Natura 2000: points of information Habitats Committee Meeting of 13/05/11 Agenda item 9 a) Natura 2000: points of information

Overview on presentation User Manual for the delivery of national Natura 2000 databases to the Commission Habitats Directive community list 2011 Sufficiency of the Natura 2000 network Current Extent of the Natura 2000 network

A. User Manual for the delivery of national Natura 2000 databases to the Commission Purpose: provide clear rules / guidance facilitate data-management improve data-integrity (reduce discrepancies between community lists and Natura 2000 database) Data-integrity/consistency has gained importance as Natura 2000 database is published (viewer) and downloadable. Remember: database is source of community list production Now: 2nd version (Version 1.1, April 2011) Comments received by DE Revised version 1.2 to be produced by mid-June 2011, “alive document”. Published on the Biodiversity Data Centre

B. EU Habitats Directive community list 2011 Next Community list (Nov. 2011) based on SCI site data submitted by the Member states until Nov. 2010 March 2011: Change reports with questions were submitted to 17 Member States: AT, BE, CY, CZ, DE, ES, FR, GR, HU, IE, IT, LT, LU, NL, PL, SE, UK 23 May 2011: evaluation of the replies received Summer 2011: Interservice consultation + (if relevant) request for corrected data sets 26 September 2011: vote in Habitats Committee November 2011: expected date of publication of “Union lists” 2011

C. Update on the sufficiency of the Natura 2000 network (Habitats Directive sites only) Assessment categories

Terrestrial part of Natura 2000 (SCIs only)

Marine part of Natura 2000 (SCIs only)

D. Current Extent of the Natura 2000 network (data as of January 2011) Total number of Natura 2000 sites EU27: 26.078 sites Total area covered: 949.995 km2 Terrestrial: 751.369 km² Marine: 198.627 17,5 % of terrestrial surface of EU covered by Natura 2000 sites (equals DE+FR+DK)

Natura 2000 Main Ecosystems Natura 2000 & Corine Land Cover 2006

Issues with obtaining information on SAC designation The 6 year period has expired for a large amount of SCIs (this can be derived from Commission Decision dates) Commission seeks an overview whether MS have actually designated their SACs. Problem: The Commission can only check the situation based on the information given in the Natura 2000 Standard Data Form (SDF) The date of SAC designation in the SDF seems not to be well updated by many MS. Site codes, names and boundaries have changed for many sites (>1000), which makes the tracking of 6-year deadlines difficult

Useful links Natura 2000 Public Viewer: http://natura2000.eea.europa.eu/ DG-ENV: Natura 2000 other data and resources: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/natura2000/access_data/index_en.htm CIRCA-Natura 2000 http://circa.europa.eu/Public/irc/env/natura_2000/library Bidodiversity Data Centre: http://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/biodiversity/dc Thank you for your attention!