Abstract
This presentation illustrates a method to evaluate the effectiveness of transboundary biodiversity protection (TBP) in three European case studies representing diverse examples of multi-stakeholder cross-border cooperation in the field of biodiversity protection: the Julian Alps (Italy/Slovenia), the Baltic to Barents (Finland/Sweden/Norway), and the Scheldt Estuary (Belgium/Netherlands). Effectiveness is understood as the extent to which TBP arrangements meet ideal governance characteristics, assessed using a set of institutional/legal and operational components drawn from existing literature. These components provide both new conceptual structure for academic debates on effectiveness evaluation and offer new empirical tools for evaluating effectiveness in practice. Applying a shared scoring system developed in a dedicated codebook, the case studies confirm the relevance of the proposed components. The cross-case comparison highlights challenges, identifies elements to strengthen governance, and informs adjustments needed to refine the empirical tool for evaluating TBP effectiveness.