Wetlands and Water Framework Directive: Protection, Management and Climate Change - Wetlands and Water Framework Directive: Protection, Management and Climate Change - page 4

1.3 Protection and Management

Although the considerable potential for synergies between the regulations regarding
water resource management (WFD) and nature conservation (HD and BD) does
exist, it is not fully exploited yet (Stratmann and Albrecht 2015 ). The concept of
ecosystem services of wetlands may allow to sustain their high ecological quality
by putting environmental features in economic terms, thus enhancing social per-
ception of conservation of these ecosystems (Grygoruk et al. 2013 ; Maltby 2009 ).
The links between wetlands acting as inherent elements of catchments improving
quality of aquatic geosystems should, however, be revisited in WFD implementa-
tion (Meyerhoff and Dehnhardt 2007 ). Dembek ( 2015 ), making a step from envi-
ronmental research towards social sciences, convinces that the management of
agriculturally maintained wetlands requires more holistic approach, where the
anthropocentric anticipation of use of wetlands should switch to attitudes con-
cerning protection of wetlands as principal goal in wetland management. Bearing in
mind that to conserve wetlands does not mean to lose them in economic perspec-
tive, we see that the integration of economic and environmental scopes of wetland
management, especially interfered by the climate change, may be achieved in
modern management of aquatic and riparian ecosystems. As stated by Stru

ski
et al. ( 2015 ), it is vital to continue river restoration in order to assure matter and
energy transfer between rivers and

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floodplain wetlands. Despite the fact that
increasing concern in river management is put to the catchment processes, still the
great

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field to be explored is an interrelation of catchment-scale water management
and habitat conservation (Grygoruk et al. 2013 ; Janauer et al. 2015 ).

1.4 Climate Change

WFD, despite of being a universal approach to water bodies conservation and
management, does not comprehensively consider climate change as an aspect that
might in

uence achievements of its goals to rivers or wetlands (Wilby et al. 2006 ).
Such a status should be revisited, as projected climate-change-induced pressures to
habitats reported in both European (Okruszko et al. 2011 ; Schneider et al. 2011 )
and regional context (Doroftei and Anastasiu 2014 ; Grygoruk et al. 2014 ; Kaligaric
and Ivajn

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ic 2014 ; Malatinszky et al. 2014 ), together with actions undertaken by
stakeholders mitigating climate change in

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uences are foreseen to play a very
important role in protected areas management in the near future. As reported by
Grygoruk et al. ( 2014 ), not only direct pressures originating from the changing
climate (such as global warming,

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flooding, droughts) challenge wetlands by
affecting water balance and habitat conditions. Equally (if not more) relevant for
wetland ecosystem status are actions undertaken by stakeholders allowing them to
continue the use of wetlands, mitigating negative effects of the climate-related
impacts. In a capitalistic world the only way of changing attitudes of stakeholders to

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