Nature Conservation Policy Research Articles

Editorial - On Nobel laureates and the study of policy instruments

Editorial - On Nobel laureates and the study of policy instruments

A Political Economy of Russian Nature Conservation Policy: Why Scientists have Taken a Back Seat

During the Soviet era, Soviet scientists were well respected and often included in the policy-making process. Under the new set of post-Soviet circumstances, scientists remain influential but their favored position has decreased insofar as they now operate in an expanded pluralist context in which they must join or compete with emergent local, national and international NGOs and other actors for influence. In this article, we explain this change in terms of a shift from a centralized political economy to a liberal one. A liberal political economy has allowed various groups and institutions, and the public in general, to participate in environmental policy-making. This has diminished the influence of Russian scientists. Highlighting this diminishment, we demonstrate that policy-making under a liberal framework does not always result in greater environmental protection. The article explores the implications of this for Russia and, by extension, other parts of the newly liberalizing world.

Climate Change and Woodland Biodiversity

The Woodland Trust, the UK's foremost woodland conservation organisation, is committed to the conservation, enhancement and expansion of woodland, especially native woodland, and to increasing people's awareness and enjoyment of it. The Trust owns over 1,100 woods and lobbies to seek better protection for woods and trees, especially ancient woodland and ancient trees. Increasingly intensive land use has led to unprecedented loss of these semi-natural habitats. Those sites that survive are fragmented and isolated, operating as islands. Species, characteristic of ancient woodland have poor powers of dispersal. The rate of predicted climate change will place significant demands on species to move. Phenology is already revealing staggering trends in the temporal responses of species to temperature change. It is clear that without a major rethink in both economic and nature conservation policy our natural world could face catastrophic consequences in coming decades.

Transaction costs for SSSIs and policy design

Agri-environmental good provision has been stimulated in recent years by various schemes based on compensation payments to landowners. The transaction costs of implementing these schemes can be expected to vary according to the design of the scheme, but little empirical analysis has been done to calculate transaction costs and to assess their impact. This paper compares the scheme-related transaction costs of individually negotiated and standard management agreements under the Wildlife Enhancement Scheme (WES) for sites of special scientific interest in the North of England. The findings are of international interest with regard to the future development of nature conservation policy, particularly in European countries. The results show that WES agreements are more expensive with regard to both compensation and transaction costs over the whole agreement life-cycle than individually negotiated agreements.

Making nature conservation modern: an analysis of developments in nature conservation policy in relation to macro-social changes—the Netherlands as a case study

It is often said that we live in the ecological era. It is also often said that society has entered a new phase, which—depending on the theoretical orientation—is called post-modern, post-industrial or risk society. This article analyses to what extent the presupposed shift to a phase beyond modernity is reflected in nature conservation policy. To do so, an analysis is first made of whether the basic perception and appreciation of nature in latter-day society differs essentially from perceptions and appreciations that were dominant during the heyday of modernity. When this turns out not to be the case, the development of nature conservation policy in the Netherlands during the last decades of the twentieth century is investigated to establish if conservation policy—that is, the way in which society deals with nature—has fundamentally changed. The conclusion is that Dutch policy with regard to nature has been undergoing a process of belated modernization in the sense that it is striving towards a firmer base in science and a more objective and quantifiable process of policy development. This can be seen as removing a pre-modern relic from modern society. At the same time, there is a late-modern drive towards consensus building and communication, which cannot be reconciled entirely with the stronger orientation towards science as the sole basis for deciding which kind of nature and how nature should be protected. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

국제 기준에 근거한 남북한 자연보호지역의 실상 비교

This study was conducted to compare protected areas of South and North Korea based on international conservation criteria and recommend new fundamental directions for nature conservation policy. International conservation criteria used by this research were the 1994 IUCN protected area categories, composed of 6 management categories. Despite a variety of types and names of protected areas created by different domestic legislations, South Korea was revealed to have only two types of protected areas, Category IV and V, indicating the significant lack of ecological diversity and representativeness in its protected area system. Shockingly, there are no national parks meeting IUCN criteria in South Korea. On the other hand, North Korea has three IUCN Categories of II, III, IV and thus more balanced and ecologically representative protected area network than South Korea. Especially, North Korea maintains 9 national parks to be officially recognized by IUCN and UN. However, both South and North Korea should make sincere effort to have new and well-designed protected area system including all IUCN Categories I -Ⅵ and particularly a minimum area in the stricter protected area categories.

Waldpolitik des Bundes – Ein neuer Prozess ist gestartet | Federal forest policy – the start of a new process

Modern forest policy must take the following two conditions into account:1. Forest policy is an intersectoral policy involving elements of regional policy, nature conservation and landscape protection policy, as well as agricultural, clean-air, climate and economic policies.2. It is the joint task of the federal authorities, cantons, municipalities,relevant organisations and forest owners. Over the next few years, Buwal will develop a forestry programme for Switzerland together with all the relevant actors,which will fulfil both current and forthcoming forest policy requirements at both national and international levels.

Willingness to pay in different policy-planning methods: insights into respondents’ decision-making processes

The method of planning nature conservation policy is part of the social context in contingent valuation (CV). This study compares two planning methods in otherwise uniformly designed valuation scenarios, the actual planning, which the public criticized as being excessively bureaucratic, and a hypothetical one in which planning procedure was described as participatory. The results indicated that the planning method had a significant effect on people's willingness to pay for nature conservation. However, respondents for whom the project was of low personal relevance were not able to recognize the difference between the good and the planning. Consequently, their beliefs concerning the attributes of the good itself were affected by the planning method. In contrast, the respondents for whom nature conservation was of high personal relevance were able to differentiate between the policy-planning method and the good itself.

Can a Territorial Policy be Based on Science Alone? The System for Creating the Natura 2000 Network in France

Decreed in May 1992 by the eec with a view to conserving biodiversity, the Habitats directive envisages, between now and the year 2004, constructing a European ecological network named Natura 2000. The implementation of the network, based firstly on compiling a list of habitats and species that could be recognized as being of Community importance, generated considerable conflict in France, to the extent that the directive was suspended in July 1996. The analysis of the Habitats directive system has taken a two‐fold approach. The procedures first of all correspond to the tools for reaching the goals set out in the Brussels text, in the time allowed and based on scientific criteria. The second dimension refers to an interpretation of the debates and conflicts generated by the application of the directive's conservation measures on the territory. This second dimension in fact would have been difficult to implement were it not for the support of the area administrators, since their involvement was crucial. In this context, we have interpreted the changes in the procedures of the Habitats directive and the role given to negotiations as well as the issues raised by the nature conservation policies that could no longer be restricted to scientific criteria.

BIO-SAFE: a method for evaluation of biodiversity values on the basis of political and legal criteria

This paper presents a Spreadsheet Application For Evaluation of BIOdiversity (BIO-SAFE) on the basis of political and legal criteria derived from national and international policy plans, laws, treaties and directives. The BIO-SAFE is developed as a management tool to optimise mutual attuning of nature conservation policies and other interests in spatial planning. Fields of application of BIO-SAFE comprise designs and evaluations of physical planning projects, environmental impact assessments and comparative landscape-ecological studies. Taxonomic groups involved in BIO-SAFE are higher plants, dragonflies and damselflies, butterflies, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. The development of BIO-SAFE was based on species characteristic of rivers and their floodplains, but the principles of the method can easily be applied to other ecosystems as well. The BIO-SAFE has been applied on behalf of a combined flood risk reduction and ecological rehabilitation plan for the Rijnwaarden floodplains (River Rhine, the Netherlands). Application to flora and fauna data available for this area showed that the BIO-SAFE method enables the user to express politically and legally based biodiversity values in quantitative terms and to compare biodiversity values for various taxonomic groups, landscape-ecological units (e.g. ecotopes) and physical planning scenarios. By linking habitat preferences of the species selected to ecotopes, the method also allows the user to derive relevant information at the ecosystem level. Because of its policy-based character, BIO-SAFE yields complementary information to more established ecological biodiversity indices.

Some Remarks on the Socio‐Cultural Background of Restoration Ecology

AbstractRestoration ecology plays an important role in nature conservation policy in Europe today. It establishes the scientific basis for restoring ecosystems altered or destroyed by man to a more “natural” state. The goals of restoration ecology can generally be described in terms of increased biodiversity, enhanced water retention capacity, avoidance of soil erosion, etc. In practice, however, a discrepancy exists between the high ideals of restoration goals and reality, where one often encounters limiting factors. These limiting factors can include the conflict between different restoration goals, the unpredictability of restoration goals owing to long‐term effects and stochastic events, the insufficient social acceptance of landscape changes during restoration processes, and the use of restoration processes themselves (e.g., undisturbed succession, certain management measures like impoverishment of fertilized areas) as restoration goals in place of a certain resource quality (such as species composition, population sizes, water quality). Two examples from southern Germany show that restoration goals in European cultural landscapes can only be implemented successfully when they are integrated into the respective land use systems.

The implementation of international nature conservation agreements in Europe: the case of the Netherlands

AbstractNature conservation policy in European countries is increasingly determined by the requirements of a wide range of international agreements. The most important are two EU directives (the Birds Directive and the Habitats Directive) and four conventions (the Ramsar Convention, the Bern Convention, the Bonn Convention and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity). The main foci of these instruments are habitats and species that are of international importance or require international cooperation to secure their effective conservation. Despite the importance of these habitats and species, implementation of the instruments has been uneven. The Netherlands provides a interesting example of implementation issues. The legislation necessary to enable the government to legally designate areas that have to be protected under the Birds Directive was only adopted in 1998, 17 years after the deadline fixed by the directive. This legislation has enabled the government to nominate areas for designation under the Birds and Habitats Directive. However, not all the sites that fall under the criteria of the Directives have been included in the list, and the legislation does not include the required provision concerning compensation for areas that are protected under the Habitats Directive and then damaged by activities that are authorized in the public interest. In the case of the Ramsar Convention, the government is planning to increase the number of designated sites, but the total number of sites will still represent inadequately the types of wetland of international importance that are found in the Netherlands. Despite this uneven implementation, the instruments – particularly the EU Directives – are having far‐reaching effects on nature conservation in Europe. The most important consequences are that ecological considerations are the sole and absolute criteria for determining whether a site should be protected under the EU Directives and that many areas that until now only enjoyed limited protection under the spatial planning system now have to be legally protected from virtually all forms of damage. However, in practice many development plans take only limited account of the biodiversity conservation requirements implied by international conventions. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment

The interior-to-edge breakpoint distance as a guideline for nature conservation policy.

A method is proposed to quantify disturbance impact on isolated habitats. For every landscape patch, the breakpoint distance, defined as the penetration distance for which equality of interior and edge habitat is observed, can be calculated. Disturbance with equal impact at all patch sides is assumed. Effects of patch compactness, size, convolution, and perforation are discussed. The potential use of the measure for nature reserve design is discussed. The breakpoint distance follows the reserve design guidelines for individual patches, based on island biogeography and is consistent with the form and function principle. A large breakpoint distance is preferred for natural habitats. Small size, small compactness, intense convolution, and the occurrence of many gaps depress the breakpoint distance.

Deforestation in Costa Rica: A Quantitative Analysis Using Remote Sensing Imagery1

Accurate estimates of forest cover and forest fragmentation are critical for developing countries such as Costa Rica, which holds four to five percent of the world's plant and bird species. We estimated forest cover for Costa Rica using Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper satellite scenes acquired between 1986 and 1991. In 1991, 29 percent (ca 14,000 km2) of the land cover of Costa Rica was closed forest cover; of that forested area, ca 30 percent is protected by national conservation policies. Forest loss in a study area representing ca 50 percent of Costa Rica's territory during a five-year period (1986–1991) was 2250 km2, and the estimated deforestation rate was ca 450 km2/yr, or ca 4.2 percent/yr, of remaining forest cover. Forests are almost completely eliminated from the Tropical Moist Forest and Premontane Moist Forest life zones, and the level of fragmentation of remaining forests may be more advanced than previously thought.

Landscape structure and bird species richness: implications for conservation in rural areas between natural parks

Regional planning is bound to play an increasing role in nature conservation policies because much biodiversity is located outside natural parks and other protected areas. Differences in landscape structure between natural parks and surrounding areas may affect their respective species richness and may provide seasonal habitats that enhance total biodiversity. To test these ideas, we analyzed patterns of bird species richness, and its associated conservation value in a largely forested rural area that lies between the natural parks of Sant Llorenç del Munt and Montseny (Catalonia, NE Spain). Relationships of species richness with spatial gradients ( X and Y Universal Transversal of Mercator (UTM) coordinates) and with altitude and landscape variables were tested by stepwise multiple regression analysis. Regressions were performed separately for both breeding and wintering species, and considering both all species and only several dominant ecological groups (forest, forest-cropland and cropland species). Bird species richness and its associated conservation value were higher in the study area than in the surrounding borders of natural parks. Cropland and forest-cropland species concentrated outside the natural parks, whereas forest species were uniformly distributed. Total bird species richness was mainly related to landscape diversity and to abundance of open habitats like croplands and shrublands. Cropland species were the most dependent on the abundance of crops and on landscape diversity, whereas forest and forest-cropland species exhibited weak correlations with landscape variables. Most forest species were year-round residents, whereas forest-cropland and cropland species exhibited seasonal shifts in the number of species, mainly because of interchanges with other areas. Results indicate that rural areas play a role complementary to the surrounding natural protected areas in the conservation of bird species richness at different scales. Implications for the design and optimization of ecological networks in the perimetropolitan area of Barcelona are discussed.

“I struggled with this money business”: respondents’ perspectives on contingent valuation

In the long-running debates about the validity and legitimacy of contingent valuation (CV), very little research has engaged directly with respondents during or after the survey to explore what individuals’ willingness to pay (WTP) figure meant. This paper presents the results of qualitative research with respondents to a CV survey carried out as part of the appraisal of a specific nature conservation policy in the UK. The results show that respondents’ questioned the validity of their WTP figures through discussion of the difficulties they experienced in framing a meaningful reply. Significant difficulties included problems in contextualising what the scheme was and how much it might be worth in both monetary and non-monetary terms; an inability to work out a value for one scheme in isolation from others in other parts of the UK; and feelings that values for nature were not commensurable with monetary valuation. Turning to the legitimacy of CV, participants in the research challenged claims that CV is a democratic process for ensuring that public values are incorporated in policy decisions. Recognizing that hard economic choices have to be made in order to achieve nature conservation goals, participants argued for a decision-making institution where local people could contribute to environmental policy decisions through dialogue with scientists and policy-makers. In the final part of the paper, this project is compared with three studies that have also used qualitative approaches with respondents during and/or after a CV survey. The paper concludes that more context-specific, qualitative research with respondents is needed to explore further the conclusion that CV may not be a good methodology for capturing complex, cultural values for nature and landscape.

Contingent valuation of the Natura 2000 nature conservation programme in Finland

Summary This paper shows how contingent valuation studies can produce relevant information for public nature conservation decisions. The study analyses the preferences of Finnish households for a nature conservation programme, Natura 2000 Network, by applying a dichotomous choice referendum model of the contingent valuation survey. In order to study the influence of attitudes and beliefs on a choice between the status quo and the new conservation project, an attitude‐behaviour framework is applied. Beliefs concerning the outcomes of the nature conservation policy and evaluations of their importance describe how attitudes towards the programme are formed. The choices in the referendum are explained using a logit regression model and are found to be a function of attitude and socio-economic variables. The probability of a person supporting the proposed conservation level depends significantly on the income, age and background (urban‐rural) of the respondent. The estimated model of choice behaviour is used to calculate the average willingness to pay for the Natura 2000 Network, which is also compared to the costs of the conservation programme.

On the way to a better state? The role of NGOs in the planning and implementation of protected areas in Brazil.

Protected areas are considered some of the most versatile as well as important instruments of nature conservation and environmental policies. The `classic' model of nature conservation aims at the isolation of large areas in order to preserve their `pristine' nature from human interference. However, the transfer of this model to developing countries led to serious conflicts with local people. From a socio-geographical viewpoint, protected areas can be understood as regulative tools for the shaping and controlling of space. This approach helps to recognise the influence of distinct modes of appropriation of space and nature on the emergence and course of conflicts. In the present article it is used to analyse the leading role played by Brazilian NGOs in the transformation of the classic model of protected area management at the beginning of the nineties. Two case studies – dealing with the implementation of the Amazonian Mamiraua Reserve and with the reform of the Brazilian protected area legislation – are used to illustrate not only the success of the new approaches, but also the expectations and contradictions which surround the future development of protected areas in Brazil.

Prospects for nature and landscape protection in Estonia

The current article focuses on the past, present and future of nature conservation and landscape protection in Estonia. Five stages of nature conservation can be distinguished: (1) the common law phase, (2) the phase of narrow regulations restricting the use of nature resources, (3) the protection of nature monuments and species protection, (4) the establishment of multifunctional protected areas, and (5) the nature protection outside protected areas, cross-sectoral approach to preserving landscape and biological diversity. The main problems of current landscape protection and future trends are outlined. Designing the national ecological network and connecting it to the European ecological network is the priority for further nature and landscape conservation policy.

Integrating species and habitat data for nature conservation in Great Britain: data sources and methods

1.Britain is unusual in the quantity and quality of species and habitat data available, at both national and regional scales. This paper reviews the sources, coverage and quality of these data. 2.Habitat and species data are used by conservation agencies in England, Scotland and Wales for site selection and for monitoring habitat quality. The paper argues, however, that neither habitat data nor species distribution data on their own are sufficient to locate and monitor habitats for nature conservation purposes effectively. 3.Differences in sampling methodologies between habitat and species surveys present methodological difficulties for the development of an integrated monitoring system that uses both types of data. These problems need to be overcome if habitat and species data are to be used more effectively for nature conservation in the wider countryside. 4.A more integrated system based on the concept of biotope occupancy is proposed and discussed. The implementation of the system would assist with understanding those factors that explain observed patterns in species distribution and diversity, thereby helping to improve the effectiveness of policies for nature conservation.