Protected Areas, Natura 2000 Sites and Landscape: Divergent Policies on Converging Values

Abstract

The identification of Natura 2000 sites in Italy has led to a significant change in the geography of environmental protection, by profoundly strengthening the role of ecological and naturalistic values in a country where the collective culture is traditionally more prepared to understand cultural values. In general, the identification of Natura 2000 Sites, carried out according to the guidelines established by Directive 92/43/EEC, was based on a more scientific and less politically “negotiated” process compared to the one followed for the determination of protected areas, by selecting habitats of community interest and not landscape or historical and cultural values. It seems very clear that these are two different types of areas with partially overlapping values that require forms of territorial planning and governance that optimize multiple conservation goals: while Nature 2000 sites protect habitats, protected areas extend their function to cultural landscapes, historical heritage and traditions. The Ecological Network should be a decisive model to classify values and integrate rules, avoiding excessively specialized approaches and applying instead the typical techniques of preservation biology and connectivity conservation, together with routine urban and infrastructure planning techniques.