Conserving environmental assets whilst delivering economic growth

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Conserving environmental assets whilst delivering
economic growth

• Seminar Making the economic case
• for environmental integration
• 23 February 2005

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What is it?

• The protection and enhancement of the regions
  environmental assets provides basis for enabling
  economic development.
• These assets are both the natural (landscape,
  biodiversity) and the built and historic
  environment.
• Two questions
• Have these assets an economic value?
• Can their conservation and improvement promote
  economic development?

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The need

• Economic activities that most directly utilise
  the natural and cultural environment
  (agroindustrial sector, fishing and tourism)
  provide an important contribution to the region's
  wealth, in terms of GDP and employment.
• Sicily has identified environmental and cultural
  assets as key factors of the regional development
  strategy
• The protected areas of Sicily amount to about
  20 of the regional territory
• Sicily has 20 of the national cultural and
  historic heritage
• The conservation and improvement of natural and
  cultural assets can contribute to reduce the
  development gap between coastal and inland
  territories.

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How to deliver this?

• The following approaches
• Maintain and enhance high quality environments
• Ensure access to high quality environments
• Regenerate degraded and derelict environments
• Improve local environmental quality

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Case-studyRural issues and opportunities
feasibility study for RIO Goss Moor and
Environs
Consulted the community to produce an area action
plan and raised local appreciation of of Goss
Moor and its surroundings. Secured 1.2 million
of EU investment for a habitat restoration
project.
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Case-studyWorking Woodlands 2
Public and private sector partnership It provides
capital investment and business development
support services to timber/wood businesses.
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Case-studyShellfish stock survey
The project collected baseline data about the
population size/structure of brown crabs and
lobsters in Cornish waters to assess/conserve the
long-term viability of the 3 million industry
that relies on these stocks.
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Case-studyCastrovillari urban development
programme
The Urban Development Programme of Castrovillari
city with a specific focus on environmental
integration while producing economic benefits.
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Case-studyEnvironment as an economic driver
within the Integrated Regional Programme (IRP)
Sicilian Ecological Network (SEN)
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The protected areas of Sicilia Region amount to
about 20 of the regional territory 4
Regional Parks 75 natural reserves 218
Natura 2000 Sites.According to the Directive
92/43/EEC, the ROP 2000 2006 Sicilia Region
provides for the creation of an ecological
network identifying also the tool to be used the
Integrated Regional Programme.
The context
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The Regional Integrated Programme aims to
coordinating the implementation of two or more
ROPs measures in the perspective of a common
development objective.This case study is
focused on identifying how the environment works
as an economic driver within the IRP SEN. At this
regard, the relevant issues areStrategic
objectiveMethodologyImplementation
The Regional Integrated Programme
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Strategic objective
The IRP tries to integrate environmental, social
and economic objectives. The Programmes
mission is to create the Sicilian Ecological
Network by connecting all regional protected
areas (parks, natural reserves, Natura 2000
sites) in order to ensure, at the same time, the
conservation of natural habitats and of wild
fauna and flora and a sustainable development of
the SEN territories. It contributes also to
achieving the objective (established by the ROP)
to reduce the development gap between coastal and
inland territories.
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Methodology
According to the provisions of the Programme
Complement, the strategic objective was
articulated in 8 priorities Conservation Enviro
nmental education Strenghtening key areas New
managing systems for natural areas Promoting new
SMEs Improving environmental performance of
SMEs Sustainable Tourism, Transport, and
Fishereis GIS and information technology.
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Methodology
It was established which among the 71 measures of
the ROP could be used for the implementation of
the IRP on the basis of their coherence with its
mission, strategic objective and priorities. For
istance, measure n. 4.04 of the Programme
Complement Local development tools that
finances the implementation of environmental
management systems (EMAS, ISO 14001) was included
in the priority Improving environmental
performance of SMEs. This analysis led to a set
of 36 measures considered coherent with the
Programme.
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ROP 71 Measures
Ecological network Objectives
IRP 36 Measures
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The Managing Authority of IRP is fully involved
in the drafting of calls for proposals concerning
the measures belonging to the priorities. At the
moment the most interesting experiences concern
the following measures2.01 Conservation and use
of cultural and environmental heritage4.06
Investments for agricolture and zootechny4.09
EMAS and Ecolabel in the agroindustrial
sector4.13 High quality agricolture products
marketing4.14 Improvement of rural
infrastructures4.15 Investments for
agritourism5.02 Urban re-qualification
Implementation
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Integrated perspective