Opportunities for mutual implementation of nature conservation and climate change policies: A multilevel case study based on local stakeholder perceptions

This paper assesses EU nature conservation and EU climate protection policies within the context of their local implementation in Vienna/Austria in order to gain insights into the decision-making process as well as to show the extent of achievements and experienced difficulties. In this connection, this paper also investigates based on published knowledge and the perceptions of stakeholders the awareness of nature conservation measures as climate-change adaptation and possibly ways of improvement. In order to address these issues, additionally to an in-depth literature review, 16 experts working in Vienna in the field of either nature conservation or climate protection were interviewed. The transcriptions of these interviews were then used in a qualitative content analysis. The findings show that the vast majority of the interviewed stakeholders see EU climate policy and nature conservation policy separately. Furthermore, the implementation of EU climate and nature conservation policy in Vienna is indicated as a “learning by doing” process. There the currently limited cooperation between stakeholders can be improved. Our study also finds that the awareness of different stakeholder groups of the possibility to use nature conservation as a measure against climate change is limited.