Progress in the proposal and designation of sites

Page Last modified 16 May 2017

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Topics: Biodiversity — Ecosystems

This page was archived on 16 May 2017 with reason: A new version has been published

Protected areas have taken many forms historically, from medieval hunting reserves, to more modern national parks and nature reserves. These different forms reflected the different needs that protected areas were created to serve, whether it was protecting the resource of wild game, preserving natural beauty or, more recently, safeguarding biodiversity. The last century has seen a great increase in both the number of protected areas and the total surface area that has received protected designation.

Biodiversity — Ecosystems

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At the global scale, more than 80 % of the world's protected areas have been established since 1962, when the first World Parks Congress was held. In Europe, both the number of nationally designated protected areas as well as their total size has been growing exponentially ever since.

Cumulative number and surface area of nationally protected areas in the 39 EEA countries

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Progress in the designation of sites for the two components of Natura 2000: the Special Protection Areas (SPAs) under the Birds Directive, and the Sites of Community Importance (SCIs) under the Habitats Directive.

Overall, the Natura 2000 network is largely complete as far as the terrestrial environment is concerned. However, its marine component is still very incomplete in most countries, and most of the designations are in inshore waters leaving the offshore waters with poor protection levels.

Year	SCIs cumulative surface (ha)	SPAs cumulative surface (ha)
1996	1 446 802	8 038 582
1997	14 590 722	11 383 879
1998	23 792 885	15 082 450
1999	33 598 019	15 567 101
2000	33 795 616	16 952 042
2001	38 179 398	17 319 979
2002	44 742 395	17 653 321
2003	45 784 279	24 533 193
2004	45 861 545	28 824 913
2005	55 219 328	41 256 430
2006	56 044 537	44 436 843
2007	64 844 105	50 128 568
2008	66 150 089	53 065 514
2009	68 197 514	56 060 470
2010	71 901 500	59 348 600
2011	73 362 000	62 756 000