Protection and Management of Species Habitats Ecosystems and Landscapes

Human well-being and the prerequisite sustainable environmental management are currently at stake reaching a bottleneck when trying to cope with (i) the ever-growing world population (ii) the constantly increasing need for natural resources (and the subsequent overexploitation of species habitats ecosystems and landscapes) and (iii) the documented and on-going impacts of climate change. By this the role of conservation and management practices for the environment is characterized as a crucial and top issue and should deal with (a) promoting best practices from the local to the global level (b) identifying spatial and temporal knowledge gaps (c) multidisciplinary aspects for sustainable management practices (d) identifying and interpreting the role of stakeholders and socio-economic parameters in the decision-making process and (e) methods and practices to integrate the concept of ecosystem services into natural capital assessment and accounting conservation and management strategies. Modern literature highlights that land use change and prioritization the restoration of natural areas and cultural landscape identification and maintenance should be considered at the top of the scientific and policy agenda as well as at the epicenter of novel awareness-raising strategies for the environment in the near future.