conserving important plant areas: investing - Plantlife

Executive summary
Trollius europaeus
4
BORIS ASSYOV
34% of IPAs are threatened in this way. Climate change is an important threat,
mainly for coastal and alpine IPAs, though this threat proved difficult to quantify at
site level.
59% of IPAs in the project countries remain unprotected at national
level. Protection levels vary between countries; 59% of IPAs are fully or partially
protected in Bulgaria compared to just 18% in Croatia. Up to 90% of IPAs in the
project countries should qualify for protection through European Union
legislation, if this legislation is implemented when those countries accede to the
EU. Management plans exist or are in preparation for only 20 of the 291 IPAs
identified during the project.This is a shockingly low number for sites of
international importance.
Broadly speaking, policies exist to safeguard the diversity of IPAs in
South East Europe, through nature conservation legislation and
sectoral policy (spatial planning, agriculture and forestry).The development of
these policies has been helped by the EU policy framework and international
biodiversity commitments. Unfortunately, the human and financial capacity needed
in key environmental institutions to enforce the resulting legislation is often
lacking.There is an equally important need for improved leadership and
commitment by relevant national, regional and local government departments, to
ensure legislation is implemented on-the-ground.
Appropriately targeted incentives for the sustainable management of
forestry and agricultural land are urgently needed for land owners, users
and managers, on whom the conservation of IPAs will ultimately depend. The
opportunity for private land owners (who currently own land within 53% of the
region’s IPAs) to earn a sustainable income whilst managing the land for
biodiversity benefit, will be essential to prevent potentially disastrous changes of
land use.
This project has shown that IPAs can engage and inspire local
communities to act positively for conservation. The short-term, plant
focused, low budget pilot projects, described in section V, have succeeded in
engaging school children, tour operators, farmers, mountaineers, parents and local
officials in plant conservation. Each project has been a small but tangible step
forward in engaging civil society in conservation action on the ground, led by the
value people place on wild plants and plant resources.
The key to IPA conservation in South East Europe is to find and
exploit the links between conservation and development. The challenge
is to develop prosperous communities in and around IPAs without sacrificing
plant diversity. Plants are an ideal tool to address this challenge because, just as
societies need plants, plants need society. South East Europe’s IPAs hold the
jewels of the region’s green gold - securing them for the future is something we
cannot afford to fail on.
CONSERVING IMPORTANT PLANT AREAS: INVESTING IN THE GREEN GOLD OF SOUTH EAST EUROPE