RECONNECT — Reconciling fragmented and contested landscapes

In the research project RECONNECT, our new group member Dr. Marion Jay joins scientists from Sweden, Finland, France and South Africa to address issues of landscape fragmentation with a social-ecological reconnection approach.

Forests make up a large part of protected areas across the globe and many rare and endangered species depend on their protection and management. Dead wood is an important feature supporting biodiversity, such as in this beech forest at the nature reserve ‘Molla bokskog’ in Sweden. (Picture: Vitaly Repin, Wikimedia Commons)

A social-ecological reconnection agenda for protected areas

Biodiversity protection needs protected areas: the latest agreement of the intergovernmental Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal emphasized this once more, with its ambition to reach 30% of all lands and seas under protection until 2030. But where to designate new areas, how to identify them, and how should they be managed? Ecological representativity, connectivity and equitable governance are equally important for reaching conservation outcomes.

Marion, welcome to the team. Your project RECONNECT has just started: what are its main objectives?

Effective biodiversity conservation is threatened by homogenisation of the landscape, intensification of land use and fragmentation of habitats, but also by social “fragmentation” such as tensions, dissent and conflicts regarding nature and landscape development goals and sectoral planning for nature conservation and land uses. How to identify additional protected areas, address arising socio-ecological conflicts, and especially acknowledge and reconcile plural values regarding conservation and competing land uses?

As its name suggests, RECONNECT seeks to identify opportunities for connectivity and for an integrated landscape approach to nature conservation.

It is one of 36 transnational research projects selected by the European biodiversity partnership in response to their call for proposals “Supporting the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems across land and sea”. Funded by the German research agency DFG, our work at the SEIAS lab will benefit from this international network for biodiversity research.

You will be working on the European wide network of protected areas called ‘Natura 2000’. What has been your experience with Natura 2000 so far, and how would you describe the challenges for its implementation?

Trained as a forester, I have worked on forest and biodiversity policy and the human-nature relationships over the past 15 years, both in academia and as policy consultant. I dealt with forest and protected areas’ policies in Europe and the Natura 2000 scheme. The European Union hosts a wealth of wild flora and fauna as well as natural habitats. But while protected areas cover slightly more than 26% of the EU’s land mass, over 18% of which being designated as Natura 2000 sites, according to the European Environment Agency more than 80% of habitats were in poor condition in 2020 (EEA, 2020). Important efforts still need to be done for achieving effective conservation management. During my time at the environmental policy consultancy adelphi, I worked with public bodies such as the European Commission or the German Federal agency for Nature Protection on these challenges.

Natura 2000 is the cornerstone of EU nature policy, and the backbone of the Trans-European nature network. Throughout the European Union, these protected areas benefit wild, endemic, rare or threatened species and habitats of Community importance, such as the stag beetle (Lucanus servus). (Picture: Jürg Vollmer, Wikimedia Commons)

I considered the Natura 2000 implementation from a range of perspectives: how to support public authorities effectively and meet their needs for guidance? How to best involve the most concerned, that means the land owners and land users, creating ownership and engagement for conservation and recognizing best practice? And how to raise awareness of the Natura 2000 network and its benefits for nature and people?

Natura 2000 is implemented by the EU member states and their authorities. This territorial dimension makes it crucial to strengthen regional and local capacity for the deployment of locally adapted conservation measures (Boćkowski et al., 2022). But equally important is stakeholder engagement in the decision making and management processes, and many of my previous projects involved creating spaces for dialogue and involvement of practitioners, land users, civil society, administration and policy.

Conservation success also depends on land use practices on the outskirts of protected areas. Pollution, pesticides and fertilizers’ input, fragmentation of habitats and loss of landscape elements are drivers of landscape change and ecosystem degradation that have impacts within and outside protected areas (IPBES, 2019).

This is where RECONNECT comes in: it sets out to analyze the connections and disconnections of protected areas from other aspects of contemporary landscapes and societies. It asks how protected areas are situated within the broader landscape, what are the boundaries and what does it mean for effectiveness of conservation measures. Together with our partners we will investigate both the ecological and the social connectivity, the latter in terms of tensions, nature disconnect and fragmented, plural values related to protected areas.

View of a central European multifunctional landscape with the city of Oberode, the Werratal and the Kaufunger forest in the background, Lower Saxony, Germany. (Photo: Jan Stubenitzky, Wikimedia Commons)

Can you tell us more about your own focus within RECONNECT?

Protected areas are increasingly not only expected to deliver on biodiversity goals but also to support multiple social values, such as justice, equity, and well-being. While Natura 2000 might support rural economies and local value chains, uncovering other types of values is challenging. Working with communication experts over the last few years, I realized the gap between the very technical language of nature conservation policies and people’s everyday life. Health, cultural heritage, attachment to place, but also social cohesion or environmental justice, are interesting concepts that open new possibilities to connect people and nature.

In RECONNECT we will survey perceptions and values of protected areas for different groups: what do people associate with the surrounding landscape, with the protected area, with biodiversity; what is important to them on a material, cognitive or emotional level?

Chalkhill blue (Lysandra coridon), Natura 2000 site Ossenberg-Fehrenbusch in Lower Saxony. (Picture: Elisabeth Wieborg, Wikimedia Commons)

To be able to merge social with ecological aspects, we also seek to map nature values with a participatory GIS (Geographical Information System) for some selected Natura 2000 protected areas and their surroundings. We want to find out which places and landscapes in and around protected areas are associated with nature connectedness, nature experience, nature knowledge, material values. We will assess where to find the highest potential to both restore ecological functionality, and enable social values. The results will build the basis for a discussion on integrated landscape approaches with stakeholders.

RECONNECT is organized in five research and two supporting work packages. At the SEIAS lab, we will lead Work Package 3 on community values. (Figure: RECONNECT)

Can you already tell us more about RECONNECT case studies and your fieldwork?

Within RECONNECT, we are collaborating with an interdisciplinary team from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the Stockholm Resilience Centre, the Helsinki University, the University of Grenoble (France), the University of Western Cape, the Cape Town University and the International Union for Conservation of Nature. We will work in four contrasting case studies in France, Germany, South Africa and Sweden representing, on the one hand, multifunctional landscapes of European mid- to high-mountain areas (Göttingen district in Lower Saxony and Grenoble in the French Alps), and, on the other hand, urban landscapes in Northern Europe and South Africa (Stockholm and Cape Town).

For us at the SEIAS lab, the next step will be to get to know the Natura 2000 areas, land uses and actors involved. From the karstic habitats near Osterode on the fringe of the Harz National Park in the North-East of the Göttingen district, to the forest landscapes and biodiverse grasslands near Hann. Münden to the West, the region offers a great mosaic of landscapes and natural habitats. Our first excursion at the end of March takes us to the South West, where forest and nature protection experts will guide us to a number of interesting sites, such as old beech forests and hunting areas for the greater mouse-eared bat. A bit too early for the orchids blossom, but we’ll scout for the best spots to return to in June!

Greater mouse-eared bat (Myotis myotis) in flight. The greater mouse-eared bat depends on forest habitats, such as beech hall forests with few undergrowth and with standing dead wood or dying trees. It is protected within the scope of Natura 2000 (annex II and IV of the Habitat Directive). (Picture: C. Robiller / Naturlichter.de, Wikimedia Commons)

These Lady’s Slipper Orchid (Cypripedium calceolus) can be found in semi-natural dry grassland habitats of the Göttingen region. (Picture: Spialia, Wikimedia Commons)

That sounds great, we’re very excited to have you join and to see how your project progresses!

Links and further reading:

Boćkowski, M.D., Raymond, C.M., Plieninger, T. et al. 2022. Towards forward-looking nature governance to meet conservation goals of Natura 2000 sites in the European Union: experts’ perspectives. Environ Dev Sustain (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-022-02813-6

CBD, 2022. COP15: Final text of Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, https://www.cbd.int/article/cop15-final-text-kunming-montreal-gbf-221222

European Environment Agency, 2020. State of nature in the EU. Results from reporting under the nature directives 2013–2018. 142 pp.

IPBES, 2019. Global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. E. S. Brondizio, J. Settele, S. Díaz, and H. T. Ngo (editors). IPBES secretariat, Bonn, Germany. 1148 pages. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3831673