From exploitation to nature conservation
Natural resources support our economy and well-being. We depend on raw materials: we need fuels, metals and minerals, as well as food, land, water, biomass and ecosystems. However, increasing pressure on ecosystems jeopardizes the future supply of goods that humanity needs.
Environmental protection policies are the main way to respond to this challenge. Since its inception, two complementary (and sometimes opposite) approaches have served to define the object to be protected. One of them works with a clean nature, which has not suffered human influence. The other, on the other hand, covers part of the landscapes created by man and considers that some cultural landscapes must be protected.
The first of these approaches advocates for the reduction or total elimination of exploitation, while the second commitment to the maintenance and updating of the landscapes that want to be protected.
The biggest controversy occurs when the habitats that are intended to be protected deteriorate due to lack of management or exploitation. In general, in most of our territory, the potential vegetation is the forest, which can develop stably without human intervention. This vegetation is usually stable, because if there are no major changes (produced by man or by natural disasters) it takes dozens of years for substantial changes to occur. However, the farther vegetation is from its optimal potential (shrubby scrub, grass-grassy), the faster the change and, therefore, more necessary an active intervention that allows its conservation. Seminal herbaceous plants are the ones with the greatest need for management and conservation.
In this regard, the European Commission reports that the main pressures of biodiversity in European mountain areas are the lack or absence of sufficient grazing as a result of the progressive abandonment of human activities in these areas of low productivity. For the conservation of these areas and their habitats are usually combined measures that prevent their disappearance and that prevent specific pressures such as roturation, afforestation or urbanization. On the other hand, livestock is encouraged through actions that promote the sustainability of the farms, or by granting aid to farmers and ranchers so that they can face the additional costs or loss of income that leads them to abandon their exploitation.
Examples of these measures are those included in the Rural Development Plans that support the sustainable exploitation of mountain pastures in the Basque Country and Mount LIFE Oreka, which promotes planning to find the balance between conservation and exploitation of the grazing habitats of the Basque mountains.
On the other hand, in many of our forests there is less biodiversity than expected. This is because they are simplified habitats, with little diversity of tree and shrub species and few old trees in different stages of aging. It may be thought that over time the objectives of improving these habitats will be achieved. However, this process can be accelerated through planned and sustainable exploitation.
In this way it is possible to finance with the exploitation of forest resources the forest interventions and the significant improvement of the habitat. Among these strategies, LIFE Pro-IZKI of Alava is an example of success. A forest plan has been implemented that, through the acquisition of quality forest products, funds in the Izki Natural Park forest interventions that improve the conservation status of the marojales and help threatened species such as the medium peak and the bat Bechstein.
In some cases, while traditional exploitation of natural resources does not pose a threat to achieving conservation goals, it advocates limiting uses to achieve higher levels of naturalness in protected areas. In any case, these strategies are harmful to owners and users when they generate a negative feeling for the protection of the space and sometimes can hinder the application of conservation measures. Numerous policies based on expropriation and the establishment of limits by owners and users have failed to create a social conflict and the lack of management capacity of the territory by the administration.
In this regard, the main conservation instrument at the European level, the Habitats Directive, states in its preamble that the adoption of a global goal of sustainable development should promote the maintenance of biodiversity, in addition to taking into account economic, social, cultural and regional requirements. Maintaining biodiversity may require human activities to continue and increase.
Therefore, in many cases, the exploitation of natural resources is not incompatible with conservation, it is necessary for its maintenance.
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