Do Water Management and Climate-Adapted Management of Wetlands Interfere in Practice? Lessons from the Biebrza Valley, Poland - Wetlands and Water Framework Directive: Protection, Management and Climate Change - page 51

4.1 Introduction

Environmental management of the complex systems, such as wetlands, requires
anticipation of the broadest possible set of factors that may induce status and
responses of ecosystems. This includes hydrological processes responsible for the
continuity of water supply and drainage, human-related actions oriented at eco-
nomic use of wetlands, geomorphology and soil-forming processes as well as the
climate and global environmental dynamics. Existing legal agents require consid-
eration of

uencing the
environment. Water Framework Directive (WFD; Directive 2000/60/EC of the
European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000 establishing a
framework for Community action in the

the environmental and human-enforced challenges in fl

field of water policy) put special attention
to the achievement of a good status of waters and water related ecosystems. Habitat
Directive (HD; European Council Directive 92/43/EEC) and Bird Directive (BD;
European Council Directive 2009/147/EC) have referred to the conservation of the
total environment in the most valuable zones, by the implementation of protection
plans, assuring stakeholders awareness. National and regional regulations as to the

environmental protection, by incorporation of the European law, assure imple-
mentation of particular procedures oriented at minimization of possible negative
responses of the elements of the environment to the de

'

ned pressures. Finally, the
national plans oriented at adaptation to the changing climate (ACC) require to be
considered in the general approaches of the integrated environmental management.
However, although the legislation regarding environmental management appears
to be comprehensive enough to anticipate and mitigate the negative effects of nearly
all possible stressors, ecting legal

requirements of environmental policy seems to fail, especially if the local scale is
considered (Biere

the implementation of integrated actions re fl

ż

noj-Bazille and Grygoruk 2013 ). This situation originates from
the fact that bodies responsible for implementation of WFD, HD, BD and ACC
undertake non-integrated actions. Inconsistencies are reported in the cases of

ood
risk management implemented as dredging the rivers of a high environmental
conservation status, intensi

fl

cation of agricultural practices that affect the envi-
ronment in the areas covered by Natura 2000, or in the application of measures
which, although aim at conservation of good status of species and habitats, do not
consider prospective stressors originating in the impacts of a changing climate.
Such inconsistencies in the implementation of environmental policy allow to
foresee certain risks for a successful environmental management and therefore
should be unraveled in order to enhance the potential effects of ecosystem con-
servation and restoration. Especially facing the fact, that the future of the envi-
ronment of European wetlands was sketched as critically related to the climatic
change (Okruszko et al. 2011 ; Schneider et al. 2011 ).
The main aim of this chapter is to analyze the status of WFD implementation in
reference to conservation and assuring appropriate ecological status of rivers and
water-dependent ecosystems in the catchment of the Biebrza (NE Poland), fac-
ing direct and indirect environmental impacts of climate change. We provide a