Natura 2000: Nature Protection Through Network

Together with technological development of the society, people started more and more exploiting resources of our planet in order to gain as much benefits for themselves as possible. As a result, they created a negative impact on the nature. Therefore, the necessity for laws protecting the environment appeared and political and legal measures were taken by many states worldwide. The European Union (afterwards: the EU) was not an exception as well. Accordingly, it designed a framework of protection of the environment on the territory of its Member States, called Natura 2000. It is a large network of protected areas around the EU, supervised by the European Commission (afterwards: the Commission) together with the authorities of the Member States. Nevertheless, all great initiatives have their drawbacks and issues. Unfortunately, same can be observed about Natura 2000. Currently, there are several problems which are impeding effective and uniform implementation of that program, usually being related to the monetary issues, poor ways of enforcement or lack of information shared with public.This article will seek to give an introduction to the topic of Natura 2000 and how it is working within the EU legal order. Moreover, it will illustrate the key issues which are still surrounding it and provide the reader with possible solutions. Accordingly, this article will firstly explain the theoretical background of Nature 2000 and its legal basis. Secondly, under the example of the Netherlands, it will unpack practical difficulties around Natura 2000 and show how the EU Member States are implementing it. Lastly, this article will try to elaborate on the means of improvement of environmental protection under Natura 2000 initiative in the EU territory.