1. Biodiversity and climate change in relation to the Natura 2000 network
Alison Campbell
UNEP-WCMC
12th June 2009
United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre

2. Background
The Natura 2000 network is at the heart of biodiversity and conservation policy in the European Union
Climate change impacts are likely to seriously challenge the objective of the Natura 2000 network: to halt the decline of biodiversity within the EU by the year 2010
Knowledge of these impacts will be important for developing climate change adaptation policy in the EU
Three main tasks:
1. Literature review of CC impacts on EU species
2. Vulnerability assessment of species of “Community Interest” under changing climate
3. Application of these results to the Natura 2000 network (UNEP-WCMC)

3. Task 3: Objectives
Demonstrate which Natura 2000 sites are projected to be faced with the largest temperature changes
Identify which regions and countries have a large number of species identifed as vulnerable to climate change in their Natura 2000 sites
Produce policy relevant outputs 3

4. Brief methodology
Vulnerability scores for 212 species of Community Interest (assessed in Task 2)
Linked to spatial data for over 24,000 Natura 2000 sites
2 parts:
Natura 2000 sites categorised by coarse scale projected temperature changes across regions (number of sites and area)
A2 and B1 scenarios (IPCC)
HadCM3 for the three time slices , and
Regions and countries in which Natura 2000 sites contain highly vulnerable species of Community interest identified
Link vulnerability data to spatial Natura 2000 site data
Separate by taxon (birds, amphibans, reptiles, butterfly, plants), biogeographic region and country
Identify species of particular concern 4

5. Projected temperature changes across Natura 2000 sites, and coarse temperature grids containing number of sites (Scenario A2 between 2011 & 2065)
3,150 sites 2-3 °C
7 sites 3-4°C
Increases of > 2°C projected for 12% Natura 2000 sites
only 5% projected to see increases < 1°C
Also included area. The report shows changes across the scenarios and time scales- I have just picked out one example with a relatively short term and more extreme scenario. This part was for context only? 5

6. Species of Community Interest: Birds
Over half of assessed bird species (149 species) in top three categories of vulnerability (very high and above)
Highest levels of vulnerability in the Natura 2000 sites of the Mediterranean region (51% in top 3 categories)
Lowest levels of vulnerability in the Boreal region (33%)
These are examples of the kind of data that you can pull out from these analyses. Also have these results by country, Italy have a lot of species...
Above: output of vulnerability assessment (B1 scenario)
Right: linked to biogeographic region

7. Vulnerability of assessed amphibian, reptile, butterfly and plant species by country under the A2 scenario by 2050
Results also presented by biogeographic region and country for each taxon individually under the following scenarios: 7

8. Species rated as highly vulnerable to climate change that only occur in a small number of Natura 2000 sites can also be identified 8

9. Summary Interim report
Shows that temperature changes will be felt across the majority of Natura 2000 sites
Suggests that a significant number of species of Community Interest are vulnerable to climate change
Shows the numbers of species that are vulnerable to climate change across Natura 2000 sites on a regional basis and across taxa
Identifies particularly vulnerable species
Implications for adaptation policy
Could be used for coarser scale analyses (sub-regional scale and individual site) 9

10. A world where biodiversity counts 10