Scale matters: Efficiency assessment of EU environmental directives implementation in a local-scale management of protected wetlands in Poland

• Main Authors: BIEREŻNOJ -BAZILLE Urszula, GRYGORUK Mateusz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: CITDD Publishing House 2013-12-01
• Series: Scientific Annals of the Danube Delta Institute
• Subjects: environment; management; wetlands; Biebrza
• Online Access: http://www.ddni.ro/manager/editor/UserFiles/File/Scientific%20annals/volume/19/19.Final/art_01.pdf

Challenging impact of climate change to both human well-being and ecosystems was reported in numerous studies. In addition, protected areas of wetlands, which are maintained in agricultural purposes, often are exposed to climate-related management pressures, which multiply environmental management problems. To face those challenges, EU environmental directives, such as Water Framework Directive, Habitat Directive and Bird Directive provide frameworks for mitigation of possible negative, climate - and management-related impacts to ecosystems. However, the lowest level of environmental law implementation which is usually related to decisions of local authorities, fails to fulfil requirements of EU environmental directives by mismatched interpretation of law rules, e.g. “good ecological status” of rivers stated in Water Framework Directive and “favourable status of habitats” stated in Habitat Directive. In our study we present exemplary trees of decision making in protected areas in Biebrza Valley, NE Poland. Analysed examples refer to mire meadow drainage and construction of storage ponds in close neighbourhood of boundaries of the national park. We reveal, that orientation-dependent interpretation of environmental acts fails to fulfil the requirements of adaptive management. We reveal, that the lowest level of environmental law implementation requires more concise procedures and more supervision from environmental specialists, as the “good” status is frequently unfavourable for the environment