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Peri-urban landscapes are transitional areas between urban and rural areas that are constantly changing. They are characterised by land use mixes and land cover changes, leading to significant changes in wildlife habitats. These changes, combined with an increasing anthropogenic presence, turn peri-urban landscapes into arenas of intensified human-wildlife interactions. In many scientifically documented cases, scientists are focusing on negative interactions. Furthermore, research about appropriate policy instruments for managing human-wildlife interactions is rare. This study focused on case studies and their characteristics from around the world on positive, neutral, or negative interactions between humans and wildlife at local level. In addition, influencing factors of human-wildlife interactions and policy instruments for managing human-wildlife interactions in peri-urban landscapes were addressed. A survey was conducted with an international group of scientists and practitioners working in this field. The results showed that various species were involved in human-wildlife interactions in peri-urban landscapes worldwide, with mammals as being the most common taxon. Contemporary changes in land use and land cover could be identified as a significant factor for increasing human-wildlife interactions in peri-urban landscapes. It can be highlighted that a policy mix consisting mainly of social and cultural instruments in combination with legal and regulatory instruments could be most suitable to address this situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peri-Urban Landscapes (PULs) are transitional areas composed of a mix of natural and anthropogenic land covers. The unsustainable character of many PULs is widely recognised, but their governance is particularly challenging. The paper moves from the hypothesis that addressing some of the sustainability challenges of PULs requires the combination of multiple Policy Instruments (PIs), i.e., a policy mix. An online survey was developed to collect cases of PULs governance with a twofold purpose: i) to identify and describe existing PIs implemented in PULs, and ii) to investigate which combinations of PIs are adopted to address specific categories of sustainability challenges. Fifty valid answers describing 47 cases of PULs governance from 26 countries were collected and analysed. The results confirm the presence of a policy mix approach, suggesting the need for a plurality of PIs to govern the dynamics and complexities of PULs. Moreover, the results indicate an important role of the regional governance level, a dominating presence of top-down instruments, and a need for more effective inclusion of citizens into policy-making processes related to PULs. A reflection on the findings considering the existing literature on governance experimentation suggests governance mixes for PULs as potential approaches to address some of the shortcomings of the analysed policy mixes. • Policy mixes are widely adopted to address sustainability challenges of PULs. • Legal and regulatory instruments dominate the investigated policy mixes for PULs. • A low level of citizens' involvement was discovered in policymaking for PULs. • Regional governments should play a coordinating role in the governance of PULs. • Governance mixes could be a way forward to promote PULs sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peri-urbanisation is a dynamic process consisting primarily of the expansion of artificial areas into natural, semi-natural, and agricultural areas. This process reduces peri-urban open spaces, thus it is threatening peri-urban biodiversity and hampers the provision of ecosystem services. In this manuscript, we introduced the concept of peri-urban open spaces and exemplified it on the level of regional policy-making in the following six European case study regions: Basque Country (Spain), Flanders (Belgium), Gorenjska (Slovenia), Hajdú-Bihar (Hungary), Mazovia (Poland), and Saxony-Anhalt (Germany). Our study aimed (1) to analyse land cover changes related to peri-urban open spaces in the case study regions, (2) to identify and classify policy improvements that are useful to protect peri-urban open spaces, and (3) to provide recommendations for regional policy instruments to improve the protection of peri-urban open spaces. We designed a mixed-method approach combining Geographical Information Systems, an explorative questionnaire, and a semi-quantitative survey to fulfil our research aims. Our results showed that peri-urban open spaces are decreasing in all case study regions but with different scale and dynamics over time. Mostly (non-irrigated) arable land was transformed into non-peri-urban open space. Moreover, we identify 15 policy improvements that are suitable to support the protection of peri-urban open spaces at the level of regional policy-making. Our results indicated a potential for improving the regulatory instruments and showed the usefulness of multi-level governance that better address the protection of peri-urban open spaces at regional level. Using our research results, we provided recommendations for regional policy-makers who are willing to pay more attention to the protection of peri-urban open spaces. • We provide a concept and analysis of peri-urban open spaces. • A mixed-method approach was applied to six European regions. • Mainly green urban areas and leisure facilities are threatened by land cover changes. • Multi-level governance, green-blue corridors and re-use of brownfields are needed. • Regulatory instruments need to integrate better the protection of open spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]