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Species, Habitats, Society: An Evaluation of Research Supporting EU's Natura 2000 Network

The Natura 2000 network is regarded as one of the conservation success stories in the global effort to protect biodiversity. However, significant challenges remain in Natura 2000 implementation, owing to its rapid expansion, and lack of a coherent vision for its future. Scientific research is critic...

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Autores principales: Popescu, Viorel D., Rozylowicz, Laurentiu, Niculae, Iulian M., Cucu, Adina L., Hartel, Tibor
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4240592/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25415188
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0113648
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author Popescu, Viorel D.
Rozylowicz, Laurentiu
Niculae, Iulian M.
Cucu, Adina L.
Hartel, Tibor
author_facet Popescu, Viorel D.
Rozylowicz, Laurentiu
Niculae, Iulian M.
Cucu, Adina L.
Hartel, Tibor
author_sort Popescu, Viorel D.
collection PubMed
description The Natura 2000 network is regarded as one of the conservation success stories in the global effort to protect biodiversity. However, significant challenges remain in Natura 2000 implementation, owing to its rapid expansion, and lack of a coherent vision for its future. Scientific research is critical for identifying conservation priorities, setting management goals, and reconciling biodiversity protection and society in the complex political European landscape. Thus, there is an urgent need for a comprehensive evaluation of published Natura 2000 research to highlight prevalent research themes, disciplinary approaches, and spatial entities. We conducted a systematic review of 572 scientific articles and conference proceedings focused on Natura 2000 research, published between 1996 and 2014. We grouped these articles into ‘ecological’ and ‘social and policy’ categories. Using a novel application of network analysis of article keywords, we found that Natura 2000 research forms a cohesive small-world network, owing to the emphasis on ecological research (79% of studies, with a strong focus on spatial conservation planning), and the underrepresentation of studies addressing ‘social and policy’ issues (typically focused on environmental impact assessment, multi-level governance, agri-environment policy, and ecosystem services valuation). ‘Ecological’ and ‘social and policy’ research shared only general concepts (e.g., Natura 2000, Habitats Directive) suggesting a disconnection between these disciplines. The UK and the Mediterranean basin countries dominated Natura 2000 research, and there was a weak correlation between number of studies and proportion of national territory protected. Approximately 40% of ‘social and policy’ research and 26% of ‘ecological’ studies highlighted negative implications of Natura 2000, while 21% of studies found positive social and biodiversity effects. We emphasize the need for designing inter- and transdisciplinary research in order to promote a social-ecological understanding of Natura 2000, and advance EU conservation policies.
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spelling pubmed-42405922014-11-26 Species, Habitats, Society: An Evaluation of Research Supporting EU's Natura 2000 Network Popescu, Viorel D. Rozylowicz, Laurentiu Niculae, Iulian M. Cucu, Adina L. Hartel, Tibor PLoS One Research Article The Natura 2000 network is regarded as one of the conservation success stories in the global effort to protect biodiversity. However, significant challenges remain in Natura 2000 implementation, owing to its rapid expansion, and lack of a coherent vision for its future. Scientific research is critical for identifying conservation priorities, setting management goals, and reconciling biodiversity protection and society in the complex political European landscape. Thus, there is an urgent need for a comprehensive evaluation of published Natura 2000 research to highlight prevalent research themes, disciplinary approaches, and spatial entities. We conducted a systematic review of 572 scientific articles and conference proceedings focused on Natura 2000 research, published between 1996 and 2014. We grouped these articles into ‘ecological’ and ‘social and policy’ categories. Using a novel application of network analysis of article keywords, we found that Natura 2000 research forms a cohesive small-world network, owing to the emphasis on ecological research (79% of studies, with a strong focus on spatial conservation planning), and the underrepresentation of studies addressing ‘social and policy’ issues (typically focused on environmental impact assessment, multi-level governance, agri-environment policy, and ecosystem services valuation). ‘Ecological’ and ‘social and policy’ research shared only general concepts (e.g., Natura 2000, Habitats Directive) suggesting a disconnection between these disciplines. The UK and the Mediterranean basin countries dominated Natura 2000 research, and there was a weak correlation between number of studies and proportion of national territory protected. Approximately 40% of ‘social and policy’ research and 26% of ‘ecological’ studies highlighted negative implications of Natura 2000, while 21% of studies found positive social and biodiversity effects. We emphasize the need for designing inter- and transdisciplinary research in order to promote a social-ecological understanding of Natura 2000, and advance EU conservation policies. Public Library of Science 2014-11-21 /pmc/articles/PMC4240592/ /pubmed/25415188 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0113648 Text en © 2014 Popescu et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Popescu, Viorel D.
Rozylowicz, Laurentiu
Niculae, Iulian M.
Cucu, Adina L.
Hartel, Tibor
Species, Habitats, Society: An Evaluation of Research Supporting EU's Natura 2000 Network
title Species, Habitats, Society: An Evaluation of Research Supporting EU's Natura 2000 Network
title_full Species, Habitats, Society: An Evaluation of Research Supporting EU's Natura 2000 Network
title_fullStr Species, Habitats, Society: An Evaluation of Research Supporting EU's Natura 2000 Network
title_full_unstemmed Species, Habitats, Society: An Evaluation of Research Supporting EU's Natura 2000 Network
title_short Species, Habitats, Society: An Evaluation of Research Supporting EU's Natura 2000 Network
title_sort species, habitats, society: an evaluation of research supporting eu's natura 2000 network
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4240592/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25415188
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0113648
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