The implementation of European Union Directives in the member states often leaves little leeway to the local and regional authorities in charge to transform the legal concepts into everyday practise. The citizens affected by the regulation, however, legitimately claim for participation and the protection of their practices and custom. This is especially true if a directive affects property rights, as this is often the case in nature conservation. Drawing on the example of the European Unions Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), the paper explores the concerns of the affected citizens and the strategies of the local and regional authorities to deal with them. It is based on an empirical study of 10 local cases in Germany carried out in 10 different federal states (Bundesland). The data consists of 63 qualitative interviews with the authorities in charge mainly on district office level and the affected stakeholders (individual farmers, foresters, conservation activists, SMEs). It was comple¬mented by an analysis of related documents like management plans, reports, minutes and decrees. It turned out, that the public authorities respond with five different strategies to the demands of the affected citizens, depending on the prevalent actor constellation. The latter is characterised by the actor types (individuals, organizations), their orientation (normative, rational) and their main resources (material power, informal power, normative power and definition power). With the coopt strategy, for example, the authorities tried to “integrate” reluctant individuals into the implementation process by pretending to grant them participatory rights. It aimed at strong individual actors, who had a strong normative orientation (“right practices”, justice…) and who have material (direct impact on subjects of protection) and informal power (integration in local community, polity relationships). The economic strategy, in contrast, was chosen by authorities with material power that responded to groups of actors with a more pragmatic orientation (benefit oriented) and limited material power.
