The Network of Protected Areas (NPA) as an Instrument to Implement Cross-Border Public Services

Abstract

Polycentric development, territorial cohesion, and territorial diversity are some of the main principles supported at the European level for reducing regional disparities and for making territories more resilient and diversified, which strengthens the competitiveness of Europe in the global economy. This research article, starting from the final results of the ESPON Linking Networks of Protected Areas to Territorial Development (LinkPAs) project, considers that the protected areas (PAs) are a territorial unit able to connect—in a polycentric approach—the different territorial aspects (economic, social, environmental) present in an area to implement cross-border public services (CPS) to share in a larger territorial context through a network of protected areas (NPA). Toward this aim, this paper suggests applying the NPA management model developed in the ESPON LinkPAs project to CPS to assess if a soft governance mechanism is able to efficiently and sustainably manage the CPS.

The Sustainability Dimensions: A Territorialized Approach to Sustainable Development

“…Spatial approach class break A=very high; B= high; C= low; D: Very low; Territorial Approach class break A= Absolute; B= Very high; C= High; D= Medium; E=Low; F= very low 4 The whole analysis is in Prezioso 2019 and 2020 5 The different number of class break (four in the spatial approach; six in the territorial approach) depends on the fact that the territorial approach takes into account the territorial systems listed by the STeMA methodology (Prezioso, 2019b)…”

“…Further evolutions on the subject lead to define territorial capital as a complex of elements (material and immaterial) available to the territory for its development: these elements can constitute strengths or real constraints depending on the aspects taken into consideration. Knowing the territorial capital of each territory helps to identify the types of investments with the highest return (Prezioso, 2019).…”

Climate-Wise Habitat Connectivity Takes Sustained Stakeholder Engagement

“…Coordinated functional connectivity between PA networks is necessary to support the large-scale ecological and evolutionary processes essential for biodiversity persistence, particularly in increasingly transformed and fragmented landscapes impacted by climate change [13]. Improving or sustaining landscape connectivity is therefore a primary concern for the effective conservation and provisioning of ecosystem services [14], and is one of the most commonly cited conservation strategies for climate adaptation [15]. However, only about half of the worlds protected areas are part of a connected network [16], suggesting the need for additional corridor implementation.…”