Development of policies for Natura 2000 sites: A multi-criteria approach to support decision makers

Cortina, Carla; Boggia, Antonio

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2014.02.039

Cited by 23 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 12 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Natura 2000 covers predominantly the least disturbed areas in the Iberian Peninsula (e.g. mountains and uninhabited regions; Hermoso et al, 2015b), so any expansion of the protected area network will necessarily have to incorporate land under some sort of human impact (Cortina & Boggia, 2014). These areas might also be essential for protecting some species that are present only in highly humanized landscapes (Hermoso et al, 2015b), such as Lisbon's archedmouth nase (Iberochondrostoma olisiponensis; Gante, Santos & Alves 2007) that is confined to lowland watercourses around Lisbon (Gante et al, 2010) or the Endangered Spanish toothcarp (Aphanius iberus; Valenciennes 1846) that only occurs in small coastal wetlands along the Eastern Mediterranean coast of Spain (Verdiell-Cubedo et al, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Catchment zoning to unlock freshwater conservation opportunities in the Iberian Peninsula

Hermoso

Filipe

Segurado

et al. 2016

Diversity and Distributions

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Aim Conservation management in freshwater systems requires addressing some key ecological processes to warrant functional and effective protected areas. There are systematic planning methods available to address these needs, but they often result in large areas identified as priority for strict protection, which might constrain their implementation. Considering multiple zones with different management regimes might provide a more flexible and practical solution to this problem, though this approach remains poorly used in freshwater systems. We evaluate the use of a multizone approach to enhance protection of freshwater biodiversity and ecological processes in a large reserve network, Natura 2000. Location Iberian Peninsula. Methods We tested three scenarios of freshwater conservation planning: (1) a protection‐only approach based on areas identified using Marxan; (2) a more flexible approach where multiple management zones are considered using Marxan with Zones, both accounting for Natura 2000; and (3) a third one similar to (2) but ignoring Natura 2000. The three scenarios were compared considering their effectiveness in representing all species. We also evaluated the role of Natura 2000 within the management zones identified and the effect of these areas. Results We found that although there was only an 8% reduction in total area required to complement Natura 2000 under the multizone approach compared to the protection‐only approach, the refinement of conservation recommendations under different management zones can reduce the area needed for strict protection by 62%. Considering Natura 2000 compromised the efficiency of solutions while only one‐third of its extent was selected under the strict protection zone. Main conclusions The refinement in management recommendations and resulting improvement in efficiency achieved by using the multizone approach could help unlock the needed expansion of Natura 2000 to adequately cover freshwater conservation needs in the Iberian Peninsula and other areas where similar issues have been highlighted.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Catchment zoning to unlock freshwater conservation opportunities in the Iberian Peninsula

Hermoso

Filipe

Segurado

et al. 2016

Diversity and Distributions

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…One of the challenges for Natura 2000 will be to ensure sustainable management in the future, both ecologically and economically (Cabeza 2013;Kati et al, 2014). Given the high degree of humanization of Europe and the large extent of Natura 2000, future additions will certainly need the consideration of areas that are affected to some degree by human intervention (Cortina et al, 2014). These areas might be essential for protecting some species that are present only in highly humanised landscapes (Hermoso et al, 2015), such as a newly described nase species (Iberochondrostoma olissiponensis) that is confined to lowland watercourses around Lisbon (Gante et al, 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Filling gaps in a large reserve network to address freshwater conservation needs

Hermoso

Filipe

Segurado

et al. 2015

Journal of Environmental Management

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity are among the most threatened at global scale, but efforts for their conservation have been mostly peripheral to terrestrial conservation. For example, Natura 2000, the world's largest network of protected areas, fails to cover adequately the distribution of rare and endangered aquatic species, and lacks of appropriate spatial design to make conservation for freshwater biodiversity effective. Here, we develop a framework to identify a complementary set of priority areas and enhance the conservation opportunities of Natura 2000 for freshwater biodiversity, using the Iberian Peninsula as a case study. We use a systematic planning approach to identify a minimum set of additional areas that would help i) adequately represent all freshwater fish, amphibians and aquatic reptiles at three different target levels, ii) account for key ecological processes derived from riverscape connectivity, and iii) minimize the impact of threats, both within protected areas and propagated from upstream unprotected areas. Addressing all these goals would need an increase in area between 7 and 46%, depending on the conservation target used and strength of connectivity required. These new priority areas correspond to subcatchments inhabited by endangered and range restricted species, as well as additional subcatchments required to improve connectivity among existing protected areas and to increase protection against upstream threats. Our study should help guide future revisions of the design of Natura 2000, while providing a framework to address deficiencies in reserve networks for adequately protecting freshwater biodiversity elsewhere.

show abstract

“…This means that it assesses not only the current quality of a site but also the potential of the habitats to reach higher levels of complexity. The directive also takes into account those currently degraded sites where, nevertheless, habitats have retained their functional efficiency [32] and can, therefore, return to more evolved forms by reducing or eliminating degradation sources.…”

Section: "Valle Basento-ferrandina Scalo" Natura 2000 Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Natura 2000 Areas and Sites of National Interest (SNI): Measuring (un)Integration between Naturalness Preservation and Environmental Remediation Policies

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Natura 2000 network was established as a tool to preserve the biological diversity of the European territory with particular regard to vulnerable habitats and species. According to recent studies, a relevant percentage of Natura 2000 sites are expected to be lost by the end of this century and there is widespread evidence that biodiversity conservation policies are not fully effective in relation to the management plans of the protected areas. This paper addresses the issue by analyzing a specific case in which there is a problem of integration between different competences and sectoral policies that leads to the lack of a monitoring system of territorial management performances. The study area, located in the Basilicata Region (Southern Italy), includes a Site of National Interest (SNI), for which several reclamation projects are still in the submission/approval phase, and a partially overlapping Natura 2000 network site. The tool used to monitor biodiversity in the study area is the degradation map obtained through the “habitat quality and degradation” InVEST tool which is used to assess the current trend and thus define a baseline for comparison with two medium and long-term scenarios applicable to the SNI’s procedure of partial and total remediation. The proposed methodology is intended to be a part of a larger and more complex monitoring system that, developed within the framework of ecosystem services, allows for the overcoming of the limits related to fragmentation and contradictions that are present in land management by offering a valuable support to decision makers and the competent authorities in biodiversity conservation policy design.

show abstract

Development of policies for Natura 2000 sites: A multi-criteria approach to support decision makers

Cited by 23 publications

References 12 publications

Catchment zoning to unlock freshwater conservation opportunities in the Iberian Peninsula

Catchment zoning to unlock freshwater conservation opportunities in the Iberian Peninsula

Filling gaps in a large reserve network to address freshwater conservation needs

Natura 2000 Areas and Sites of National Interest (SNI): Measuring (un)Integration between Naturalness Preservation and Environmental Remediation Policies

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About