3.1 Review and revise policies to provide an enabling environment for protected areas

• Main impediments (see activities under this goal) to effective establishment and management of protected areas  (by 2006) identified.
• Measures taken to overcome these impediments.

Main impediments for effective establishment and management of PA are financial capacity, political support, public awareness and support. Effectiveness of management efforts is still strongly impacted by inferior quality of the environment due to nitrification, acidification, fragmentation, pollution – critical loads for the majority of sensitive ecosystems are still exceeded. Another threat that is becoming more important is recreational use.

• Monitoring and reporting to provide a basis for revising policies

=> monitoring of management effectiveness in nature reserves

=> monitoring of Nature Development Projects, of agri-environment schemes

• studies on effectiveness of existing instruments/measures for PA management

Nature reserves are most successful in sustainable management of high nature values, but are susceptible to negative effects from the surrounding land use, mainly due to fragmentation, eutrophication and desiccation.  Small reserve areas require more intensive management measures due to remaining higher border effects from environmental quality. But as nature reserves become larger intensive nature management is slowly shifting to more extensive grazing management and more attention for natural dynamic forces in order to preserve biodiversity. However, consequences of this shift still needs to be documented on a larger scale.

• main obstacles/needs for establishment/management of  PA are human and financial resources, environmental quality, un-sustainable use especially tourism and leisure in general while for marine areas also fishing and angling. For the marine area obstacles occur also at management policy level as being one of the most densely used marine areas in the world and with the fact that some  competences (eg. Fishing policy) is a regional (Flemish) competence whereas most other marine competences (such as the management of marine protected areas) are federal competences.

• legislation and policy information on PA:

Legislation on PA is included in regional law on nature conservation. Policies or strategies are included in the regional environment and nature policy plans, and in the National Biodiversity Strategy.