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What have we discovered about this theme? |
General Findings
A site for human settlement was usually picked because of its natural values and accessibility to substantial resources, such as food, water and materials to build shelter. Therefore, most of the contemporary settlements have developed on areas rich with such qualities, and in most cases in small towns these qualities were not significantly abused. This means that almost in each small town or in its vicinity, various natural heritage examples can still be found.
ESPON atlas from October 2006 shows, “the largest natural areas are mostly in Europe’s mountain regions in the Alps, the Cantabrian Mountains, the Pyrenees, the Carpathians, Greece and Scotland. Finland and Sweden have extensive forests”. In Poland, the protected areas are usually in peripheral regions.
The same study shows that during past fifteen years the number of protected areas in Europe has grown, but most of them remained protected ‘islands’. On international and national level, the need for protection and preservation of natural heritage is well understood and supported with legislative acts (such as aforementioned Convention or Natura 2000 programme), while on regional and local level there sometimes is lack of understanding, especially when there is opportunity for new investment or job creation that would bring instant benefits to local economy. However, it is worth remembering that, in a long term perspective, thoughtful exploitation of the natural heritage can very often last longer and also contribute to the residents’ benefit and town’s sustainable development better than certain industries that are vulnerable to changes in regional, national or global economy.
The protection of natural heritage normally involves co-ordination and co-operation from a number of services. These can include forestry, wildlife, fishery, tourism or parks agencies. Natural heritage programmes normally include objectives to preserve the visual beauty of these areas by:
- Maintaining and enhancing landscape characteristics; and
- Protecting the diversity and quality of habitats.
Given the potential importance of natural heritage areas to social and economic networks, conservation programmes also allow the opportunities to:
- Improve access to natural areas; and
- Establish outdoor education opportunities.
Taking into account the linkage of natural heritage with other aspects of town functioning, it is clear, that policy for natural heritage can greatly contribute to town’s sustainable development and therefore should be a part of small town’s strategy.
Essential Aspects
SusSET partners were asked to conduct a SWOT analysis related to natural heritage and planning in their towns. The answers may not reflect general truth in Europe, but they may give hint to what is considered important by small expanding towns with regard to these issues:
Strengths listed in order from the most to the least reported:
- Distinctive buildings, monuments, culture and history (especially town centre)
- Good commercial and geographical location
- Community spirit
- Natural heritage, values of landscape
Weaknesses :
- Lack of funding
- Lack of human resources and time due to conflicting priorities (because of the turnover of political staff)
- Poor local identification, lack of understanding and awareness
- Lack of long term planning strategy (making ad hoc planning decisions)
Opportunities:
- Investment in town centre
- Commercial opportunities / development of economy of the town/
- Renewal/refurbishment in other parts of town/buildings/monuments
- Expansion of town (ideas and proposals of development)
- Government initiatives
Threats :
- Loss of town identity, loss of focus on town centre (peripheral, unplanned housing and investments)
- Loss of natural heritage features (building upon green fields and demolition of old buildings for new investments)
- Budget constraints/ inability to acquire funding
- Bureaucracy
- Local mentality/ public apathy
The general regulations concerning the conservation and enhancement of natural heritage differ across the 12 towns and their countries, but there is a common understanding at all levels that heritage needs to be protected, conserved and where possible enhanced. In order to do this, the natural heritage needs to be looked at in its widest sense and protection areas designated under European and national legislation and various local and regional management tools. The names for these management tools may vary in each country, but the idea is the same – to facilitate the protection, conservation and enhancement of the landscape, habitat, or key plant or animal species.
At the top level of the decision-making, sometimes this understanding of the need to protect and conserve weakens, especially if there is strong pressure on development or new investments. Of course national and regional legislation is adhered to, but it often relates to the exceptionally valuable natural heritage, leaving the ‘middle tier’ natural heritage resources to be decided upon by the local people.
To avoid the risk of undertaking tentative or temporary decisions, or short-term decisions under investment/development pressure, small towns need to develop long term strategies for natural heritage. Such a strategy should:
- identify the natural heritage in town
- identify key links between natural heritage and other areas of town management
- link the natural heritage policy with other policies
- focus on protection of and/or appropriate exploitation of the natural heritage to the benefit of community
- present measures on how to raise awareness and responsibility for the natural heritage with residents and visitors
- present measures on how to promote local natural heritage
- present measures on how to raise the profile of local natural heritage with regional and national agencies and respective funding bodies
To be successful in preparing and implementing a natural heritage strategy, local practitioners should be aware not only of regulations, but also of good practices in surveys, recording, access to and sharing of information bases, site management, community involvement and partnership, interpretation and media communications, long-term management, and possible sources of funding.
One of the most critical issues facing small town practitioners in preserving natural heritage are the siting and design of new development. For this reason, development and design guidelines are important tools for planners in enforcing conservation programmes. Natural Heritage programmes are effective ways of controlling development. These programmes can ensure that new development does not undermine or destroy the value provided by areas of natural heritage: But they also have their limitations. They can limit the focus of conservation to designated areas. This ultimately results in natural heritage being segregated from the built environment. Natural heritage exists everywhere, not just in conservation areas.
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