The State of Nature in the EU Expert Group on the Birds and Habitats Directives (NADEG) 28.4.2015

The Commission composite report … …is right now still a draft, planned to be adopted by the Commission 2nd half of May 2015 …for the first time covers information under both nature directives an therefore is based on Article 17 (Habitats Directive) and 12 (Birds Directive) for the period 2007-2012 …is severely restricted in length and therefore a brief summary of findings but still underpinned by examples demostrating conservation successes

The Commission composite report … …is based on a detailed technical report by EEA (to be published at the same time).

Structure of the report Introduction Background / Why this report Status Assessments – How they are done (methodology) Habitats Directive / Birds Directive / Using Trends Conservation Status and Trends (main results) Data Completeness and Quality All Bird Species / Species (Habitats Directive) / Habitat Types Progress towards Target 1 Pressures and Threats An Ecosystem Perspective (MAES) Terrestrial / Marine The Role of Natura 2000 Habitats Directive / Birds Directive Conclusions

1. Introduction Sets the scene by stressing the major losses of nature that rtook place in the 20th century the fact that many species and habitats were in a critical sate when listed and the need for sufficient time to reverse negative trends AND: the unique joint effort this data collection is based on

2. Status Assessments – 2 methods Conservation Status Class Colour   Conservation Status Trend (period 2007-2012) Favourable Improving Unfavourable - inadequate Stable Unfavourable - bad Deteriorating Unknown Habitats Directive: CS assessments on biogeo. level (national & EU) status trends (6 years) EU Population Status Class Colour   Population Trend Secure Increasing Near threatened, declining or depleted Stable Threatened (i.e. vulnerable, endangered, critically en-dangered, regionally extinct) Fluctuating Declining Unknown or not evaluated Unknown Birds Directive: red list based assessment (EU only) population trends (short-term: 12 years)

3.Conservation Status & Trends (results) Major improvement in the availability, quality and standardisation of information (HD). Number of ‘unknown’ EU-level assessments has been halved (from 18 % to 7 % for habitats and from 31 % to 17 % for non-bird species) (HD). Knowledge of bird populations and trends has also significantly improved over the past decade. BUT: national reports vary strongly and marine features remain the least known

Birds

Species (HD)

Conservation status & trends for species per taxonomic group

Habitats

Progress towards Target 1 of the Biodiversity Strategy Back-casting for species became necessary Overall picture: Small improvements Continued declines Unless there is a significant improvement of trends, the target will not be achieved

4. Pressures & Threats Frequency (%) of high ranked level 1 pressures and threats (together) — Terrestrial

4. Pressures & Threats Frequency (%) of high ranked level 1 pressures and threats (together) — Marine

5. Conservation status (CS) of and trends for habitats per ecosystem type (MAES) (Number of assessments in brackets) Grasslands and Wetlands on top of unfa.-bad and deteriorating status

6. The Role of Natura 2000 (1) Trends in the conservation status of Annex I habitats assessed by MS as unfavourable (for habitats with more than 75 %, 35-75 % and less than 35 % of their area covered by Natura 2000)

6. The Role of Natura 2000 (2) Long-term (since 1980) breeding population trend (%) by Annex (Annex I versus non-Annex I species

7. Conclusions (1) Significant improvement in knowledge Some species and habitats show signs of recovery where necessary measures have been implemented on an adequate scale. Indications that the Natura 2000 network is working However, overall status of species and habitats has not changed significantly & there are continued deteriorations

7. Conclusions (2) Agriculture & man made hydrological changes are top pressures in the terrestrial, over-exploitation and pollution in the marine ecosystem Insufficient progress in introducing conservation objectives and measures for the Natura 2000 sites (only 50% have management plans) The report will feed into REFIT of nature directives

Thank you for your attention!!