Societal engagement in Natura 2000 sites. A comparative analysis of the policies in three areas in England,Denmark and Germany

Several governments in Europe have explicit ambitions to increase societal engagement in the management of Natura 2000 areas. However, implementing this ambition in practice remains a challenge. This article reviews experiences in three Natura 2000 sites in countries in which local level policies exist to improve societal engagement. By defining the elements of the different policies employed in terms of storylines, instruments, organizational structure and style of interaction, and evaluating to what extent these address societal and governmental arguments for societal involvement, wider lessons are drawn on how governments might tackle this complex issue. The area cases show that a hierarchical governance mode is combined with governance modes that are based more on cooperation, market mechanisms or responsiveness to societal energy in order to achieve societal engagement that goes further than acceptance of nature designations.     

Perceived importance of ecosystem services in the Białowieża Forest for local communities – Does proximity matter?

Effective protection of biodiversity in areas of high conservation value requires trade-offs between local use of natural resources and conservation restrictions. The compromise is often difficult to reach, which causes conflicts over the management priorities of existing and potential protected areas. Ecosystem services (ES) perspective offers a promising avenue for diagnosing and reconciling contrasting interests concerning the use of benefits from ecosystems. We examined how the spatial proximity to the Białowieża Forest (BF), a European biodiversity hotspot, affects the perceived use of ES by local communities. We performed a survey among 719 respondents from 35 villages situated within BF and in its vicinity. We found that both the declared use of ES and the perceived influence of ES on household’s economy was declining with the distance from BF with particularly high differences between areas not further than 3 km from BF and areas located 3-15 km from BF. Different zones varied in terms of benefits from tourism and costs connected with a potential limited access to ES due to conservation. Broadening the perspective, we argue that the trade-offs linked to ES may vary depending on the location in relation to the protected area and that local communities should not be treated as a homogenous group when considering benefits from the forest. Awareness of common patterns of ES use over space and local specificity may enhance effective management of even highly contested conservation areas.     

“Community developed and farmer delivered.” An analysis of the spatial and relational proximities of the Alternative Land Use Services program in Ontario

In Canada, the Alternative Land Use Services (ALUS) program aims to support conservation projects by financially compensating farmers for ecosystem services. The program advocates a bottom-up approach that allows farmers to decide which projects to implement. In this respect, ALUS distinguishes itself from more traditional agri-environment schemes, which are often managed in a top-down fashion. Other unique features of the program include a governance structure based on stakeholder confidence; the provision of annual compensation to members for supplying ecosystem services; and a private, community-based approach to conservation. Using the proximity analysis framework, our research explores whether this model can reshape the values of farmers and encourage them to adopt and maintain environmentally friendly practices. Our results reveal a close proximity among ALUS members in terms of their values, both environmental and economic. However, the ALUS program fails to take full advantage of the geographic and organized proximity of its participants. Specifically, individual projects are not integrated into a spatially coordinated, collective strategy that could have a greater environmental impact. While ALUS has been successful in encouraging farmers to adopt new practices, it mostly attracts participants who already agree with the values it promotes. In this regard, the program is not very different from standard agri-environment schemes.     

Impact of local payments for ecosystem services on land use in a developed area of China: A qualitative analysis based on an integrated conceptual framework

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) have increasingly been applied as economic incentives for improving ecosystem services around the world. However, due to difficulties in measuring and attributing ecosystem services provisioning, a land-based approach has been popularly adopted as a proxy for the desired ecosystem services. In this study, we demonstrate the impact mechanism and outcomes of locally financed PES programs on conservation-based land use in a developed area of China. We present this work using a PES-land use proxy framework that is examined empirically through a variety of qualitative assessments. Our framework illustrates that, within the ecological, socioeconomic, and institutional conditions of developed areas, land use class, pattern and function would be impacted by (a) conservation effect, (b) stakeholder response, and (c) institutional adaptation mechanisms of local PES programs, with multiple land use trends as potential outcomes. We examine the framework using materials from Suzhou, China, which has implemented a top-down, partly involuntary (ecosystem services supply side), land based PES program. Our results show that, expected land use class, land use pattern and land use function are observed in areas where the PES programs were implemented. We also find that the conditions of developed areas and locally financed payments mechanism indeed played a crucial role in promoting conservation-based land use in Suzhou.