ABSTRACT
One of the biggest challenges facing planning evaluation is the integration of ecological variables in socio-economic evaluation. Both quantitative and qualitative studies in this area meet with conceptual, methodological and epistemological problems. Recent attempts to evaluate environmental justice and cities’ ecological footprints provide promising results but this major issue of integrated evaluation approach is in need of further research. This chapter represents one attempt to address this issue. The chapter evaluates the implementation of the UN Convention on
Biodiversity (CBD) in Swedish regional development planning. There are several reasons why implementation of the UN Convention on Biodiversity in the Swedish regional development context is of special interest. First, the convention is an international agreement that focuses on the territorial dimension of sustainable development and promotes functioning life-supporting ecosystems. Second, regional development planning, at least in Sweden has a strategic character setting broad guidelines for municipalities to integrate in local development plans. CBD provides an excellent opportunity for this purpose. Third, regional development planning combines both top-down and bottom-up approaches with national government providing broad goals whereas municipal governments that make up the region provide the necessary institutional prerequisite for implementation. CBD’s emphasis on the preservation of local habitats for the maintenance of species at global as well as local levels is an excellent exercise for this integrative planning process. The fourth reason is that habitats for various species are inter-territorial, i.e. they cross the boundaries of local, regional and national jurisdictions. The evaluation presented in this chapter is a three-stage process involving the interpretations of CBD at the European Union level followed by the Swedish Government, which has developed Environmental Quality Objectives that
are to be integrated in regional development planning. The chapter makes use of the story line in order to study the successive interpretations of CBD. There is a growing interest in the evaluation of environmental policy.
