Contested Delineations: Planning, Law, and the Governance of Protected Areas

Raoul Beunen and Kristof van Assche
Additional contact information
Raoul Beunen: Strategic Communication Group, Wageningen University, PO Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands
Kristof van Assche: Strategic Communication Group, Wageningen University, PO Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands, and Center for Development Research, Bonn University, Germany, PO Box 8130, 6700 EW, Wageningen, The Netherlands

Environment and Planning A, 2013, vol. 45, issue 6, 1285-1301

Abstract: In this paper we reflect on the relationship between planning and law. We analyse the Dutch interpretation and implementation of the European Union Habitats and Birds Directives by investigating the practices of delineation of protected areas. These directives provide a legislative framework for the designation of protected sites as well as for decision making about social and economic activities that might have negative effects on the conservation objectives. The formal boundaries of the protected area can have legal, political, and economic consequences and are therefore the subject of much debate. Using Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory, we analyse the debates concerning delineation and the potential for planning to reduce tensions and balance interests. It is argued that the irreducible differences between the economic, political, and legal perspectives, in combination with the Dutch path of a legalistic interpretation of EU directives, have produced a situation in which the role of planning is reduced and new forms of planning are hard to implement.

Keywords: planning; law; natural resource management; Natura 2000; autopoiesis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a45284 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envira:v:45:y:2013:i:6:p:1285-1301

DOI: 10.1068/a45284

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Environment and Planning A
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().