Creation and periodic update Zone Search Model (ZZM)

Management plans are drawn up for each Special Protection Area (SBZ) and provide a complete overview of the areas per habitat type and regionally important biotopes, the sites (as a concrete target or search zone) where they will be realised, how and by whom they will be managed.

An important part of these management plans are the search zones, which indicate the zones to be protected from pressures in order to realise nature objectives. Three endpoints are foreseen in the process. Management plan 1.1 (June 2015) includes all (planned) realisations that are explicitly mentioned in existing management plans (evidences). In Management Plan 1.2 (end of 2017) the intentions will also be registered as (to be planned) realisations. Management plan 1.3 (end of 2019) will then set targets for the residual fraction, if necessary in mandatory form.

For each of these three deadlines, the Zone Search Model will run and take into account the information available at that time in order to allocate the conservation goals as well as possible (ecologically relevant with socioeconomic optimisation). As a result, the size of the search zones will always decrease (essential demand from civil society) in order to enable socio-economic development and provide legal certainty (red PAS farms).