Dealing with conflicts between conservation and socioeconomic activities. A social perception study in the Costa Brava, Spain.

Abstract

The conflicts between different users are frequent in the cases when conservation plans affect agricultural land uses. The main objective of this paper is to explore public perceptions to plans to protect natural areas. This research has been carried out in the designated area of Aiguamolls de l'Empordà, in the heart of Costa Brava, Spain where a proposal to extend the perimeter of the protected area has created a local but severe social conflict. A social perception study based on a qualitative survey with local stakeholders has been carried out to collect the local opinion on the issue and the perception with regard to the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of planning strategy.Essentially, the intervention is felt to be a threat to the future of several socioeconomic activities (i.e. agriculture, campsites). Moreover, mistrust of the public administration has produced the emergence of an old conflict. The authors argue that the assessment of problems and conflicts affecting coasts have lacked from an in-depth understanding of the social dimension. Therefore, analysing perceptions and attitudes to strategies and management practices can produce relevant information to improve the management of these areas.

Future land use effects on the connectivity of protected area networks in southeastern Spain

“…Landscape connecting patches sometimes fall outside protected areas (such as in 1999 and 2007 in Almería), and elements important for connectivity may change through time. Generally, we therefore recommend revising conservation planning in the Almería province to (1) reinforce protected area networks (specially coastal Natura 2000 protected areas for southeast Spain) by cautiously extending the protected area system (see above), (2) to reevaluate the current focus on protected areas alone to expand the scope of conservation planning beyond the boundaries of protected areas (Araújo et al 2007;Santos et al 2008), with a special emphasise on overall landscape connectivity, and (3) to consider future landscape connectivity in a holistic manner (Naveh 2000) to avoid social conflicts (Roca et al 2011) and safeguard the integrity of ecosystems.…”