Synergies and Conflicts Between Water Framework Directive and Natura 2000: Legal Requirements, Technical Guidance and Experiences from Practice - Wetlands and Water Framework Directive: Protection, Management and Climate Change - page 22

often cross-border interaction had to be integrated. This ef cient long-time collabo-

ration and final mutual decision on the essential ecological water level conditions

sustains today not only the lake and the National Park cross-border compound, but
also the wetlands used by migratory birds in a Europe-wide step-stone ensemble that
reaches from Eastern Europe via the Hungarian Balaton lake and the Fert

/Neusiedler
See to the Oostvaardersplassen wetland area in the Flevoland Province of The
Netherlands (Veen 2012 ).
Of course the National RBMP for Austria is not restricted to Natura 2000 areas
as was the HABIT-CHANGE Project (Rannow et al. 2014 ). It comprises all river
basins and their surface and groundwater objects registered under WFD require-
ments. Under the umbrella of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forest Man-
agement, Environment and Water Management all the nine Provinces of Austria
have prepared their contributions to the National RMBP ( 2014 ).

ö

2.4.2 River Basin Management Planning in Germany

As the research project analysing the 2009 established documents of river basin
management planning (see Sect. 2.2.2 ) has shown, most management plans in
Germany contain for the most part only general information about how protection
and conservation aims of the protected areas were taken into account at the RBMP
and during the de nition of management aims, and if they were coordinated with

the planning of measures. In Schleswig-Holstein, e.g., all measures according to
WFD are coordinated with all affected Natura 2000 areas by the responsible con-
servation authorities. If they identi

ed any con fl icts they strived for solutions which

don t stand contrary to the objectives of the Natura 2000 sites. The same applies to

measures of nature conservation which are coordinated with the objectives of WFD
(LU M-V 2009 , p. 118; Hofmann and Schmidt 2012 , p. 219).
In the RBMP of the Weser River it is documented that in case of con

'

icting aims
coordination was undertaken between the water management and nature conserva-
tion authorities concerned. In the result, a solution was found to either

fl

fitting both
aims or for deciding which of the aims is prior-ranking. Furthermore, it was con-
sidered which synergies of conservation aims and objectives of the RBMP of the
Weser can be made accessible by suitable measures. Moreover, the Natura 2000
aims for water dependent ecosystems and aquatic habitats are supported by taking
into account the protection and conservation objectives, particularly for hydrophilic
species and their habitats in the context of monitoring and of planning of measures as
well as by coordination with the conservation authorities (Stratmann et al. 2012b ,
p. 104).
Altogether, the RBMPs in Germany show that regarding the Natura 2000 sites a
cooperation of nature conservation and water management has taken place in all
Federal States. However, the intensity might have been very different and is

re fl ected only partly in the formal documents (Hofmann and Schmidt 2012 , p. 220).