Regional planning of river protection and restoration to promote ecosystem services and nature conservation

Abstract

[Except] International conservation and sustainability agendas (CBD, 2010; European Union, 2011; IPBES, 2018; United Nations, 2018) have repeatedly called for conservation, restoration and sustainable use of biodiversity as well as the enhancement of ecosystem services and benefits to society. These calls are particularly relevant for freshwater ecosystems, which combine conservation interest and high societal value through the supply of multiple ecosystem services (Tharme, Tickner, Hughes, Conallin, & Zielinski, 2018). Freshwater habitats, biodiversity and ecological functions are also amongst the most threatened worldwide, due to a broad range of anthropogenic pressures (IPBES, 2018; Reid et al., 2019). In the European Union, 63% of river and lake habitats protected under the Habitats Directive are considered to hold “Unfavourable” conservation status, and 60% of water bodies are not in “Good” ecological status (IPBES, 2018). [...]