Nature Conservation Policy Research Articles

Botanical assessment, chemical profiling, and conservation status of Lebanese endemics: guidelines for national conservation policies and adaptation strategy

Botanical assessment, chemical profiling, and conservation status of Lebanese endemics: guidelines for national conservation policies and adaptation strategy

Priorities for biodiversity monitoring in Europe: A review of supranational policies and a novel scheme for integrative prioritization

Trends and status of species and habitats need to be measured to assess whether global biodiversity policy targets have been achieved. However, it is impossible to monitor all species and habitats with a justifiable effort. Therefore, it is critical to prioritize the monitoring of specific biodiversity components. Priorities must be linked to key nature conservation policies to ensure that monitoring efforts are relevant to policy needs, achieve maximum impact, and obtain governmental support. Here we discuss priority setting in biodiversity monitoring in view of monitoring obligations and priorities in supranational biodiversity legislation and policies in Europe and assess overlaps in priorities among policies. While most supranational biodiversity regulations require monitoring of biodiversity, obligations are legally enforceable only for the Nature Directives, the Water Framework Directive, and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive of the European Union. Of the assessed international conventions and other relevant policy instruments about 50% explicitly designate priority species and most focus on vertebrates. Lower emphasis is given to habitats and geographical priorities are even less pronounced. Also, an overarching system for monitoring prioritization is still missing. Our prioritization system is based on three main criteria: (1) legal requirement for reporting, (2) wording used to define priority or importance, and (3) inclusion in lists that indicate importance of monitoring due to e.g. threats or relevance of a region for a species. Our system contains five main priority levels, within which an additional division differentiates priorities according to national/European responsibility criteria. Based on this system, we provide recommendations for allocating species and habitats enlisted by the reviewed policy tools to explicit non-overlapping priority levels. Our approach will facilitate synergies between monitoring activities for different policy needs, and contribute to alleviate the notorious resource shortage for biodiversity monitoring.

Playing at multiple levels in biodiversity governance: The case of Hungarian ENGOs in Natura 2000

The Hungarian biodiversity governance setting changed with Hungary’s accession to the EU: an additional supranational level brought new interaction opportunities for ENGOs. Based on the concept of multi-level governance, this paper analyses what kind of interactions Hungarian nature conservation NGOs have with state and non-state actors across different governance levels. The implementation of Natura 2000, as a flagship of EU nature conservation, was chosen to investigate the role of ENGOs in nature conservation policy making. The research reported here applied qualitative research techniques combining semi-structured expert interviews with document analysis. At the national level, Hungarian ENGOs cooperated effectively with each other and state nature conservation bodies. New channels for information flow and knowledge transfer were opened and have been actively used by Hungarian ENGOs via European umbrella organisations and through directly contacting EU institutions. Although ENGOs gained some links to the agricultural policy sector, a constructive cooperation with these actors could not be established. As the national ENGOs focused on international and national level interactions, they relatively neglected exchanges with local ENGOs. So when the authorities of the agricultural sector and local farmers became crucial for a successful implementation of Natura 2000, ENGOs had only few contacts to cooperate with.

Spatial distribution of marine benthic habitats in the Estonian coastal sea, northeastern Baltic Sea

INTRODUCTION Annex I of the Habitat Directive (Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora) defines the habitat types of higher importance and in need of conservation within Europe. Together with the Birds Directive this directive forms a solid base for the European nature conservation policy and the Natura 2000 network. In order to implement the requirements of the directive and to resolve the existing needs for local conservation purposes, a benthic habitat classification system EBHAB (Eastern Baltic marine benthic HABitats) was developed in the frame of the multinational EU LIFE project 'Marine Protected Areas in the Eastern Baltic Sea (Baltic MPAs)'. In the current study a detailed inventory of the EBHAB habitat classes was performed within six study areas covering the most valuable nearshore marine areas and including several protected areas, i.e. the Natura 2000 areas in the Estonian coastal range. In general, prior to this inventory the knowledge on the distribution of habitats and associated biota in the coastal areas was very poor including only a few publications each containing a handful sampling sites only (e.g. Martin, 2000; Kotta & Orav, 2001; Kotta et al., 2008, Kovtun et al., 2009). Moreover, the published background information was very scattered and owing to differences in methodologies there was no way to systematize such knowledge. Thus, there was a need to examine the species composition and identify typical communities within their environment. The current inventory allowed us for the first time (1) to summarize the range of large-scale variability of the studied habitats in terms of benthic biodiversity, species composition, and dominance structure; (2) to provide a knowledge base for follow-on biological and ecological studies; and (3) thus, to provide important information for managing our marine resources. MATERIAL AND METHODS Study area Altogether six areas representing various environmental and climatic conditions in the northeastern Baltic Sea were studied in detail with the aim of classifying the observed benthic habitats according to the recently established EBHAB classes (Fig. 1). An overview of the study areas is given below. [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Eastern and western Gulf of Finland areas The average depth of the Gulf of Finland is 37 m and the maximum depth 123 m. The coastal slope is quite steep and depths reach over 30 m in all bays of the study area. Sand, silt, or sandy clay bottoms dominate in deeper areas, boulders and stones prevail near the coast. The coastline is diverse and disjuncted by peninsulas, many small islands occur in the area. The eastern gulf receives runoff from a huge drainage area and the western gulf is a direct continuation of the Baltic Proper. Therefore the gulf has a permanent east-west gradient of salinity. The salinity range of the study area is 4.5-6.2. The area is strongly influenced by diffuse and point-source nutrient loads. West-Estonian Archipelago Sea The area comprises shallow bays with many small islets and mudflats. The average depth of the area is less than 4 m with the maximum close to 20 m. The bottom morphology of the area is flat, with gentle slopes towards deeps. The whole water basin is semi-exposed. Sand and sandy clay sediments prevail in the entire area of the archipelago. Due to the shallowness and clayey sediments already moderate winds result in strong resuspension of bottom sediments and poor underwater light conditions. Salinity varies from 0 to 7, being the lowest in the estuary of the Kasari River in the eastern part of the area and around 6-7 in the western, open-sea area. Haapsalu and Matsalu bays are the most eutrophied bays within the West-Estonian Archipelago Sea. Western Saaremaa Island Similarly to the previous study area this area consists of small shallow bays with many scattered islets. …

Discovering Indigenous Lands: The Doctrine of Discovery in the English colonies (review)

Reviewed by: Discovering Indigenous Lands: The Doctrine of Discovery in the English colonies Signa A. Daum Shanks Discovering Indigenous Lands: The Doctrine of Discovery in the English colonies Robert J. Miller, Jacinta Ruru, Larissa Behrendt and Tracey Lindberg. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. This work is a collaboration by four authors, all of whom are Indigenous and all of whom decide to focus on the location of their ancestors and the system of the Doctrine of Discovery that has developed in that location. As a result, Discovering Indigenous Lands includes analysis about the regions of the world now labeled as Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. First, the book includes a short chapter which explains the authors' understanding about the Doctrine, its role within the paradigm of international law and then how England's efforts perpetuated the Doctrine's application throughout the world. Next, chapters appear that are devoted to the four different areas in the world where the authors' own heritages originate. Each author has a different technique for introducing information and analysing the law. Two authors, Lindberg and Behrendt, choose to have sections which investigate the concept in the region and then present observations about how the concept resonates in law, political arenas and social policies. Ruru, in her analysis about Aotearoa/New Zealand, decides that having two sections with a generally chronological construction helps reveal how her ancestors' region has experienced the Doctrine. In introducing events in the lands now known as the United States, Miller contends that having a portion devoted to legal norms and then discussing historical events helps expose the components of the Doctrine and how those qualities have resonated in non-law-based sectors of societies located in the United States. While the methods used by each writer and some of the specific details contained in their sections are different, all the writers determine that the use of the Doctrine of Discovery has been based on racism, the pursuit of wealth for a colonizing country without regard of the found country's actual capabilities or the interests of those located in those found countries. To solidify their perspectives, the authors mainly use legal documents to trace the roots of how colonizing parties acknowledged and used the Doctrine while attempting to dominate other parts of the world. In addition, the book also contains documentation that reveals how those who used (and currently perpetuate) the Doctrine also rarely apply it consistently or in tandem with other laws of the time. In other words, the imposers of the Doctrine have goals, and those goals will be pursued regardless of whether the laws of their country actually approve the process. As a result of the authors' data and their sources, we learn how the Doctrine is race-based, violent and, in fact, not even particularly productive. As a turn of phrase, its nature shifts so those who have used it have also made it act as the justification for actions they have pursued. Certain ends are imagined, whatever acts it takes to get those ends are done, and repeatedly the source which allowed parties to complete those acts, the Doctrine, is mentioned. The book is also peppered with descriptions of modern events, such as the "Northern Territory Intervention" in Australia or the 2003 Ngati Apa decision in New Zealand, that illustrate how various individuals and groups have not been treated in the same way, so that the rule of law has been jeopardized by the Doctrine's frequent use. The text also contains descriptions of what are sometimes called by other researchers "unintended consequences," such as how national parks and conservation policies interact with the constructs judges have made about Indigenous perspectives and federal authority as an extension of the Doctrine's influence. In these descriptions, we learn where the form chosen for the Doctrine even fails those who decided to impose it. At moments such as these, the colonizers continue to claim the law is on their side, but they also continue the concept's trend of illegitimacy by modifying specific policies and making the Doctrine's foundation even more legally tenuous. Except, of course and as the authors regularly highlight...

Conflict camouflaging in public administration — A case study in nature conservation policy in Lower Saxony

A balanced management of forest conflicts that considers both nature conservation and economic concerns requires the recognition and communication of these concerns within the decision-making procedures of public administration. Thus, the visibility of conflicts is an important condition for balanced conflict resolutions. The analysis of public administration forms shows, theoretically and empirically, that different patterns support the visibility of conflicts in specific ways, mainly by offering the potential for the development of independent expertise and its integration into consideration procedures. Combining different organisation forms increases the potential for balanced conflict resolutions. The effect of this potential depends on its utilization by administrative resources. In the case of administrative reform in the German federal state of Lower Saxony, the utilization of this potential was neglected, reducing the visibility of nature conservation concerns. This had far-reaching consequences for the resolution of forest conflicts. Economically-biased resolutions become camouflaged by keeping conservation issues invisible, neglecting them within administrative procedures and within the operations of forest owners whilst making legal and political claims to their consideration, so as to be able to pretend that conflict resolutions are balanced in their approach.

Historia ambiental de los archipiélagos de la Trapananda (Patagonia septentrional, Chile): desafíos para la conservación de la ballena azul

The reappearance of the blue whale in southern Chile in 2003has meant a number challenges for national conservation policies. It is alsocreated an opportunity to re-think the history of the southern seas and thatof the Aysen coastline in particular. The social landscape of this coastlineis characterized by poverty and passage between two well known regionChiloe and Austral Patagonia. This is an extreme environment in whichinhabitants have developed a number of adaptive strategies linked to forestand marine systems. These strategies are well documented in the historical,archaeological and ethnographic records which we will gather in order toreconstruct the environmental history of the region. Archaeo-historical recordsevidenced canoes were vital for the first inhabitants of this area. Theirrelationship with nature was based on the extensive used of resources whichin turn facilitated their integration to the local landscape characterized bythe abundance of archipelagos. This relationship was modified after a numberof historical processes unchained after the inclusion of this area to thenational economy plans. These processes promoted continuous waves ofsettlement into the region, mainly to the coastline of Aysen, modifying thetraditional adaptive strategies and promoting an intensive and abusive usedof this intrinsically labile and non-renewable landscape. The opportunity tocompile the environmental history of this area and contribute to its protectionalong with the blue whale is the challenge we present here.

News from the Global Index of Vegetation-Plot Databases (GIVD): the metadata platform, available data, and their properties

In 2010, we launched the Global Index of Vegetation-Plot Databases (GIVD; http://www.givd.info), an internet-based resource offering metadata of existing electronic vegetation databases. On 11 May 2012, 182 databases containing more than 2.8 million non-overlapping vegetation plots had been registered in GIVD. The majority of these plots were from European databases (123 databases, 1.87 million plots). The oldest plot record dated from 1864, but the vast majority of the plots had been collected since 1970. Most of the plots had areas between 1 and 1,000 m2. A total of 68 databases also stored time series and/or nested-plot data. The vegetation-plot data registered in GIVD constitute a major resource for biodiversity research, not only through the large number of species occurrence records, but especially due to the storage of species co-occurrence information, complemented with site-specific structural data and plot-based environmental data. The increased ease of discovering and accessing such datasets, owing to their registration in GIVD, offers significant opportunities for large-scale studies in areas such as community ecology, macroecology, and global-change research. The results from such studies could be very important for nature conservation practice and policy.

Swiss Biodiversity Monitoring BDM (Z9 Mosses)

Switzerland is one of the first countries in the world to monitor its biological diversity. The Federal Office for the environment (FOEN) has launched a programme for this purpose called Biodiversity Monitoring in Switzerland (BDM). In conjunction with the BDM programme, experts contracted by the Federal Government will regularly count animals and plants in numerous predetermined areas in the field. Whereas numerical qualitative objectives are accepted in most areas of environmental protection (emissions thresholds in air pollution control, for example), there are so far no targets for how biodiversity should change. Biodiversity monitoring helps us to define specific targets for nature conservation policy and to establish whether the measures that have been implemented are enabling us to reach these targets. Mosses are surveyed for the state indicator Z9 (species diversity in habitats). This report describes the available content in the vegetation-plot database of the Swiss Biodiversity Monitoring BDM (Z9 Mosses) (GIVD ID EU-CH-010).

Swiss Biodiversity Monitoring BDM (Z9 Plants)

Switzerland is one of the first countries in the world to monitor its biological diversity. The Federal Office for the environment (FOEN) has launched a programme for this purpose called Biodiversity Monitoring in Switzerland (BDM). In conjunction with the BDM programme, experts contracted by the Federal Government will regularly count animals and plants in numerous predetermined areas in the field. Whereas numerical qualitative objectives are accepted in most areas of environmental protection (emissions thresholds in air pollution control, for example), there are so far no targets for how biodiversity should change. Biodiversity monitoring helps us to define specific targets for nature conservation policy and to establish whether the measures that have been implemented are enabling us to reach these targets. Plants are surveyed for the state indicators Z7 (species diversity in landscapes) and Z9 (species diversity in habitats). This report describes the available content in the vegetation-plot database of the Swiss Biodiversity Monitoring BDM (Z9 Plants) (GIVD ID EU-CH-002).

Environmental history of the Trapananda Archipelagos (Northern Patagonia, Chile): challenges for the conservation of the blue whale

The reappearance of the blue whale in southern Chile in 2003has meant a number challenges for national conservation policies. It is alsocreated an opportunity to re-think the history of the southern seas and thatof the Aysen coastline in particular. The social landscape of this coastlineis characterized by poverty and passage between two well known regionChiloe and Austral Patagonia. This is an extreme environment in whichinhabitants have developed a number of adaptive strategies linked to forestand marine systems. These strategies are well documented in the historical,archaeological and ethnographic records which we will gather in order toreconstruct the environmental history of the region. Archaeo-historical recordsevidenced canoes were vital for the first inhabitants of this area. Theirrelationship with nature was based on the extensive used of resources whichin turn facilitated their integration to the local landscape characterized bythe abundance of archipelagos. This relationship was modified after a numberof historical processes unchained after the inclusion of this area to thenational economy plans. These processes promoted continuous waves ofsettlement into the region, mainly to the coastline of Aysen, modifying thetraditional adaptive strategies and promoting an intensive and abusive usedof this intrinsically labile and non-renewable landscape. The opportunity tocompile the environmental history of this area and contribute to its protectionalong with the blue whale is the challenge we present here.

Geographic patterns of vertebrate diversity and identification of relevant areas for conservation in Europe

The ‘EU Council conclusions on biodiversity post–2010’ re–enforced Europe’s commitment to halt biodiversity loss by 2020. Identifying areas of high–value for biodiversity conservation is an important issue to meet this target. We investigated the geographic pattern of terrestrial vertebrate diversity status in Europe by assessing the species richness, rarity, vulnerability (according to IUCN criteria), and a combined index of the three former for the amphibians, reptiles, bird and mammals of this region. We also correlated the value of all indices with climate and human influence variables. Overall, clear geographic gradients of species diversity were found. The combined biodiversity index indicated that high–value biodiversity areas were mostly located in the Mediterranean basin and the highest vulnerability was found in the Iberian peninsula for most taxa. Across all indexes, the proportion of variance explained by climate and human influence factors was moderate to low. The results obtained in this study have the potential to provide valuable support for nature conservation policies in Europe and, consequently, might contribute to mitigate biodiversity decline in this region.

Forest owners and power: A Foucauldian study on Finnish forest policy

This study applies a Foucauldian discourse analysis in a study of forest owners' descriptions of power relations in Finnish forest and nature conservation policy, in the context of the recent implementation of cooperative National Forest Programme. Twenty-five forest owners in southern Finland were interviewed using a semi-structured “qualitative attitude approach.” Three discursive strategies were found: (1) “submitting to others' power,” (2) “questioning others' power” and (3) “taking power.” As discursive resources for these strategies, forest owners used two identities, “forestry identity” and “conservation identity,” as well as expressions of justice, in order to create tension or alignment between policy actors. The first two strategies emphasized non-cooperation and non-communication between stakeholders and were dominant in the interviews. As a contrast, the third strategy emphasized cooperation and communication; however, it was used rarely. The results of the study can help policy stakeholders to become aware of the discursive construction of policy processes and the presence of power in all social interaction between policy stakeholders.

Legitimacy of forest and nature conservation policy: A conceptual framework with illustrations

The central challenge for sustainable forest policies is their legitimacy among the people: are the political decision-making processes and their outcomes perceived as just according to prevalent social values? However, there is no established theoretical basis for the legitimacy research in the forest sector. This study develops a valid and comprehensive conceptual framework for empirical studies on legitimacy. The theoretical analysis is verified by detailed empirical illustrations from the public discourse on the Finnish forest regime. The theoretical framework analyzes the objects of support, patterns of legitimacy, performance evaluations, and how these relate to one another. The objects of political support can be classified as political community, regime norms, regime institutions, and actors. The patterns of legitimacy can be analyzed at different levels: (A) democracy and other forms of government, (B) different forms of participation, and (C) normative principles. The principles can be further classified into (1) core regime, (2) input, (3) throughput, and (4) output principles. Moreover, all these patterns of legitimacy can be usefully arranged in (1) democratic, (2) extra-democratic, and (3) counter-democratic classes.

Nature Conservation Law in Context: The Limited Influence of European Union and Greek Designations on the Future of Cavo Sidero, Crete

Explanations of why nature conservation governance, policies, and institutions fail to achieve their aims sometimes highlight a disconnect between legal designations generally intended to protect p...

Evolution and Biodiversity: the evolutionary basis of biodiversity and its potential for adaptation to global change.

Biodiversity has a key role in maintaining healthy ecosystems and thereby sustaining ecosystem services to the ever-growing human population. To get an idea of the range of ecosystem services that we use daily, think of how much energy and time it would cost to make Mars (or some other Earth-like planet) hospitable for human life, for example, in terms of atmosphere regulation, freshwater production, soil formation, nutrient cycles, regulation of climate, etc. On our own planet, that process took four billion years and required the contribution of a vast amount of functions performed by different life forms, ultimately driven by evolution and that is only the top of the (melting) iceberg. Unfortunately, the ecosystems that we so exploit and dearly need for our long-term survival and welfare are jeopardized by our own actions. Global change, triggered by human activities, is all around us. The pervasive effects of climate change, habitat loss and fragmentation, overharvesting, pollution, altered nutrient cycling, invasive species and interactions thereof affect virtually all Earth's ecosystems (Rockstrom et al. 2009). With seven billion people consuming natural resources more rapidly than they are created, we are at the onset of a major environmental revolution. As a consequence, species are already shifting, expanding, disappearing, changing their behaviour and phenology, exploiting newly available food resources and abandoning scarcer ones. Ecosystems are changing too, driven by changes in environmental drivers and by the reshuffling of their biota into previously unknown combinations of species (Williams and Jackson 2007). The interplay of all these processes makes the forecast of changes in ecosystem services a daunting task. All these changes are likely to have a bearing on and be influenced by the evolutionary forces at play. The main legacy of Charles Darwin was to make us realize that we owe everything, including the formation of our own species, to evolution. We thus learned that the history of life is driven by evolution. But what about the future? What is the contribution of evolution to these ecological changes? And, probably most relevant to policy: what is the potential of evolutionary processes to exacerbate or mitigate the effects of global change? Is evolutionary biology just a scientific gimmick compared to the real problems that we are facing? This volume deals exactly with these questions. Until a decade or so ago, evolutionary change was broadly assumed to happen on a vastly longer time scale than ecological change. As a corollary, our view on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning has often been static, trying to conserve biodiversity as it is, and preferably, as it once was. Just like our ecosystems, however, this paradigm is shifting. The closer we look at adaptive evolution, often with the aid of new biological insights and technological advances, the faster it seems to happen. Evolution and ecology are proving to be so heavily entwined that the distinction is becoming increasingly hard to make. This knowledge profoundly affects our thinking on how evolution affects patterns of biodiversity, especially in the face of global change. Adaptive responses to climate change, for example, have been shown to occur within a single generation (Van Doorslaer et al. 2007). Contemporary evolution is probably more important than we assumed to date and is, therefore, likely to mediate the response of populations, species, communities and ecosystems to both gradual and sudden environmental change. In April 2010, the European Platform for Biodiversity Research Strategy (http://www.epbrs.org) hosted the meeting ‘Evolution and Biodiversity: The evolutionary basis of biodiversity and its potential for adaptation to global change’, funded by the BioStrat project (http://www.biostrat.org). The meeting was preceded by an electronic conference that lasted 21 days and gathered over 62 contributors and more than 1600 participants (Grant et al. 2010). Both the conference and the meeting revolved around three main themes: (i) the evolutionary basis of biodiversity, (ii) evolutionary responses to global change and (iii) evolution in complex systems and co-evolutionary networks. This special issue builds from the diverse arrange of contributions made at the conference and aims to provide a diverse and interdisciplinary perspective on the interplay between evolutionary and ecological responses in the face of global change.

Response of Orthoptera assemblages to management of montane grasslands in the Western Carpathians

Montane grassy habitats in the Western Carpathians are relatively well preserved, maintain high species richness and are often important in accordance to the nature conservation policy in Europe. However, knowledge about the impact of farming on the habitat quality there is rather poor. The influence of various management types (permanent sheep pen, irregular grazing, mowing) on Orthoptera diversity and species determining assemblages of these habitats were analysed on 72 plots in Poľana Mts Biosphere Reserve. Altogether, 36 Orthoptera species (15 Ensifera, 21 Caelifera) were found, whereas the highest number of species was found on plots with irregular grazing (28 species), followed by plots with mown grass (17) and permanent sheep pens (14). All four measures of the assemblages’ diversity confirmed significant differences. Using Discriminant Function Analysis, correct classification rate of Orthoptera assemblages was unambiguous according to the type of management. Each form of the management harboured several characteristic species. Thus implications regarding the biodiversity conservation and grassland management were given.

Renewable energy vs. biodiversity: Policy conflicts and the future of nature conservation

The European Union's (EU) network of nature conservation areas – Natura 2000 – covers almost 18% of EU territory, and is subject to strict legal protection, which is enforced by the European Commission, a supranational authority. Given the Natura 2000 network's size, conflicts between Natura 2000 and renewable energy projects are inevitable, particularly as countries push to meet their 2020 energy and emissions reduction targets by pursuing more – and larger – renewable energy projects. Focusing on two cases in the renewable energy sector – a hydroelectric dam in Portugal's Sabor valley, and a large tidal barrage in the UK's Severn estuary – this article shows that the EU's strict biodiversity protection regime could necessitate the rejection of many large renewable energy projects. That is, it may not be possible as a matter of EU law for national authorities to grant permission for such projects. The potential for such difficulties will be shown to be highly visible to policymakers, and could, this article argues, trigger negative impacts in terms of the rule of law, and negative feedbacks on nature conservation policies in the EU and, by way of precedent, globally. The legal issues presented here should not, this article argues, be regarded as insurmountable problems, nor as a trigger for reforms aimed at weakening biodiversity protections. Rather, these issues are better regarded as an opportunity for an open, informed, global debate regarding the relationship between biodiversity and climate change policies, and the hierarchy, if any, between them.

Integrating ecological, scenic and local identity values in the management plan of an Alpine Natural Park

Nature conservation policies and procedures have recently acquired a wider mission. Disciplinary advances, the approval of international guidelines and regulations, and the increasing number and variety of protected areas require to overcome the traditional rigid separation between designated areas and the rest of the territory. In particular, the challenge of biodiversity protection and the attention devoted to protected landscapes require innovative approaches. The paper provides a disciplinary framework and illustrates the methodology used in drawing up a management plan for the Paneveggio-Pale di San Martino Natural Park, an alpine protected area located in Trentino, Italy. The Park is characterised by ecological values and spectacular Dolomite scenery, but also by man-made landscapes and the presence of economic activities. The key planning instrument applied is the ‘landscape unit’, which integrates the different values to be protected in a way that reflects the identity of local communities and the shared perspective of nature conservation.

Legitimacy and empowerment: combining two conceptual approaches for explaining forest owners' willingness to cooperate in nature conservation

This interdisciplinary study examined how perceived legitimacy and empowerment as well as expectations concerning positive outcomes in forest conservation explained forest owners' willingness to cooperate with environmental officials in the context of voluntary nature conservation. The views of 965 forest owners in southern Finland, where national forest conservation policy has been recently discussed and renewed, were analysed by structural equation modelling of questionnaire responses. Based on the models, perceived legitimacy and empowerment predicted forest owners' willingness to cooperate with environmental officials in nature conservation via the expectation that nature conservation would lead to positive outcomes. In addition, a significant interaction between legitimacy and empowerment was found: forest owners' empowerment perceptions increased the willingness to cooperate only among those owners who perceived the legitimacy of nature conservation to be low. The findings have theoretical and practical implications for research on legitimacy and empowerment as well as the application of nature conservation policies.