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You are here: Home / Data and maps / Indicators / Habitats of European interest / Habitats of European interest (SEBI 005) - Assessment published May 2010

Habitats of European interest (SEBI 005) - Assessment published May 2010

Created : Sep 10, 2009 Published : May 21, 2010 Last modified : Jul 07, 2011 02:47 PM

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Generic metadata

Topics:

Biodiversity Biodiversity (Primary topic)

Tags:
SEBI05 | SEBIassessment09 | biodiversity | habitat | SEBI2009 | conservation | biogeographical region
DPSIR: State
Typology: N/A
Indicator codes
  • SEBI 005
Dynamic
Temporal coverage:
2008-2009
 
Contents
 
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Indicator definition

The indicator shows changes in the conservation status of habitats of European interest.
It is based on data collected under the reporting obligations of Article 17 of the EU Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC).

Units

No units have been specified


Key policy question: What is the conservation status of habitats of Community interest?

Key messages

 Conservation status(1) is quite variable across the regions. A relatively large proportion of habitats (35 %) have a favourable status in the Alpine region but the situation is much worse in the Atlantic region where more than 70 % have an unfavourable status.That means their range and quality are in decline or do not meet the specified quality criteria.
There are still significant gaps in knowledge on marine areas, except for the Baltic.

(1) The reporting format uses three classes of conservation status. 'Good' (green) indicates that the species or habitat is at Favourable Conservation Status as defined in the Directive and the habitat or species can be expected to prosper without any change to existing management or policies. Two classes of 'Unfavourable' are also recognised. 'Unfavourable-Bad' (red) signifies that a habitat or species is in serious danger of becoming extinct (at least locally) and 'Unfavourable-Inadequate' (amber) is used for situations where a change in management or policy is required but the danger of extinction is not so high. The unfavourable category has been split into two classes to allow improvements or deterioration to be reported. (Assessment, monitoring and reporting under Article 17 of the Habitats Directive: Explanatory Notes & Guidelines DRAFT 2 January 2006).

Conservation status by main type of habitats

Conservation status by main type of habitats

Note: How to read the graph: 10 % of coastal habitats have a favourable status and more than 30 % have an unfavourable-bad status

Data source:

Data provided by 25 EU Member States (EU-27 except Bulgaria and Romania that will be included in the next reporting phase in 2013) through their reports under Article 17 of the Habitats Directive. 2008.

Downloads and more info

Habitats of European interest — conservation status by biogeographical region

Habitats of European interest — conservation status by biogeographical region

Note: How to read the map: in the Mediterranean biogeographical region, about 21 % of habitats are in favourable conservation status, but 37 % are in unfavourable (bad plus inadequate) status.

Data source:

DG Environment and ETC/BD, based on data provided by 25 EU Member States (Bulgaria and Romania will be included in the next reporting phase in 2013) through their reports under Article 17 of the Habitats Directive (2008).

Downloads and more info

Key assessment

In several biogeographical regions (Atlantic, boreal, continental and Pannonian), around 70 % of habitats listed in Annex I of the Directive have an unfavourable status. More than 70 % of the bogs, grasslands and dunes are in unfavourable status. Trend information was not available in most cases.

NOTES

The map and graph for this indicator are based on Member State assessments of habitats, which are provided in Annex I of the Directive. The Member States were required to assess each habitat in each biogeographical zone in which it exists in the country. A regional assessment was calculated based on the Member State assessments. For many habitats, recovery to a favourable conservation status will take a considerable time; the next evaluation, due in 2013, will help assess the efficiency of the Directive.

FURTHER INFORMATION

 

Data sources

Justification for indicator selection

MAIN ADVANTAGES OF THE INDICATOR

  • Policy relevance: the indicator is directly indicating the implementation and success of the Habitats Directive.
  • Results are representative for the EU Member States and can be aggregated to the EU-level. The indicator is directly comparable at national and regional (EU) scale.
  • The data will be regularly collected by Member States (Article 17 Reporting Obligation).
  • Hardly any extra costs will be involved. The resources necessary for data collection are significant but have to be spent under the obligations of Article 11 Habitats Directive.

Scientific references:

  • No rationale references available

Policy context and targets

Context description

The indicator covers habitats which are considered to be of European interest (listed in Annex I of the Habitats Directive). This set comprises 'habitats which are in danger of disappearance in their natural range or have a small natural range following their regression or by reason of their intrinsically restricted area or present outstanding examples of typical characteristics of one or more of the biogeographical regions' (Article 1 of the Habitats Directive).

Trends in this indicator should primarily be influenced by the implementation of measures under the Habitats Directive, such as the establishment of the Natura 2000 Network and habitats and species protection measures. Therefore the indicator reflects progress achieved by the Habitats Directive, one of the main legislative pillars of EU nature conservation policy.

Relation of the indicator to the focal area

The indicator reflects the status and trends of habitats, one of the components of biological diversity. It is based on conservation status as defined in Article 1 of the habitats directive and reported by Member States under Article 17.

Targets

No targets have been specified

Related policy documents

No related policy documents have been specified

Methodology

Methodology for indicator calculation

EU Member States have to monitor and report the conservation status (CS) of habitats of European interest. The conservation status is illustrated in three 'traffic light' categories ('favourable' - green, 'unfavourable inadequate' - amber, 'unfavourable bad' - red, plus unknown) characterised by four parameters:

  • trends and status of range,
  • trends and status of the area,
  • structure and function including typical species,
  • future prospects.

The indicator is based on the number of habitats in the three CS categories and on changes between categories in time.

Data manipulation should be kept to a minimum to achieve maximum transparency. Due to its simple structure (traffic-light scale, see DocHab 04-03/03 rev 3 available at http://circa.europa.eu/Public/irc/env/monnat/library?l=/habitats_reporting/reporting_2001-2007/reporting_framework) the data are suitable for immediate communication. Therefore, further aggregation or the development of composite indices seems superfluous.

Methodology and representation will be tested and refined when real data will become available.

Methodology for gap filling

No methodology for gap filling has been specified. Probably this info has been added together with indicator calculation.

Methodology references

No methodology references available.

Uncertainties

Methodology uncertainty

No uncertainty has been specified

Data sets uncertainty

No uncertainty has been specified

Rationale uncertainty

MAIN DISADVANTAGES OF THE INDICATOR

  • Limited trend information: the underlying data are not yet available. Data for the indicator will become available for the EU-25 territory and cover a first period of reporting from 2001-2006. Bulgaria and Romania will be included in the next report in 2013. The data will only be reported in a 6-year cycle.
  • The indicator is based on the Habitats Directive; application at the global/ pan-European level is not possible.
  • There are no EU wide standards for data collection. The robustness of the indicator could therefore be limited.

ANALYSIS OF OPTIONS

It could be further investigated if data collected on the Emerald Network (http://www.coe.int/t/e/cultural_co-operation/environment/nature_and_biological_diversity/
ecological_networks/The_Emerald_Network/) can be used to expand the geographic coverage of the indicator.

More information about this indicator

See this indicator specification for more details.

Contacts and ownership

EEA Contact Info

Katarzyna Biala

Ownership

EEA Management Plan

2010 (note: EEA internal system)

Dates

First draft created: 2009/09/10 15:55:23.439000 GMT+2
Publish date: 2010-05-21T00:00:00+02:00
Last modified: 2011/07/07 14:47:9.914000 GMT+2
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