Hasler B. og Schou J.S. 2004 Research Notes no. 197, 88 p.

 

Summary

 

The purpose of the report is to present a socio-economic analysis of the consequences of establishing environmental management in those of Denmark’s §3 and Natura 2000 protection areas, where management today is not regarded as in accordance with favourable nature conservation. The analysis includes management consequen-ces in addition to the associated costs and benefits of two options:

2. Establishment of favourable conservation and management measures in all §3 conservation areas (approx. 193,000 hectares);

3. Establishment of favourable conservation and management measures in §3 areas within Natura 2000 protection areas (approx. 41,000 hectares).

 

Furthermore, sensitivity analysis has been carried out on the basis of selected assumptions, such as estimated interest and time horizon, as well as that the necessary grazing of heathland areas can be carried out by the natural population of red and roe deer.

 

The conclusions can be summed up as follows:

• Annual welfare economic costs of all shortfalls in adequate conservation in §3 areas are calculated at 2,100 DKK per hectare, or a total of 390 million DKK. The annual budget economic costs of implementing measures amount to 2,500 DKK per hectare or a total of 478 million DKK.

• Annual welfare economic costs for §3 areas in Natura 200 protection areas are calculated at 2,600 DKK per hectare, equivalent to 107 million DKK in total. The annual budget economic costs amount to 3,500 DKK per hectare (145 million DKK in total).

• By means of involsving MVJ (environmentally-sensitive agricultural practice) grants and nature conservation grants, the budget economic costs are reduced by approx. 20 percent, whilst the welfare economic costs are reduced by a level approaching 15 percent.

• Swedish and Dutch studies indicate that existence values for conservation of §3 and Natura 2000 areas can be estimated to be between 1,600 and 16,000 DKK per year. The interval is characterised by considerable uncertainty and, as such, must be considered to involve a high degree of variability.

• Overall conservation costs - on condition that the annual grazing of heathland can be assumed to be achieved by the natural populations of red and roe deer - can be reduced by between 20 and 50 percent. The saving is largest for Natura 2000 areas as a significant proportion of these areas is represented by heathland.

 

 

 

It must be emphasised that considerable uncertainty surrounds the data on conserva-tion requirements, costs as well as benefits for the individual nature conservation measures. Standardised data collection from existing nature conservation, in addi-tion to performance of normative valuation studies, would strengthen the decision-making basis considerably.

 

Full report (966 kB)