The article presents the results of research carried out in 2009 in three national and seven landscape parks situated on the territory of the 'Green Lungs of Poland' region. During empirical studies a questionnaire prepared for the purpose of conducting interviews was used. Investigations covered a very important and topical problem of the functioning of the 'Natura 2000' areas within the boundaries of national and landscape parks. An analysis was conducted of the remarks and opinions offered by the parks' workers on the subject of co-existence of the earlier described forms of protection of the natural environment, of socio-economic conflicts and their resolution in the areas managed by them, and effectiveness of current legal instruments serving environmental protection
The red lists of species threatened with extinction and of disappearing natural habitats grow longer and the pace of the natural environment's degradation and loss of biological diversity increases every year. In this context it is an extremely important fact that a considerable part of biological diversity is being used for economic purposes and is subject to the influence - both negative and positive, of such use. Amounts needed to stop the degradation of the natural environment and halt the loss of biological diversity far exceed the financial abilities of public institutions and funds. It is impossible to ensure a long-term and effective protection of the natural environment without the participation of its users - entrepreneurs and entities financing investments that are linked to the business sector. This conviction resulted in the decisions of the Strategy of Sustainable Development adopted by the European Union in 2001, in the decisions of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, and in the Business and Biodiversity Initiative launched by EU in 2007. Many examples can be quoted which prove that enterprises based on the use of natural resources can play an active and positive role in the protection and balanced use of these resources. It is necessary to create advisory and economic instruments assisting and encouraging enterprises to undertake dedicated economic activity, which is designed to ensure the simultaneous achievement of expected economic and environmental results.
The 'Natura 2000' network constitutes an elementary form of the protection of natural resources, together with national parks, landscape parks and reserves. However, the implementation of this system has revealed some formal limitations to the development of non-agricultural economic activity although it certainly should be seen also as the source of potential benefits. The presentation of assessments and opinions on 'Natura 2000' formulated by local entrepreneurs operating in the 'Green Lungs of Poland' region can be treated as an introduction to the discussion on the network's role in the functioning of rural economy. The main aim of a survey that helped collect these opinions was to establish how well the notion 'Natura 2000' was known to entrepreneurs, and to learn what they thought about the potential advantages and threats posed by the influence of the 'Natura 2000' network on the development of communes, on the life of rural communities and non-agricultural economic activity.
In the paper models of regressive trees were used to illustrate the shaping of the agricultural sector's condition and economic activity of the residents of rural areas in the 'Green Lungs of Poland' region. These models were prepared in an effort to empirically check the pessimistic assessments of the state of the local economy of communes situated in the 'Green Lungs of Poland' region, which are broadly covered by special protection of birds and habitats within the 'Natura 2000' network. The models' results presented simple criteria for distinguishing communes with different levels of the development of economic activity and agriculture. They also made it possible to assess the validity of the used predictors that constituted the sub-components of sustainable development distinguished in the research project. The results of predictions of the models of regressive trees were shown on maps, which permitted to make an assessment of the spatial shaping of local economy in the areas of the 'Green Lungs of Poland' region.
The paper presents the attitudes of the representatives of self-governments in communes covered by the 'Natura 2000' network towards the problems of environmental protection and the rank of environmental matters in the process of managing the development of communes, with special emphasis on the opinions about the impact of the 'Natura 2000' network on the development of local economies. The surveyed representatives of local councils have expressed both negative and positive opinions on the effects of their communes' inclusion in the 'Natura 2000' network. It seems that negative opinions on 'Natura 2000' have their source in the lack of information and failure to ensure self-governments active role in the process of delimitation of areas included in the 'Natura 2000' network. It should be noted that the representatives of local councils are aware of the potential role of the natural environment's resources and properties in the creation of the communes' development but at the present stage of its functioning the 'Natura 2000' network arouses serious reservations that obscure the potential advantages.
The paper describes the relations between the protection and agricultural activities pursued on the territory of the Biebrzanski National Park. The strength and character of agriculture's impact on the environment are particularly important in the areas of great natural value that are sensitive to man's interference. The author discusses the positive influence exerted on the natural environment by extensive agriculture supported by the agricultural policy of the European Union through agricultural-environmental programmes which ensure minimal interference in the natural processes and which are conducive to the preservation of environmental equilibrium. The value of this type of agricultural activity consists chiefly of the preservation of the qualities of an agricultural landscape and biological diversity of species and habitats, which is extremely important in the case of areas covered by the European Ecological Network 'Natura 2000'.
(Title in Polish - 'Metodologia i organizacja badania spoleczno-gospodarczych uwarunkowan zrównowazonego rozwoju obszarów wiejskich objetych siecia Natura 2000 na terenie Zielonych Pluc Polski'). The paper describes the research methodology used during the implementation of the National Research and Development Centre's (NCBiR) project called 'Social-economic determinants of sustainable development of rural areas covered by the Natura 2000 network on the territory of the Green Lungs of Poland region' which led to work on articles published in this issue of the 'Wies i Rolnictwo' quarterly that deal with broadly perceived relations: economy-society-environment. The author of the paper presents the research purposes and the cognitive and spatial scope of analyses. He examines the consecutive stages of research and describes the diversified quantitative and qualitative methods and techniques applied at every stage of investigations. He also discusses some organisational aspects of the research process.
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