Sustainability policy considerations for ecosystem management in central and eastern europe

Abstract

Here I discuss Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries as a region undergoing rapid change, resulting from the collapse of the Soviet Union and admission of some of the states into the European Union. These events brought changes in governance and ecosystem management, triggering impacts on land use and biodiversity. What are some of the policy options toward sustainability in the face of these political, governance, and socioeconomic changes? Some policy considerations for ecosystem management and sustainability include taking a social–ecological systems approach to integrate biophysical subsystems and social subsystems; paying attention to institutions relevant to shared resources (commons) management; and using resilience theory to study change and guidance for governance. Documented experience in CEE seems to indicate shortcomings for both the centralized state management option and the purely market‐driven option for ecosystem management. If so, a “smart mix” of state regulations, market incentives, and self‐governance using local commons institutions may be the most promising policy option to foster ecosystem stewardship at multiple levels from local to international.