4.7 Editorial Material

Congruence between the prioritisation of conservation problems at the local and national scale: an evaluation by environmental scientists in Poland

Journal

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH
Volume 28, Issue 27, Pages 35317-35326

Publisher

SPRINGER HEIDELBERG
DOI: 10.1007/s11356-021-14741-5

Keywords

Biodiversity; Environments; Conservation; Policy; Prioritisation; Spatial scale

Ask authors/readers for more resources

The study explored the most important conservation problems in Poland at local and national scales using the Delphi technique. Findings indicated differences in importance scores and problem frequencies between local and national scales, highlighting the need for a hierarchical conservation policy approach.
The anthropogenic pressure on the environment depends on the spatial scale. It is crucial to prioritise conservation actions at different spatial scales to be cost-efficient. Using horizon scanning with the Delphi technique, we asked what the most important conservation problems are in Poland at local and national scales. Twenty-six participants, PhD students, individually identified conservation issues important at the local and national scales. Each problem was then scored and classified into broader categories during the round discussions. Text mining, cross-sectional analyses, and frequency tests were used to compare the context, importance scores, and frequency of identified problems between the two scales, respectively. A total of 115 problems were identified at the local scale and 122 at the national scale. Among them, 30 problems were identical for both scales. Importance scores were higher for national than local problems; however, this resulted from different sets of problems identified at the two scales. Problems linked to urbanisation, education, and management were associated with the local scale. Problems related to policy, forestry, and consumerism were more frequent at the national scale. An efficient conservation policy should be built hierarchically (e.g. introducing adaptive governance), implementing solutions at a national scale with the flexibility to adjust for local differences and to address the most pressing issues.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.7
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available