AUTHORS: Konar Mutafoglu – Patrick ten Brink – Jean-Pierre Schweitzer – Evelyn Underwood – Graham Tucker – Daniela Russi – Maeve Howe – Anne Maréchal – Concha Olmeda – Mia Pantzar – Susanna Gionfra – Marianne Kettunen

The Natura 2000 network provides multiple opportunities for activities that support the creation of jobs in and around protected areas. This scoping study and executive summary discuss the existing knowledge on the links between Natura 2000 and jobs.

While the network’s aim is to safeguard ecosystems and biodiversity, there are multiple synergies between protected areas and activities that support jobs directly and indirectly. Job opportunities are linked not only to the management and ecological restoration of sites, but also to sustainable forms of production in agriculture, forestry, and the marine environment. Important job generation potential exists in sectors and activities for which Natura 2000 areas provide important ecosystem services linked to tourism, recreation, health, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. At EU-level, several funding sources exist that could help realise more of this job creation potential.

The study also discusses methods to assess job creation potential of protected areas.  For example, one method is based on expenditure analysis or input-output models. The study reviews ten case studies that illustrate both the job potential across sectors and how the methods produce quantitative assessments.