Governance of Ecosystem Services: insights from Life+ Making Good Natura project

The Natura 2000 network is the cornerstone of EU Biodiversity Strategy aimed at halting the loss of biodiversity and services natural and semi-natural ecosystems provide to human populations. The Member States are mainly responsible to implement conservation strategies through management plans and conservation measures, but in many cases the level of development and execution of these instruments is very low due to scarce financial resources, and management effectiveness is rarely achieved. This paper presents first insights from Life+ Making Good Natura (MGN) project and highlights costs and benefits associated to 2 out of 21 Natura 2000 study sites in Italy in order to define the basis for a new governance approach relied on the qualitative and quantitative valuation of ecosystem services (ES) and suitable for reaching management effectiveness. To date, the habitat cover of the agro-forest sites and socio-economic data for the core area and a buffer zone of 20 km, gathered through questionnaires to management authority, have been analyzed. After mapping and assessing the most important ES for each site based on spatial data and on the information from the questionnaires, meetings with local public and private stakeholders were organized in order to discuss the identified ES and their social and economic importance for the area. Preliminary results suggest that quantification of costs related to the Natura 2000 network is a crucial point within a systematic approach to environmental accountability that allows to measure and assess management bodies’ management strategy effectiveness and efficiency and to redefine Natura 2000 sites conservation priorities. Furthermore, in a general context of stagnant and uncertain funding for biodiversity conservation, also the need of defining a wide range of governance and management tools, referring to the policy mix instruments, seems urgent.