Highlights
Studies promoted during the eighties of the 20th century by the European Commission confirmed the homogenization and loss experienced in the European territorial scope from the point of view of diversity: more than 33% of the 900 species of invertebrates and more than 22% of the 11.000 plant species were at that time in a threatened situation [1]
The environmental problems of the European territory were attributed in part to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), on the understanding that the subsidies and public aid established in the field of market
In articles 4 and 5 of the Habitats Directive, three successive phases were established as regards the Special Area of Conservation (SAC) configuration process: after the state proposals for the list of spaces to be included in the Natura 2000 Network (June 1995), the European Commission would proceed to approve the definitive lists of sites of Comunity Importance (SCI) for each biogeographic region (June 1998) and, from that moment and within a period of six years 7, the public institutions, competent in each case, would provide the corresponding management regimes to each of the SCIs as a condition for their designation as SAC
Summary
Studies promoted during the eighties of the 20th century by the European Commission confirmed the homogenization and loss experienced in the European territorial scope from the point of view of diversity: more than 33% of the 900 species of invertebrates and more than 22% of the 11.000 plant species were at that time in a threatened situation [1]. The holding of the First Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro (1992) increased concern for the environment and sensitivity for sustainable development In this social context, the European Commission agreed in 1992, on the one hand, to deepen the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), in force since 1962, and on the other, to launch the Natura 2000 Network. The MacSharry reform came to recognize that the maintenance of healthy agrarian structures was a necessary condition to guarantee the preservation of the landscape and the conservation of the natural environment [5] For this reason, measures aimed at promoting agricultural production methods compatible with the requirements of environmental protection and conservation of the natural environment were approved in June 1992, and aid was established for the afforestation of agricultural lands and early retirement 1. Natura 2000 was the tool conceived by the community authorities to lead the implementation of the commitments on European territory, to which they were bound in application of the Berne Convention and by its adherence to international conventions on environmental issues
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