On how much biodiversity is covered in Europe by national protected areas and by the Natura 2000 network: insights from terrestrial vertebrates

Abstract

The European Union has made extensive biodiversity conservation efforts with the Habitats and Birds Directives and with the establishment of the Natura 2000 network of protected areas, one of the largest networks of conservation areas worldwide. We performed a gap analysis of the entire Natura 2000 system plus national protected areas and all terrestrial vertebrates (freshwater fish excluded). We also evaluated the level of connectivity of both systems, providing therefore a first estimate of the functionality of the Natura 2000 system as an effective network of protected areas. Together national protected areas and the Natura 2000 network covered more than one-third of the European Union. National protected areas did not offer protection to 13 total gap species (i.e., species not covered by any protected area) or to almost 300 partial gap species (i.e., species whose representation target is not met). Together the Natura 2000 network and national protected areas left 1 total gap species and 121 partial gap species unprotected. The terrestrial vertebrates listed in the Habitats and Birds Directives were relatively well covered (especially birds), and overall connectivity was improved considerably by Natura 2000 sites that act as stepping stones between national protected areas. Overall, we found that the Natura 2000 network represents at continental level an important network of protected areas that acts as a good complement to existing national protected areas. However, a number of problems remain that are mainly linked to the criteria used to list the species in the Habitats and Birds Directives. The European Commission initiated in 2014 a process aimed at assessing the importance of the Birds and Habitats Directives for biodiversity conservation. Our results contribute to this assessment and suggest the system is largely effective for terrestrial vertebrates but would benefit from further updating of the species lists and field management.

Anthropogenic impacts in protected areas: assessing the efficiency of conservation efforts using Mediterranean ant communities

“…Revealing the patterns that impact the efficiency of PAs networks for biodiversity conservation, our results can inform management decisions and influence the prioritization of conservation efforts. This is especially important given that the future PAs networks will likely face fragmentation problems due to the increase in the proportion of smaller PAs (Maiorano et al, 2015; Meyer, Beard & Cronan, 2015) and urban expansion around PAs (Bonet-García et al, 2015; Martinuzzi et al, 2015; Wood et al, 2015). …”

Conservation on the blink: Deficient technical reports threaten conservation in the Natura 2000 network

“…While the scientific community has carefully studied the effectiveness of the Natura 2000 network in terms of whether the SACs and SPAs contain various taxonomic groups and their habitats (e.g. Abellán and Sánchez-Fernández, 2015;Lisón et al, 2013Lisón et al, , 2015bMaiorano et al, 2015;Sánchez-Fernández et al, 2008), very little attention has been paid to whether the SDFs supporting these protected areas accurately represent the biodiversity known to be within them. This issue is very important because the SDFs underpin management and conservation plans, and are central to the practical implementation of sustainable development (Popescu et al, 2014): conservation planning should be established in accordance with actual biodiversity patterns (Pressey et al, 2003;Jeanmougin et al, 2016).…”

“…A number of studies have evaluated the effectiveness of the N2000 network in representing particular taxonomic groups, including plants (Chiarucci et al, 2008;Kallimanis et al, 2014), invertebrates (Abellán et al, 2007Sánchez-Fernández et al, 2008) and various vertebrate groups (Abellán and Sánchez-Fernández, 2015;Albuquerque et al, 2013;Lisón et al, 2015b;Maiorano et al, 2015). Some have examined species of conservation concern in different taxonomic groups, for example species included in Annex II of the Habitats Directive (Gruber et al, 2012;Lisón et al, 2013) or threatened species (Trochet and Schmeller, 2013).…”

“…Nevertheless, rather few studies have specifically examined the relationship between bat distributions and the N2000 network (Lisón et al, , 2015bMaiorano et al, 2015;Zehetmair et al, 2015).…”

How much Biodiversity is in Natura 2000? : the “Umbrella Effect” of the European Natura 2000 protected area network : technical report

“…The most comprehensive assessment so far is the one of Maiorano et al (2015), who performed a gap analysis of the entire Natura 2000 system as well as national protected areas for all terrestrial vertebrates. Their results suggested that, at a continental level, the Natura 2000 network acts as a good complement to existing national protected areas.…”