Private individuals and Natura 2000
The success of Natura 2000 is highly dependent on the overall environmental quality in the larger area around the protected Natura 2000 areas. That applies to the marine environment even more so than to the land environment; needless to say, flowing water and the marine ecosystem in general have no idea of the boundaries of a designated protection regime.
Large-scale problems such as ocean microplastics, the permanent stream of litter from land to sea, emissions of CO2 and nitrogen oxides, catalysts for climate change, together with the acidification of sea water... It is all connected. Without a comprehensive approach to sustainability, it will be difficult to resist the comparison between the Natura 2000 network and a series of flowerpots, unable to support themselves on what has become a synthetic substrate. The aim is the reverse: protected areas must work as a catalyst for the larger process of making the ecosystem in the North Sea as a whole more robust. That also means that there is a personal challenge for us all; consumer behaviour has a knock-on effect on sustainability in production and distribution chains, and their respective economic sectors. The entire population then, albeit at a distance, is a significant stakeholder.