This volume focuses on the issue of legitimacy in the context of European nature conservation policy. It provides insights in the way in which democratic legitimacy is being 'produced' at different levels of governance. Building forth upon recent developments in democracy theory that have identified multiple forms of legitimacy, the volume observes a EU-wide shift from output legitimacy to input and throughput legitimacy. Top down policy making is increasingly meeting

Integrates knowledge on a major piece of European policy (nature conservation policy) in a reflexive and comprehensive manner

European Nature Conservation Policy Making.- Protected Species.- Wintering Geese in the Netherlands.- Vindicating Arrogant Ecologists.- Legitimacy of Species Management.- Animal Governance: The Cormorant Case.- Protected Areas.- Legitimacy Problems in Spanish Nature Policy.- How to Deal with Legitimacy in Nature Conservation Policy?.- Resistance to Top-Down Conservation Policy and the Search for New Participatory Models.- Visions and Scales of Nature and Society in Nature Management.- Creation of a Bottom-Up Nature Conservation Policy in Poland.- Nature Conservation in Poland and the Netherlands.- Conservation in Context: A View from below.- Towards Governance and Procedural Legitimacy?.- Countries.- Endangered Legitimacy.- Nature Policy in Flanders.- Between European Injunction and Local Consultation.- The Local Implementation of Nature Policy.- Legitimacy of Biodiversity Policies in a Multi-level Setting.- Are Conflicts of Nature Distributive Conflicts?.- Conclusions.- European Union Environmental Policy and Natura 2000.