Towards a participatory integrated assessment approach for planning and managing Natura 2000 network sites

Managing protected areas implies dealing with complex social-ecological systems where multiple dimensions (social, institutional, economic and ecological) interact over time for the delivery of ecosystem services. Uni-dimensional and top-down management approaches have been unable to capture this complexity. Instead, new integrated approaches that acknowledge the diversity of social actors in the decision making process are required. In this paper we put forward a novel participatory assessment approach which integrates multiple methodologies to reflect different value articulating institutions in the case of a Natura 2000 network site in the Basque Country. It integrates within a social multi-criteria evaluation framework, both the economic values of ecosystem services through a choice experiment model and ecological values by means of a spatial bio-geographic assessment. By capturing confronting social and institutional conflicts in protected areas the participatory integrated assessment approach presented here can help decision makers for better planning and managing Natura 2000 sites.Funding provided by IHOBE (Basque Environmental Agency) through the research project coded as OTRI 2008.0101 (UPV/EHU)

La protección, gestión y ordenación de los paisajes de Álava. El catálogo de paisaje de la llanada alavesa (País Vasco)

[ES] La presente comunicación expone el esquema metodológico y los primeros resultados de dos proyectos de investigación. Uno de ellos, elaborado al amparo de un convenio con la Diputación Foral de Álava, está destinado a la exploración de alternativas metodológicas para la elaboración de los denominados Catálogos del Paisaje y a la realización del catálogo correspondiente a la Llanada Alavesa. El segundo es el denominado “Valoración paisajística, ambiental y socioeconómica de los espacios agrarios de alto valor natural de la Comunidad Autónoma de Euskadi. (GIU10/07)”. En ambos, el objetivo es obtener y elaborar información útil para la elaboración de instrumentos para la protección, gestión y ordenación del paisaje y para la política territorial, en especial de aquellos espacios agrarios que están sufriendo una profunda transformación económica, social, ambiental y territorial. Es el caso de La Llanada Alavesa, en cuyo estudio se utiliza una metodología de valoración paisajística integral y consensuada mediante mecanismos de participación ciudadana.[EN] This paper describes the methodological aspects and the first results of two research projects. One of them, drawn up with the help of a collaboration agreement with the Diputación Foral of Álava, is intended to explore methodological alternatives for carrying out the landscape catalogues and to make a landscape catalogue of the Llanada Alavesa. The second is called “Landscape, environmental and socio-economic assessment of agricultural areas of high natural value of the autonomous community of Basque country.” (GIU10/07). In both, the objective is to generate useful information in developing tools for the landscape protection, management and planning and for the territorial policy, particularly in agricultural areas experiencing an economic, social, environmental and territorial deep crisis. This is the case of the Llanada Alavesa, whose study uses a methodology of comprehensive and consensual landscape assessment through citizen participation procedures