The impacts of land use on biological diversity and ecosystem services and potential solutions in areas marked by strong anthropogenic influence : a case study on the Interurban Green Zone in Luxembourg

Abstract

Anthropogenic land use is one of the biggest drivers of global change. Population growth and economic development have driven urbanisation and agricultural expansion across the globe, with widespread negative consequences on the natural environment. Anthropogenic land consumption continues to degrade and destroy natural habitats and to fragment remaining wild areas. Increasingly intense land management practices affect ecosystems, degrade soils and change landscapes. The widespread loss of biological diversity puts vital ecosystem services at risk that humans’ livelihoods depend on. Global environmental trends, especially climate change, are expected to exacerbate these negative trends.Luxembourg, the smallest continental country in the EU, is leading among European countries with the highest degree of degraded and artificialised lands and has seen its biodiversity decline for decades. In 2021, the government put into effect a spatial planning instrument that grants protection against land take for the ’interurban green zone’ (ZVI), a 15000 m2 zone in the South-West of the country that is threatened by urbanisation.This thesis provides an overview of the most important land use sectors in the ZVI (urbanisation, agriculture and biodiversity conservation) and highlights in detail the drivers and trends of biodiversity and land use in this region. This is complemented by a review of the relevant legislation and policy instruments pertaining to land use, biodiversity and spatial planning. Finally, drawing from two expert interviews in the areas of biodiversity conservation and spatial planning, long-term visions of sustainable land use in the ZVI are described, including the restoration of biodiversity, the safeguard of food security, societal resilience and the co-benefits stemming from sustainable land use in the ZVI. Then, possible instruments in the different sectors of urbanisation, agriculture and biodiversity conservation to achieve these visions are discussed, including an assessment of the legal policy framework concerning its fitness to guide sustainable land use and the achievability of political and legal targets.