§4.1 Strategic planning

An effective way to prevent conflicts with Natura 2000 sites and EU protected species and habitats is to consider the environmental consequences of new developments early on at strategic planning level. This can be done through a regional or national development plan for sectoral activities (e.g. in the energy sector, transport, extractive activities, aquaculture) or through land-use or other spatial plans. Having a strategic plan makes it possible to integrate environmental conditions and requirements, in particular those related to nature conservation, at an early planning stage so that the risk of potential conflicts later on at project level can be avoided or minimised and to determine the feasibility and means of implementing individual developments accordingly. In the context of applying Article 6(3) and (4) of the Habitats Directive, strategic planning makes it much easier to consider the possible implications of planned activities on Natura 2000 sites at a broader scale and in a comprehensive way. In this way, the sites’ sensitivities are taken into account at an early stage, when more options are available for meeting development objectives while at the same time reducing their potential environmental impacts. This will help, for example, in identifying suitable or unsuitable sites for specific activities and for minimising the risk of potential conflicts with Natura 2000 sites at individual project level. Strategic planning can: — promote a more interactive and transparent planning process and encourages early and iterative dialogue with relevant authorities, interest groups etc., which may significantly reduce the overall time required for the permitting procedure; — provide a broader and more suitable framework for considering potential cumulative effects with other plans or projects, and feasible alternatives; — help to avoid or reduce the number of potential site-specific conflicts at a later stage in the development process, when financial and legal resources have been committed and there is less room for manoeuvre; — provide developers with relevant information and legal certainty about environmental concerns that may need to be considered already during the initial project concept; — be more cost effective in the long run (if possible mitigation measures are factored in at an early planning stage, they are likely to be technically easier and cheaper to integrate); — analyse broad alternatives, such as deployment of green infrastructure instead of ‘grey infrastructure’; lead to the development of new, creative and innovative solutions (including nature-based) and potential win-win situations; — contribute to improving the public image of the projects and the institutions responsible. Examples of strategic planning relevant to Natura 2000 are provided in section 5 of the Annex to this document.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-07