Cost-effectiveness of managing Natura 2000 sites: an exploratory study for Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and Poland

Natura 2000 sites are expected to assure the long-term survival of Europe's most valuable and threatened species and habitats. It follows that successful management of the sites is of great importance. Next to goal attainment, cost-effectiveness is increasingly recognised as a key requirement for gaining social and political acceptance for costly conservation measures. We identify and qualitatively examine issues of cost-effectiveness related to the design and implementation of management measures in Natura 2000 sites in Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and Poland. Given the wide variety of management design and implementation options within the four countries, our study is purely of an exploratory nature. We derive recommendations for improving the cost-effectiveness of management in Natura 2000 sites and for future research. Examples of policy recommendations include guaranteeing the availability of funds for longer periods, and ensuring the appropriate allocation of funds between the different tasks of designing and implementing management plans. Further research should examine the cost-effectiveness of controversial suggestions such as, for example, more tailored payment schemes for conservation measures that result in higher ecological outputs but are costly to administer. Moreover, more research is needed to better understand how rules for administrations, as well as rules and governance structures for tasks within administrations, should be designed

Marine spatial planning and Good Environmental status: A perspective on spatial and temporal dimensions

The European Union Marine Strategy Framework Directive requires the Good Environmental Status of marine environments in Europe's regional seas; yet, maritime activities, including sources of marine degradation, are diversifying and intensifying in an increasingly globalized world. Marine spatial planning is emerging as a tool for rationalizing competing uses of the marine environment while guarding its quality. A directive guiding the development of such plans by European Union member states is currently being formulated. There is an undeniable need for marine spatial planning. However, we argue that considerable care must be taken with marine spatial planning, as the spatial and temporal scales of maritime activities and of Good Environmental Status may be mismatched. We identify four principles for careful and explicit consideration to align the requirements of the two directives and enable marine spatial planning to support the achievement of Good Environmental Status in Europe's regional seas

Envisioning the future of water in Europe - the SCENES project

The aim of this article is to describe the background and main elements of the SCENES project (Water Scenarios for Europe and Neighbouring States) together with the approach for selecting, constructing and evaluating water scenarios up to 2050. SCENES is a multi-faceted integrated project that aims to address the complex questions about the future of Europe’s water resources. It takes an integrated approach by combining and balancing the many dimensions of Europe’s water futures, including hydrological, ecological, economic, cultural, social, climatic, financial and other dimensions. The project is implemented in three phases. In the first phase (fast-track) largely extant scenarios are selected, and readily available information on drivers and policies information assembled and run through an existing quantitative model of pan-European water availability. In the second phase more refined scenarios are developed at both the pan-European and regional scales, with scenario panels providing ‘enriched’ scenarios. The third phase involves a synthesis of the information and dissemination of the project outputs to external stakeholders and end-users. In the SCENES project an evaluation of the participatory scenario processes is carried out giving us new information on the functioning of the science-policy interface, and on the challenges the European water management may confront in the future

Wyniki badania „niebieskiego wzrostu” w wybranych projektach międzynarodowych ukierunkowanych na rozwój morskiego planowania przestrzennego w regionie Morza Bałtyckiego

Blue growth is a relatively new policy of EU enhancing sustainable use of the sea resources. The relation between blue growth and maritime spatial planning (MSP) are not obvious. Both belong to a class of EU policies and both cover the sea space. Since maritime spatial planning in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) has recently gained its momentum, the maritime spatial planners face the challenge of incorporating the concept of the blue growth into their planning processes. This paper facilitates this task by providing a comprehensive information on the international projects executed by the maritime spatial planners and the relations of those projects to the concept of the blue growth. This is important in order to capitalize on what has been achieved so far. However, it seems that has been so far no single “planning project” focusing exclusively on the blue growth and this growth has been tackled in such projects rather at ad hoc and non-systematic manner. Thus, the research on relations between MSP and blue growth seems to be still pending. Possible directions of its development are suggested in the final part of the paper.Niebieski wzrost to stosunkowo nowa polityka UE. Jego celem jest zrównoważone wykorzystanie zasobów morskich. Relacja pomiędzy niebieskim wzrostem i planowaniem przestrzennym obszarów morskich (MSP) nie są oczywiste. Obie kategorie należą do klasy polityk UE i dotyczą przestrzeni morskiej. Jako że planowanie przestrzenne obszarów morskich w regionie Morza Bałtyckiego (BSR) zyskało ostatnio na znaczeniu, morscy planiści przestrzenni stoją przed wyzwaniem włączenia koncepcji błękitnego wzrostu do swoich procesów planistycznych. Niniejszy artykuł ma im ułatwić to zadanie, dostarczając kompleksowych informacji na temat międzynarodowych projektów realizowanych przez morskich planistów przestrzennych i sposobów uwzględnienia w nich koncepcji błękitnego wzrostu. Chodzi o to by budować na tym co już zostało osiągnięte. Jak dotąd nie było jednak ani jednego projektu planistycznego poświęconego wyłącznie niebieskiemu wzrostowi. Koncepcja ta była raczej osadzana w tych projektach na zasadzie ad hoc i w sposób wybiórczy. Tak więc badania relacji i związków między MSP i błękitnym wzrostem wydają się oczekiwać bardziej wnikliwego podejścia . Możliwe kierunki ich rozwoju są sugerowane w końcowej części artykułu