Europeanization through biodiversity conservation: Croatia's bid for EU accession and the Natura 2000 designation process

This paper explores the impacts of Europeanization on the environments of EU accession and candidate countries. By bridging research in political geography on Europeanization (Moisio et al., 2013; Clark and Jones, 2011) with theories of the production of nature (Smith, 1984; Katz, 2005), this work illustrates that the Europeanization process has distinct spatial impacts. Using a case study on nature protection in Croatia, this study investigates changes to law, governance, and conservation mapping in order to show the pathways by which the Europeanization process produces uniquely European natures within candidate countries.