Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
and future effects of human activities on ecosystem functionality. This is
why the system of ecological governance
s focus is on reducing the
pressures that human activities place on the environment rather than
on carving out suf
'
cient space for nature. It is also why the categories of
knowledge I refer to above are largely concerned with improving under-
standing of socioeconomic systems, of the demands they make on
natural resources, and of the availability of possibilities for reducing
those demands or replacing ways of meeting them with less ecologically
consequential alternatives.
The production of these analyses and the mapping of activities and of
ecosystems should be legally required as part of the preparation of plans
for locations and for terrestrial and marine regions. This is not a formal
requirement under the UK planning system, although legal provision for
strategic environmental assessment has made it mandatory that plan-
making is informed by consideration of environmental conditions.
However, the German federal planning system provides a precedent
with its requirement for the production by municipalities of landscape
plans that capture the current state of the environment.
96
These must be
considered in the preparation of regional development plans.
97
The
information generated should also feed into the institutional structures
for enhancing knowledge and understanding of ecosystem behaviour
which, as I argue in
Chapter 7
, are needed to ensure that a
ow of
information to support the system of governance is maintained, and to
enable the adaptation of decisions to changes in ecological conditions.
5.3.3 Strategic planning
The planning system has the potential to have a broad in
uence on
society
s trajectory because, even in its limited regulatory form, it inter-
acts with the majority of sectoral activities. Key questions for advocates
of environmental planning have therefore been how this potential might
be used to improve environmental protection and what obstacles lie in
the way of environmentally proactive planning. It has been suggested
that the traditional perception of planning as a
'
'
neutral
'
process, and the
96
S. Wilding and J. Raemaekers,
Environmental Compensation for Green
eld
Development: Is the Devil in the Detail?
'
'
(2000) 15 Planning Practice and Research,
213. Bundesamt für Naturschutz,
'
Landscape Planning: The Basis of Sustainable
Landscape Development
'
(
2008
).
97
Ibid
.
