Vulnerability and Adaptations to Climate Change in EU Protected Areas: A Natura 2000 Managers’ perspective;
: Zavattoni, Giorgio; Brommer, Jon E.; Hallman, Tyler; Kačergytė, Ineta; Nagy, Szabolcs; Pärt, Tomas; Pavón‐Jordán, Diego; Soultan, Alaaeldin; Xu, Yanjie; Gaget, Elie
Publisher: Wiley
: 2026
Conservation Letters
: e70047
: 19
: 3
: 1755-263X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/con4.70047
: https://doi.org/10.1111/con4.70047
: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/526508992
The Natura 2000 (N2K)—Europe's network of protected areas—is a key conservation instrument, but its effectiveness is challenged by climate change. We surveyed 382 N2K managers to investigate their perceptions of climate change and related site adaptation strategies. Warming and precipitation shifts were frequently reported as threats, with perceived vulnerability of N2K sites highest in the Mediterranean and lowest in the Boreal region. Our results suggest that the official N2K site information stored in the Standard Data Forms greatly under-report managers' assessment of vulnerability. 58% of the surveyed managers implemented adaptation strategies, which, when characterized following a resist–accept–direct (RAD) framework, aimed not only at resisting, but also at directing and accepting the effects of climate change. Managers also highlighted several barriers to the implementation of adaptation strategies, such as lack of funding, time, stakeholders’ consensus, and lack of knowledge on local vulnerability.
adaptation strategies, climate change vulnerability, EU biogeographical regions, Natura 2000, protected area management, resist–accept–direct framework, science–management interface
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The research was funded by the Kone Foundation (Application 202103360) and Biodiversa+ (2021–2022 BiodivProtect program), with the following organizations: Ympäristöministeriö (VN/7162/2023), Vetenskapsrådet (Swedish University of Agricultural Science: 2022-01752), Research Council of Norway (Norwegian Institute for Nature Research: 342927), Innovation Fund Denmark (Aarhus University: 1159-00033B), Swiss National Science Foundation (Swiss Ornithological Institute: 20BD21_209665), and Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación; Agencia Estatal de Investigación (CREAF: PCI2022-135056-2).
