First published on 01/23/2013, and last updated on 01/23/2018
By: Iris Beneš, Regional Coordinator for Northern, Central and Eastern Europe
A small island on a Baltic sea called Vilm is a place where people from around the world come to learn, teach and exchange experiences about nature conservation issues. The same Vilm was the venue of the final workshop for the project called “Governance of Protected Areas in Eastern Europe – case studies on different governance types and lessons learned”. The workshop was convened by the International Academy for Nature Conservation among experts and representatives of relevant ministries from Eastern European countries, as well as experts from NGOs, networks and organisations, including the ICCA Consortium
The project has been commissioned by Bundesamt fur Naturschutz (BfN) of Germany to ProPark of Romania in order to enhance interest and improve understanding of decision and policy makers in adopting innovative systems of protected area governance, especially in countries with a traditionally centralized system of decision-making. The expectations were that improving knowledge on the existing governance types, on their importance, on the legal and administrative frameworks and resources needed for their use, will contribute to adopting appropriate measures in the eastern European countries. The study was conducted in the 18 following countries: Romania, Hungary, Ukraine, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Serbia, Moldova, Bulgaria, Belarus, Croatia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Albania, Georgia, Armenia and Finland.
Compared with the rest of the Europe, Eastern Europe is a place of extremely well preserved biodiversity. Data for mammals, bird and fish species that can be found in the Red List of Threatened Species (by area) are much better in Easter than in Western Europe (EEA, 2010). ICCAs in eastern Europe are predominately connected to agriculture practices and have been so for thousands of years. Grazing, forest usage, burning vegetation and seeding the crops are the most common activities that have shaped the landscape as we know it today.
Due to unfavourable historical circumstances and the omnipresent control of the State, however, Easter Europe is also a place where “the commons” have survived by being isolated and unattractive for the majority of the population. The literature and recoded expertise on community conservation are virtually non-existent and the few remaining cases resembling ICCAs are at risk of disappearing in this and the following decade, due to economic and social pressures and disappearance of the last generation of pastoralists, traditional fishermen and even some rare transhumance practices still alive.
In many of the socialist/communist countries nationalization processes took place and all lands that in pre-war time fell under communal governance and management regulated by specific communities were proclaimed “common” in the sense of “belonging to everyone”, i.e. to the State. The nationalization was conducted in most of the countries without any compensation, and thousands of acres became state-owned land. The best land was subjected to agricultural intensification, but in some areas this was not possible so the communities continued to exercise their common rights de facto. These are places where most ICCAs in region do still exist – in spite of unfavourable circumstances – but with no future unless some conditions drastically change.
It is very challenging to communicate the message of ICCAs in the region, especially among the existing PA administration but also among the people on the ground who in many ways lost the sense of community and participation over years of passivity. One has to look for ICCAs carefully – they are not on web pages, in the legislation, in the topics of academic community or even in the newly started discussions on the commons as the concept. But, when one does find them, they are very precious and unique.
The ICCA Consortium was represented in the Vilm workshop and the project that called it through the Advisory Board of the Project by Grazia Borrini Feyerabend and Iris Beneš. Apart from being involved in defining the methodology, their participation in the Vilm workshop included a presentation on ICCAs in Croatia. Various examples in Spain were given by the newly recruited coordinator for southern Europe, Sergio Couto. An inspired evening presentation by Grazia on ICCAs all over the world and their place in the international conservation efforts opened the participants’ eyes and allowed them to look at the examples from their countries from a different perspective and with a newly found understanding.
The study, as the result of the project, will be published by the end of 2012 or beginning of the 2013 and will show the vast diversity of types of governance collected in different countries. In many examples these cases exist de facto but do not have a basis in the national legislation. The conservation results of these cases, however, should nevertheless stimulate governments to harmonize their legislation with the international conventions and to recognise ICCAs as a legitimate and legal governance type for protected areas and beyond.
