Browsing by Subject "luonnonsuojelupolitiikka"

We have not succeeded to halt biodiversity loss despite international agreements. Conserving ecological connectivity is crucial when conserving biodiversity in the long run. This thesis studies policy instruments that promote ecological connectivity and conserve ecological processes. The aim of this study is to find out how Finnish environmental policy should be developed in order to promote ecological connectivity and biodiversity conservation. The research questions are: 1) How current nature conservation policy instruments promote ecological connectivity? 2) How policy instruments could promote ecological connectivity better? 3) Could green infrastructure approach help to conserve biodiversity? Ecological connectivity affects the biodiversity especially trough species dispersal. The environment is governed by different policy instruments, which have various effects on ecological connectivity. The green infrastructure is a new policy approach that underlines holistic planning. The green infrastructure is ecologically connected network of green and blue spaces that produces ecosystem services. The data comes from a SCALES project survey on Securing the Conservation of Biodiversity Across Administrative Levels and Spatial, Ecological and Temporal Scales. A link to the web-based questionnaire was sent to 214 Finnish experts of ecological connectivity and 47 persons answered to the questions. The data was analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The main analysis methods were repeated measures ANOVA and cluster analysis. Content analysis was done from qualitative data. The experts thought that ecological connectivity is more important than the current consideration shows. The policy instruments that promote ecological connectivity in the best way are the instruments, which have a wide spatial cover and urban and small-scale instruments are considered worse. The potential of policy instruments to promote ecological connectivity is higher than the current implementation demonstrates. The integration of biodiversity conservation to the other sector policies is considered important. Nature conservation was thought to be more important aspect than ecosystem services in implementation of green infrastructure. The respondent believed that green infrastructure has could have potential of enhancing nature conservation.