Schröter-Schlaack, C., Ring, I., Koellner, T., Santos, R., Antunes, P., Clemente, P., Mathevet, R., Borie, M., Grodzinska-Jurczak, M. (2014): Intergovernmental fiscal transfers to support local conservation action in Europe. The German Journal of Economic Geography 58(2-3). Special Issue on “The economics of protected areas – a European perspective”, 98-114
Abstract: Against the background of ongoing biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, there is
a need for more conservation efforts at all governance levels that also take into account the needs of
subnational governments, cities and other local authorities. This paper presents a rationale for including
ecological indicators in intergovernmental fiscal transfers that redistribute public revenue from
national and regional state governments to decentralised governments. Although recommended for
introduction in a number of European countries (such as Germany and Poland), to date only Portugal
and to some extent France have implemented fiscal transfers for biodiversity conservation in Europe.
In this paper we provide, first, a review of existing and proposed schemes across Europe, classifying
them in relation to the stages of a policy cycle. Second, we identify critical design features of
ecological fiscal transfers (EFT) in order to develop recommendations for improving existing or introducing new EFT schemes.
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