Abstract
Green infrastructure is a strategically planned network that broadens traditional biodiversity conservation methods to also encompass the concept of ecosystem services (ES). This study aims to identify the network of green infrastructure in Central Europe. An analysis of ecological connectivity is based on ES supply quantified for CORINE land cover classes. Corridors between core areas, which are represented by Natura 2000 sites, are based on the capacity of ecosystems to supply maintenance and regulating ES. The delineated network of corridors of green infrastructure covers approximately 15% of the landscape of Central Europe that provides high levels of various ES. Ecological corridors create linkages between Natura 2000 sites and support the migration and dispersal of species. Central Europe is an important transitional region where coordinated improvement of ecological connectivity is fundamental. Moreover, promotion of the green infrastructure network and full implementation of the EU Birds and Habitats Directives are targets of two important documents at the European level, the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and the EU Strategy on Green Infrastructure.
Highlights
Land 2021, 10, 592. https://doi.org/Continuous biodiversity loss, habitat fragmentation, environmental degradation and climate change [1,2] have become impulses to redesign and broaden the traditional approach to environmental management and spatial conservation planning
The enhancement of ecological connectivity is crucial for long-term support of biodiversity and ecological processes in fragmented landscapes [90]
Our approach is based on the maximum capacity of ecosystems to supply maintenance and regulating ecosystem services (ES) and it detects natural and near-natural areas suitable for delineation of a functional ecological network between protected areas
Summary
Land 2021, 10, 592. https://doi.org/Continuous biodiversity loss, habitat fragmentation, environmental degradation and climate change [1,2] have become impulses to redesign and broaden the traditional approach to environmental management and spatial conservation planning. Awareness of how much human well-being is dependent on natural processes [3,4] has emphasized the urgent need to decrease negative anthropogenic pressures on the natural environment and to foster more conservation and restoration efforts in the landscape. It has become widely accepted (even though not always agreed, e.g., [5]) that conservation planning is supposed to go beyond an intrinsic value of nature [6,7,8] and this new insight became a priority for many environmental policy agendas in the past decade [9]. Considering it the most effective, the document called in particular for ensuring no net loss of biodiversity and ES by means of full implementation of the EU
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