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Biodiversity and Green Infrastructure in Europe: Boundary object or ecological trap?

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Repository DOI


Type

Article

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Authors

Garmendia, E 
Apostolopoulou, Elia  ORCID logo  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8166-4639
Adams, WM 
Bormpoudakis, D 

Abstract

The concept of green infrastructure is widely used in environmental planning, but so far it has no standard definition. Planners, conservationists and scientists tend to welcome the term because it can serve as a boundary object, providing links among policy makers, developers and different academic disciplines. However, the concept of green infrastructure creates risks for biodiversity conservation in its adoption. It can be used to water down biodiversity conservation aims and objectives as easily as it can be used to further them because of the different ideas associated with it and the multiple interests pursued. In this paper, we address such risks by looking, among others, at the European Union’s Green Infrastructure Strategy and we suggest how planners and conservationists might deal with its growing importance in environmental policy and planning to enhance its value for biodiversity conservation.

Description

Keywords

Biodiversity, Conservation, Planning, Ecological connectivity, Ecosystem services, Natural capital, Green economy

Journal Title

Land Use Policy

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0264-8377
1873-5754

Volume Title

Publisher

Elsevier BV
Sponsorship
EG acknowledges the Basque government’s postdoctoral research grant and support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through CAUSE project under the 2012 National Plan. EA acknowledges the Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship within FP7 (PIEF-GA-2013-622631, Conservation and Ecosystem Services in the New biodiversity Economy—CESINE). DB acknowledges the SCALES project, an EU Large-scale Integrating Project within FP 7 (226 852).