Biodiversity: state of habitats and species

The term “habitat” has several meanings. In ecology, it means either the area and resources used by a particular species (the habitat of a species) or an assemblage of animals and plants together with their abiotic environment. The focus of this introduction addresses the latter. The most comprehensive hierarchical approach for describing habitats in European ecosystems is the EUNIS habitat classification. EUNIS stands for the European Nature Information System. The definition of habitats used for the EUNIS habitat classification is: “a place where plants or animals normally live, characterised primarily by its physical features (topography, plant or animal physiognomy, soil characteristics, climate, water quality etc.) and secondarily by the species of plants and animals that live there”.

A protected area is a clearly defined geographical space that is recognised as and dedicated to achieving the long-term conservation of nature — with its associated ecosystem services and cultural values — and is managed, through legal or other effective means, to do so. This is the essence of the definition provided by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).