Cooperation

Key to success

Cooperation among actors is a key to successful nature conservation efforts in infrastructure planning. The resources for conservation and management of biodiversity is typically limited, and cooperation over administrative borders are increasingly acknowledged as a way to incease the efficiency in conservation action.

However, actors in different disciplins and societal sectors work with different tools, concepts and goals, and sometimes under different legislations. Much effort is therefore required to find a common structure and approach already at the planning stage, and to gather the right actors, and to get these to understand eachother and work towards a common goal.

New creative solutions and methods are needed, as well as combined expert knowledge in a variety of fields: species and habitat ecology, landscape history, administrative guidelines and legislation, and the practical construction and maintenance of infrastructure. There must also be a cooperation among planners of different land uses; transport infrastructure, power distribution, urban development, forestry, agriculture, hunting, recreation and nature conservation.

By a number of case studies, TRIEKOL has described how an infrastructure manager by cooperating with other actors can succeed in species and habitat conservation, either in infrastructure habitats or in the larger landscape by functioning as a catalyst for joint efforts among many actors.

TRIEKOL has also contributed directly to promote communication and cooperation between actors by a number of cross-disciplinary workshops.