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The purpose of this paper is to propose an approach regarding the management measures for solving environmental problems in protected areas. Two neighboring protected areas with different features were chosen in order to investigate the similarity of the environmental problems with regard to these two areas and if it is possible for these problems to be solved through a network of protected areas.

The research was carried out through the use of a questionnaire which was distributed to the inhabitants and visitors of both areas, as well as through interviews with the representatives of organizations responsible for the management and administration of those areas and representatives of the municipalities and the regional authorities these two national parks belong to. Simple random sampling was applied to the inhabitants and cluster sampling to the visitors.

The results show that with regard to the visitors the most important problem is illegal hunting while for the inhabitants equally important is the problem of pollution and cleanliness. However, those responsible with the management of the two National Parks think that the greatest threat to the wider area is the problem of floods.

The views of the stakeholders in a given time, provides us with the best possible information for solving the problems faced and can be used as a tool for increasing the effectiveness of the measures which have been taken to deal with the particular problems.

Evaluates the effects of shipwrecks and peoples’ reactions following them, with regard to their feelings of preventability on someone’s part. In particular to the Erika in 1989, and the Prestige in 2002. The European Union (EU), which theretofore seemed to be neglecting maritime safety appears to have developed a maritime culture. The EU seems to have adopted the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) attitude regarding safety protocols, which must be a right and proper thing to do. Concludes that shipping has needed, and is now receiving, a proactive approach with regard to safety from the EU which should limit, as far as possible, disasters of both a human and ecological kind for the maritime world.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the assessment procedure under the European Union Habitats Directive. The wider scope of this procedure together with the lack of detail as to its requirements has originated from an important body of case law from the European Court of Justice. The Court has steadily clarified some of the key matters underlying the procedure. Its case law now represents a significant constraint for development plan and projects affecting Natura 2000 sites.

The methodology is based on the analysis of the directive’s text [Article 6(3) and (4)] in the light of the case law. This paper aims to highlight the relevant findings of the European Court and how they limit the prima facie discretion on the part of the Member States.

The basic findings could be summarised as follows: the environmental assessment procedure under the Habitats Directive represents a strong tool for controlling activities affecting Natura 2000 sites. Unlike the other environmental assessment directives, a negative conclusion concerning their effects precludes any execution. Significant territorial gaps between plans and projects and Natura 2000 sites do not necessarily avoid the carrying out of complete assessments. The conjunction between a general duty to prevent the deterioration of sites and environmental assessments requires that projects authorised before the designation of sites may be subject to this procedure.

The originality of this paper is based on a structured presentation of the key matters surrounding the assessment procedure in the light of the recent case law.

Innovation and Intrapreneurship.

MSc, MBA and Executive Education Programmes.

The case on Priscila Matta focuses on the role of social intrapreneurship and social inclusion at Natura, the largest cosmetics company in Brazil and a corporate responsibility leader. Centred in the complexity stemming from dealing with a local community which supplies key ingredients to the Ekos product line, the company's most prominent and innovative brand, it illustrates the difficulties of establishing inclusive forms of business with a traditional community in the northeast of Brazil. Ekos builds on the rich Brazilian biodiversity and traditional knowledge. Brazilian law requires Natura to share the benefits obtained from the access to genetic heritage and associated traditional knowledge with those communities who supply such resources. Implicitly, the case focuses on the role of the social intrapreneur – Priscila Matta – and how she navigated corporate politics to structure the company's community relations. The case demonstrates the difficulties of social intrapreneurs who aim to create sustainable innovations to execute shared value strategies.

The case has the following four learning objectives: to illustrate best practices in intrapreneurial activities that aim to create shared value – in this case, value for Natura and for the community; to define the role and characteristics of social intrapreneurs – people inside big corporations who drive sustainable innovation; to discuss obstacles the corporate environment presents in the process of social innovation; and to illustrate how individuals within companies can implement a shared value strategy.

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The Portuguese montado is a particular land use system, characterized by the combination, in the same area, of the forestry and the grazing components interrelating with each other, in large-scale farm units. Mostly, this system is acknowledged due to its specific landscape character, in a savanna-like phisionomy, with changing densities along a continuous tree cover of holm and cork oaks and grazing in the under cover. The montado is a production system, and its extensive character and particular pattern makes it possible to support a multitude of ecosystem goods and services nowadays valued by society. Nevertheless the system is threatened and the resulting landscape is under strong reduction in the last decades. This paper shows the dimension of the ongoing reduction, for the whole region of Alentejo, since 1960 and up to now. And furthermore, based on a survey to land managers of montado in a Natura 2000 site, it shows how the land management options for the most are still focusing on production and productivist ideals, even when keeping a multifunctional system. These orientations do not result in a radical replacement of the system, and therefore the illusion is kept that the multifunctionality is mantained – but progressively the system loses its balance and the tree cover decays in such a way that the montado disappears. This unique landscape is thus under severe threat. The paper ends with a discussion on the urgent need for integrated policy goals and tools for the montado as a system, and for much more colaboration with the land managers in order to strength the multifunctionalty relevance and support a novel attitude replacing the productivist concept of farming, misleading in the context of this system.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the construction of the nature conservation information system in Slovenia, into which all official and more detailed data related to nature conservation will be integrated. The existing databases are to be replaced by a single base, which will diminish the possibility of errors occurring in data production, collection and distribution. The arrangement of data is transparent, their accessibility simple. Website data editing is enabled.

On the basis of the existing databases analysis, an information system is constructed by the inverse engineering method. The database is organised per separate sets, where uniform codes are used. For web site users, the Nukleus graphical interface is built, which is connected with other information system components and enables web site data examination and processing.

A modularly composed information system has been built, which establishes a uniform database, enables interoperability between separate data sets, introduces uniform codes and standardisation of data organisation in the information sense. In the information system, the graphic and attributive data are interlinked, which enables a simplified data search, analysis and processing also via the web site with the aid of the so‐called Nukleus graphical interface. The information system modular scheme enables a simple improvement of the system with new data modules in the future.

The nature conservation information system in Slovenia is one of the first that enables web site editing of graphical and attributive data at the same time. It contributes to an easier accessibility of data, a better organisation of data, as well as a rationalisation of working processes associated with nature conservation data.

French environmental actors have suffered from long-term exclusion from policy-making. However, an increasingly precarious environmental movement continues to diversify its actions. The French political setting is also undergoing processes of decentralisation and Europeanisation. Moreover, French state–group relations are unravelling within a multi-level opportunity system as well as a continually transforming domestic environment under the pressure of European Union (EU) processes, polices and institutions. Drawing from empirical evidence on biodiversity conflicts, it is argued that the debate should move from a state-centric to a group/movement-centric approach.

During the past 30 years environmental policy was never between the top priority areas of public intervention in Greece. Legislative measures related to the protection of human health and nuisance from private economic activities were introduced as early as in the beginning of last century. The post dictatorial constitution of 1975 provided, for the first time, specific provision for the protection of natural environment. However, a comprehensive framework legislation regulating all facets of environmental degradation was adopted only in 1986 but remained, for a long period, practically inactive since the necessary implementing decisions were issued with considerable delay. The country's accession into the EU, in 1981, provided a cognitive and material basis for the modernisation of environmental policy through the incorporation of the environmental acquis into domestic law and building up of domestic administrative capacities through the use of the structural funds. However, low prioritisation of environmental protection in the domestic policy agendas of successive Greek governments continued to affect domestic administrative structures and policy traditions.

This chapter analyses the politics of bird hunting in relation to the empowerment of environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) in the European Union (EU), with specific reference to Malta’s first years of EU accession.

In particular, the analysis focuses on the activism of Maltese and International ENGOs – with special focus on Birdlife Malta and Birdlife International – on this issue, which is characterized by extensive EU legislation and by constant lobbying.

This chapter argues that ENGOs, both Maltese and European, were influential on State power in Malta, especially by resorting to the EU, and also being given prominence by the media. Yet the hunting lobby was influential too, and its influence on Malta’s main political parties is an overdetermining factor, which remained in place even after EU accession.

This chapter concludes that despite Malta’s EU accession, national political factors remain highly influential in the Maltese hunting issue, and that one can expect more antagonism in the years to come.