 |
European landscapes are the product of highly specialiSed forms of land management, that have resulted in their ability to support biodiversity and at the same time offering a range of socio-economic benefits to people. Despite their multifunctional character, recent trends suggest an increasing number of conflicts between the goals of biodiversity conservation and socio-economic development. Fragmentation of ecosystems, for example, has decreased the capacity of species populations to recover from the impacts of human induced and natural disturbances. To avoid this decline, decision makers must understand the conditions under which populations in ecosystem networks are able to recover from these disturbances. It is widely accepted that measures to maintain biodiversity should be part of an adaptive decision-making process for land use allocation at various spatial scales. In this context, decision makers and land managers need to resolve the mismatch between ecological and socio-economic processes. This mismatch is caused by two conflicting strategies: conservation of locally protected isolated areas versus development across larger regions. In this proposal we explore strategies for solving this fundamental conflict in regional development. Recent work in metapopulation ecology and landscape ecology show that if an appropriate degree of spatial cohesion in a landscape is achieved, then species populations are capable of responding to spatial change. We will link these insights with an economic approach of habitat trading. This proposal aims to better understand the impact of socio-economic and natural disturbances on biodiversity in networks of ecosystems, to identify thresholds in spatial cohesion and disturbance rate, and to develop ecologically effective, economically efficient and socially acceptable policy and planning instruments that allow for a long-term co-existence of socio-economic activity and biodiversity. Our approach is an iterative interaction between theory development and application, using several cases study areas, selected across an urban-rural gradient. Case studies will include networks that include highly valuable Natura 2000 areas.
Project website: http://www.ecotrade.ufz.de/index.html
Project leader :
Professor Paul Opdam
Department of Land Use Planning & Landscape Centre, Alterra
Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR)
6700 AA Wageningen Netherlands
Phone:+31 314 477943
Fax:+31 317 424988
Email
Principal Investigators:
Dr. Frank Wätzold, UFZ Leipzig, DE
Dr. Roy Haines-Young, University of Nottingham, UK
Dr. Marion Potschin, University of Nottingham, UK
Collaborators:
Dr. Martin Drechsler, UFZ Leipzig, DE
Prof. Bernd Hansjürgens, UFZ Leipzig, DE
Dr. Karin Johst, UFZ Leipzig, DE
Dr. Claire Vos, WUR, NL
Dr. Dirk Wascher, WUR, NL
