Biodiversity action plans as a way towards local sustainable development

Abstract

Local action for biodiversity is essential to ensure better conservation status for biodiversity and maintain ecosystem services. In many places the rich biodiversity is still relatively untouched and represents an outstanding asset for local sustainable development. The loss of biodiversity occurs mainly because of rapid changes in land use, urban sprawl, infrastructure development, acidification, eutrophication, desertification, overexploitation, intensification of agriculture, tourism development and climate change. There is a clear need for a more flexible, people-oriented and visionary approach for sustainable use of biodiversity resources. This article concerns “Local Biodiversity Action Plans”, which provide a comprehensive and integrated approach to biodiversity and ecosystem services for the sustainable development of rural municipalities and their local communities. Although biodiversity action planning is not a new concept, bringing a plan to life has significant societal benefits with innovative solutions to help biodiversity conservation while entailing close interaction of science, policy and society. This approach was developed together with project partners and local communities in selected regions of the Western Balkans and it benefits from a range of stakeholders, including social and natural scientists, practitioners, elected representatives of the local communities and end users in the frame of a participatory approach. The conclusion of this article discusses the role of communication and outlines the critical success factors and the challenges ahead for the future.

Keywords:

• biodiversity and ecosystem services
• local biodiversity action plan
• society
• sustainable development

Acknowledgements

This article is built on the main findings of an international project, implemented in 10 municipalities in southeast Europe, supported by the Finnish Government. Primarily I have used the Handbook as a reference for the LBAP process, which was developed by ECNC – European Centre for Nature Conservation (2010). I would like to thank my colleagues, especially Lawrence Jones-Walters, Roger Catchpole, Aleksandra Mladenović, Mark Snethlage, Kristijan Čivić, Andrew Schrauwen, Srdjan Sušić and Aleksandra-Sasa Solujić, for their contributions; and Glynis van Uden for editing the English.

Notes

1. The LBAPs were developed in the framework of an international project, “Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for Local Sustainable Development”, led by ECNC – European Centre for Nature Conservation in cooperation with the Regional Environment Center, and funded by the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2008–2011).