Dynamics in nature policy practices across the European union

Abstract

This chapter provides an analysis of change and stabilisation in nature policy practices in three areas in the European Union since the late 1980s: Yorkshire Dales (UK), Doñana (Spain) and the Veluwe (the Netherlands). In one way or the other, (part of) these areas traditionally have a formal status as designated nature sites: the Yorkshire Dales and Doñana are 'national parks', while the Veluwe is a 'national landscape'. Consequently, nature policy practices in these more 'traditional' areas are well established in terms of discourses and rulings. Over the last decade, however, nature policy practices across Europe generally show a high degree of innovation. This basically comes down to a horizontal and a vertical development. Increasingly nature policy is a matter of interplay between actors from state, market and civil society. In many European countries, national and regional authorities or even environmental NGOs facilitate the establishment of committees or commissions of public and private parties to formulate and implement nature policy for specific areas. Furthermore, nature policy is not only formulated at national level, but also and increasingly at regional and international level. The growing influence of, for instance, the EU Birds and Habitats Directives and regional authorities on national nature policies shows that contemporary nature policy is characterised by the interplay between several governmental levels. National government increasingly has to share its role with either supra-or sub-national actors. Academics refer to the before mentioned horizontal shifts as 'governance' (e.g. Rhodes, 1997; Kooiman, 2000; Pierre, 2000) and to the vertical shifts as 'multi-level governance' (Hooghe and Marks, 2001). These two terms are my operationalisation of the concept of political modernisation. Next to organisational trends also substantive developments occurred. In various countries as well as at the EU level concepts such as ecosystems and ecological networks have emerged in addition to or to replace species protection and habitat preservation policies (Bogaert and Gersie, this volume). Furthermore, next to ecological values, also functions such as recreation and agriculture are increasingly addressed in nature policy processes. Given the before mentioned changing character of nature policy on the one hand and rather stable nature policy practices in traditional nature areas on the other, the aim of this chapter is to describe, explain and compare how nature policy practices in traditionally designated nature areas have evolved over time, and whether these practices reflect a shift towards governance and multi-level governance. Therefore, I proceed in considering nature policy practices in the Yorkshire Dales, Doñana and the Veluwe by addressing three questions: How can change and stabilisation in nature policy arrangements be characterised? How can change and stabilisation in nature policy arrangements be explained? To what extent do the nature policy arrangements reflect a shift towards governance and multi-level governance practices? Before I address these three questions, the next section links the concepts of 'governance' and 'multi-level governance' to the policy arrangements approach. On the basis of these two concepts, I formulate expectations for the emergence of 'governance' and 'multi-level governance' characteristics in nature policy practices in each of the four dimensions of a policy arrangement. This enables a nuanced answer to the third question in the remainder of this chapter. After this conceptual section, two sections follow which respectively deal with the characterisation and explanation of change and stabilisation in nature policy arrangements. After that, the next section addresses the emergence of governance and multi-level governance practices in the cases. Finally, I deal with all questions in a brief and concluding manner in the last section. © 2006 Springer.