With the eyes of history : the Natura 2000 network, acute land use conflicts, and the future of EU biodiversity policy

Abstract

This thesis concerns the history of the European Union's Natura 2000 network of protected areas, established under the Birds Directive (1979) and the Habitats Directive (1992), and the light this history sheds on: the resolution of acute conflicts between human land uses and EU protected areas; the process of EU integration in the field of biodiversity; and the future of EU biodiversity policy.