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Countries are implementing CO2 emission reduction targets in order to meet a globally agreed global warming limit of +2 °C. However, it was hypothesised that these national reduction targets are not translated to regional or state level planning, and are not considered through Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in order to meet emission reduction obligations falling on the transport, energy, housing, agriculture, and forestry sectors. SEAs of land use plans in the German state of Saxony, and the English region of the East of England were examined for their consideration of climate change impacts based on a set of criteria drawn from the literature. It was found that SEAs in both cases failed to consider climate change impacts at scales larger than the boundary of the spatial plan, and that CO2 reduction targets were not considered. This suggests a need for more clarity in the legal obligations for climate change consideration within the text of the SEA Directive, a requirement for monitoring of carbon emissions, a need for methodological guidance to devolve global climate change targets down to regional and local levels, and a need for guidance on properly implementing climate change protection in SEA.

Goals for nature conservation and development are set for several rivers and lakes which are situated within protected areas. Concurrently these areas have to meet the requirements of the Water Framework Directive. Between the goals of both scopes there are often synergies but partially conflicts. In addition, climate change, which touches both water management and nature conservation at the same time, has to be taken into account during the river basin management planning, too. Against this background it is discussed in consideration of climate change, how the goals of nature conservation and of the Water Framework Directive can be achieved in such a way that conflicts are avoided to a large extent and synergies used. The following discussion and its results are based on an evaluation of the river basin management plans and programmes of measures in the ten river catchment areas of Germany. Altogether, it can be noticed that potential synergies are already put to good use. However, there are even more unused possibilities for the improvement of the interplay of nature conservation and Water Framework Directive as well as for the consideration of climate change effects.

The EU water framework directive (WFD) is intensively connected with other European legal regulations and supporting documents. This close interrelationship calls for deeper considerations when WFD is implemented in locations of high conservation value, e.g. Natura 2000 sites. A comprehensive, but specific comparison of the goals of WFD with the aims of habitats directive (HD) and birds directive (BD) provides a sensitive overview on their peculiarities, with an outlook on potential synergies and conflicts. The sometimes complex guidance for solving complicated situations in the practical application of these differing legal provisions is also described. The representation of requirements for Natura 2000 sites as part of river basin management plans, and related up-to-date experience are given special attention. Finally recommendations and conclusions provide the reader with a complete view of this challenging chapter in European Policy. In the end, considerably more synergies than conflicts are identified between the objectives of WFD, HD and BD. Whenever conflicts should arise these directives prevent derogating from their requirements by cross-references. Therefore, firm and timely coordination between water and nature conservation authorities is necessary.

Even though mitigation of climate change is of utmost importance, managing the impacts of climate change is becoming a growing issue in nature conservation. Its negative effects on biodiversity are adding to the mix of existing problems in protected areas. These effects themselves also interact in various direct and indirect ways on local level. This book sets out to meet the growing need to share knowledge and experiences in the field of biodiversity conservation and climate change in protected areas. It is based on the results of the EU-funded HABIT-CHANGE project. The project focused on the implementation of climate adapted management in protected areas all over Central and Eastern Europe. The experiences of implementing adaptation strategies, as well as the intensive discussions with experts in conservation management, have produced an unrivalled wealth of information about existing problems and solutions on local to regional level. This book gives a comprehensive overview of the project and its results. The general chapters provide information that can be easily transferred to other areas, whilst the case studies illustrate how to tackle climate impacts on the local level. The latter compile valuable experiences and recommendations from adapted management strategies applied in the field. The know-how documented in this volume should help other conservation managers handle the challenges of climate-adapted management. Taking a transdisciplinary perspective, the book aims to attract an audience of experts in the field of conservation management from administration, protected areas, and science.

Indicators for tracking ecological effects of climate change in habitats provide important management and monitoring tools for nature conservation service in protected areas. One of the objectives of the HABIT-CHANGE project was to propose operational ecological indicators of climate-induced changes in habitats based on ecosystem relevance, reliability and ease of use for land managers. Initially established lists of indicators covered more than 100 indicative parameters including a group of those assigned to climatic, hydrological and land use changes as well as those purported for specific ecosystems such as wetlands, meadows, forests and mountains. Environmental changes at larger scales, such as landscapes and total protected areas, can be captured by indices built on data from remote sensing, whereas for detecting and monitoring habitat changes at local level, further detailed procedures must be carried out with the use of more complex methods and measurements of indicative parameters. This work focuses on local level habitat quality indication for the assessment of climate change-induced habitat changes and monitoring of future trends. With the aid of criteria evaluating indicator integrity, relevance to climate change and suitability for management decision support, several indicators were selected for the purpose of indicating climate change effects on habitats within the investigation areas. It was found that for wetland ecosystems the indicators built on metrics such as soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition, soil CO2 emission, soil carbon content (SCC), changes in the content of soil nitrogen and its mineral form, concentration and composition of soil solutions as well as in the presence and numbers of nitrophytes are strongly assigned to climate change. Collectively, the above mentioned indicators represent a habitat level assessment which may be used for integrated bioindication and monitoring of climate change effects, e.g. in wetland areas. To render it available to the site managers, the complex bioindicatory information resulting from habitat monitoring shall be processed and visualised in the form of maps and models.