Incentive

Urban sprawl

Control (management)

Linguistics

Engineering

Philosophy

Urban planning

Microeconomics

Government (linguistics)

Land-use planning

Economics

Praxis

Civil engineering

Business

Environmental planning

Spatial planning

Management

Geography

Political science

Environmental resource management

Regional planning

Epistemology

Sustainable development

Sociology

Portuguese

Land use

European Environment

Natura 2000 areas bring a new incentive to assess the performance of land‐use planning in protecting environmental values from the impacts of development pressures. In the last decades, urban growth and consequent environmental impacts on natural areas have been a major concern for the Portuguese land‐use planning system. Sprawl around sensitive areas has been revealed to be a persistent phenomenon in spite of the increasing challenges underlying land‐use plans. This article critically analyses the content of three main documents recently adopted by the Portuguese government – the ‘National Strategy for Sustainable Development’, the ‘National Policy Programme for Spatial Planning’ and the ‘Sector Plan for Natura 2000’ – seeking prospects to innovate future plans at lower levels in order to prevent additional pressures on natural areas. First, the article reviews the recent theoretical debate on planning for the protection of natural areas. Results evidenced by recent EU evaluation reports are used to propose a set of guidelines to evaluate planning guidance at national level. Second, it critically analyses the three planning documents, bearing in mind the main features of the planning system and the proposed guidelines. The article is concluded with a discussion of their potential, exploring whether they bring a new impetus to the role of land‐use planning against an outdated and persistent praxis, or whether, on the contrary, further efforts to strengthen planning guidance remain to be formulated. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Nature conservation and urban development control in the Portuguese planning system: a new impetus against old praxis?