SUCCESS FACTORS of PROJECTS in FLANDERS That IMPROVED ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

Salzau 2010 Abstracts February 2010

Research Institute for Forest and Nature (INBO), Kliniekstraat 25, B-1070 Brussels, Belgium

In Flanders region, a long land-use history, high population density and widespread economic activities, resulted in fragmentedcultural landscapes. This often caused a decline of the quality of the ecosystems and their associated ecosystem services, especially during the last 50 years. Common challenges to reverse this trend are conflicting interests of numerous stakeholders, limited available open space, and the lack of knowledge about the relationships between ecosystem functioning welfare. Nevertheless, this did not deter some committed government and non-government organisations to setup projects, where they simultaneouslyimproved ecosystem quality and their services to society. For this study, we selected 8 projects in Flanders which were successful in reversing a degraded ecosystem intoa relative healthy ecosystem, with benefits for both nature and people. From these success-stories, we deducted the most important factors that explained the success of these transformations:

1. Natural disasters: In some cases, a natural disaster triggered (e.g. flooding of residential areas) decision makers to take action.

1. Economic reasons: In several cases, economic realties were conducive for land-use change to happen. In some cases,this was driven by changes in demand;while in other cases, the cost price for nature-based solutions was much cheaper then for engineered solutions. As Flanders is highly-populated, there is a high demand and high value for certain ecosystem services, such as recreation and environmental quality.
2. Policy changes: Legal framework and policies in Flandersregarding open space protection, environmental standards and biodiversity conservation have increased significantly during the last 20 years. This created a much more enabling environment for projects to prosper. On the other hand, institutional and policy fragmentation and administrative burden were often quoted as bottlenecks.
3. Synergies between ecosystem services: There is an increased chance for success, when one intervention leads to an improvement of other ecosystem services, where multiple stakeholders can benefit from.
4. Multi-stakeholder process facilitation: In all the studied cases, extensive networking, personal contacts, mediation, trust building, signalling to stakeholders that they can influence the process, joint learning and ownership, were crucial success factors. However, such a process requires an inspiring ‘champion’and/or ‘champion organisation’. These championswere found in government agencies or NGO’s. These champions were able to develop a commonly-accepted vision, to overcome ideological contradictions, and to find pragmatic compromisesolutions.
5. Resources: The studied success stories took several years to complete (5-20 years), were all supported with adequate funds, and could make use of sources of expertise.

The above identified success factors indicate how policy makers and administrators can act proactivelyto create conducive conditions for improving ecosystem services. However, the most crucial and most difficult factor seems to be the quality of the facilitation of the multi-stakeholder process. Therefore, investment in the process seems as important as providing the necessary legal tools, hardwareand economic incentives.