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

Abstract

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.

Modeling the Determinants of Urban Fragmentation and Compaction Phenomena in the Province of Matera (Basilicata Region - Italy)

“…In the case study analyzed but, more generally, in the whole Basilicata’s regional territory, urban fragmentation is the main dynamics of transformation and, in recent years it has also been caused by other components of the settlement system such as renewable energy plants [ 15 , 27 ] and oil wells [ 16 ]. It is crucial to analyze and model urban transformation dynamics as they have a significant impact on the quality of the landscape, the supply of ecosystem services [ 28 – 30 ] and the costs to the population of transforming the city in an unsustainable way [ 31 , 32 ]. For these and other reasons, analyzing the dynamics of urban transformation is of fundamental importance since they can have a significant impact and cause significant damage to cultural heritage and, because of the dynamics that develop as a result of uncontrolled land transformation (landslide movements) can be a risk to human life [ 33 – 35 ].…”

Analyzing the Driving Factors of Urban Transformation in the Province of Potenza (Basilicata Region-Italy)

“…In the case analyzed but, more generally, in the Basilicata region, fragmentation has also been caused, in recent years, by other components of the settlement system such as renewable energy installations [ 19 , 35 ] and oil wells [ 20 ]. Urban transformations have a significant impact on the quality of the landscape, the ecosystem services provisioning [ 36 – 38 ] and the costs to the population of transforming the city in no sustainable way [ 39 , 40 ]. More generally, the dynamics of urban transformation can have a significant impact and cause considerable damage to cultural heritage, and due to the dynamics that develop following an uncontrolled transformation of the territory (landslide movements) can be a cause of risk to human life [ 41 – 43 ].…”

Assessing the Impact of Land Use Changes on Ecosystem Services Value

“…This is the case, for example, of the phenomena of urban growth already studied by the authors [ 24 – 26 ] and that highlight the inefficiency of the sprinkling process with which urban settlements continue to grow despite the marked depopulation that characterizes the overwhelming majority of municipalities. However, as highlighted in previous works [ 22 – 24 ], the ecosystem services approach is particularly effective in interpreting territorial transformations by providing useful tools both in the ex-ante planning phase [ 27 ] and in the assessment of cumulative impacts [ 28 , 29 ]. Although the strength of this approach lies in the possibility of expressing the values of individual territorial components at different scales, the use of aggregate indices of the overall capacity to provide ES is useful in identifying hotspots or, conversely, in defining regeneration priorities for particularly degraded areas.…”