4.3 Micro level policies

It would be worth evaluating the changes in land policies, especially paying for usage and revenues that are made possible by land due to the improvement of the GI implementation and ES supply. Namely, regardless of the primary usage of a land, the land may also have additional functions, or such functions may be preserved. For example, hedgerows are preserved or established on agricultural land, corridors are preserved on infrastructure objects, and significant greening is preserved on building lots which are interlinked between individual plots. In such cases, when the other land use still preserves other functions that are related to GI and the preservation of ES stock, it would be worth thinking about changing the way payments are made for land usage. All these functions are also for the public benefit.

A possible solution is shown in the direction of upgrading the scales for pay-to-use or the income of land that would anticipate reductions of payments in the event of preserving the ES stock, and include the GI and increased payments in the event of a reduction in ES stock or interruptions in GI. The realisation, or at least a more detailed review of the efficiency of the aforementioned, falls mainly on the shoulders of sectors that are responsible for the land, agricultural, forestry and tax policy.

4�3 Micro level policies

In practice, the concrete planning of GI and its implementation is performed on the local level. The implementation of GI on the local level contributes to sustainable growth, which includes the protection of the environment and the socioeconomic development of each area, by considering the existing network of protected areas, cultural heritage, natural sites, ecological agriculture, ecotourism destinations, etc. By implementing the necessary changes in the management process, and by gradually implementing the principles of GI in OPN and OPPN, we can significantly contribute to the improvement of biodiversity and the increase of ES stock in the environment.

Municipalities would need to define the conditions for planning green areas and other green elements (green roofs, vertical gardens) at building lots in more detail, especially in the sense of multi-functional connections. By determining the arrangement area of a settlement assumed by the new legislation, a municipality may define the function of agricultural and forest land in the regulatory zone of a settlement.

For this purpose, the municipalities could specify the spatial implementation conditions at certain units for arranging agricultural land areas, namely with focus given to extensive agricultural usage and the preservation of green hedgerows in the function of the green system of a settlement or landscape. Municipalities do not generally opt for this, because there is no administrative control over the changes of the agricultural activity, which is why such provision remains declarative.

Because the strict division of functions in nature cannot exist (in the sense of defining a certain land only as agricultural or a water protection zone), a multi-purpose usage must be defined on the remaining agricultural land, in the sense of the strict reservation compensation (e.g. exclusively for agricultural use in permanent protected zones) regarding the establishment of the GI. Farmers may be offered subsidies as compensation for intensive farming in water protection (and other vulnerable) areas, or such areas may also be bought for a reasonable price.

Even in areas that are intended for the expansion of a settlement, municipalities could primarily establish GI by initially establishing green elements in practice (even experimentally), which are then supplemented, and not replaced, by subsequent constructions. It is this preliminary regime, which even enables municipalities to acquire land, that could enable the arrangement of GI.