Conservation status of habitats under the EU Habitats Directive

Assessment versions

Published (reviewed and quality assured)

• 18 Dec 2020, 12:01 PM
  - Conservation status of habitats under the EU Habitats Directive

Rationale

Justification for indicator selection

MAIN ADVANTAGES OF THE INDICATOR

This indicator covers habitats that are considered to be of European interest, as listed in Annex I of the Habitats Directive, one of the main legislative pillars of EU nature conservation policy. The indicator directly indicates the implementation and success of the Habitats Directive.

Article 17 reporting is also relevant for measuring progress across several targets of the EU biodiversity strategy to 2020. It is crucial for measuring progress towards Target 1 and contributes significantly to measuring progress towards Target 3.

Scientific references

• No rationale references available

Indicator definition

The indicator illustrates the conservation status and trends of 233 habitats of European interest listed in the Habitats Directive at EU and Member State level. Conservation status is shown as good, poor, bad and unknown. It is based on data collected under the reporting obligations of Article 17 of the EU Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC).

Units

Percentage (%) of assessments with good, poor, bad and unknown conservation status.

Policy context and targets

Context description

The new EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 contains specific commitments and actions to be delivered by 2030. One of its main instruments is an EU Nature Restoration Plan, with several aims, including strengthening the EU legal framework for nature restoration and requesting Member States to ensure no deterioration in the conservation trends and status of all protected habitats and species by 2030.

The 233 protected habitats, as well as over 1 000 species, are targeted by designating Sites of Community Importance, which are a part of the Natura 2000 network. For more information about the Natura 2000 network see SEBI 008 indicator: Natura 2000 sites designated under the EU Habitats and Birds Directives.

Targets

EU Biodiversity strategy for 2030:
Key commitments of the EU Nature Restoration Plan by 2030:
1. Legally binding EU nature restoration targets to be proposed in 2021, subject to an impact assessment. By 2030, significant areas of degraded and carbon-rich ecosystems are restored; habitats and species show no deterioration in conservation trends and status; and at least 30 % reach favourable conservation status or at least show a positive trend.
2. The decline in pollinators is reversed.
3. The risk and use of chemical pesticides is reduced by 50 % and the use of more hazardous pesticides is reduced by 50 %.
4. At least 10 % of agricultural area is under high-diversity landscape features.
5. At least 25 % of agricultural land is under organic farming management, and the uptake of agro-ecological practices is significantly increased.
6. Three billion new trees are planted in the EU, in full respect of ecological principles.
7. Significant progress has been made in the remediation of contaminated soil sites.
8. At least 25,000 km of free-flowing rivers are restored.
9. There is a 50 % reduction in the number of Red List species threatened by invasive alien species.
10. The losses of nutrients from fertilisers are reduced by 50 %, resulting in the reduction of the use of fertilisers by at least 20 %.
11. Cities with at least 20,000 inhabitants have an ambitious Urban Greening Plan.
12. No chemical pesticides are used in sensitive areas such as EU urban green areas.
13. The negative impacts on sensitive species and habitats, including on the seabed through fishing and extraction activities, are substantially reduced to achieve good environmental status.
14. The by-catch of species is eliminated or reduced to a level that allows species recovery and conservation.

Related policy documents

• EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy
  in the Communication: Our life insurance, our natural capital: an EU biodiversity strategy to 2020 (COM(2011) 244) the European Commission has adopted a new strategy to halt the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services in the EU by 2020. There are six main targets, and 20 actions to help Europe reach its goal. The six targets cover: - Full implementation of EU nature legislation to protect biodiversity - Better protection for ecosystems, and more use of green infrastructure - More sustainable agriculture and forestry - Better management of fish stocks - Tighter controls on invasive alien species - A bigger EU contribution to averting global biodiversity loss
• EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030
  The European Commission has adopted the new  EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and an associated Action Plan (annex)  - a comprehensive, ambitious, long-term plan for protecting nature and reversing the degradation of ecosystems. It aims to put Europe's biodiversity on a path to recovery by 2030 with benefits for people, the climate and the planet. It aims to build our societies’ resilience to future threats such as climate change impacts, forest fires, food insecurity or disease outbreaks, including by protecting wildlife and fighting illegal wildlife trade. A core part of the  European Green Deal , the Biodiversity Strategy will also support a green recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methodology

Methodology for indicator calculation

Under Article 17 reporting, each Member State provides an assessment of all habitats of European interest (habitats listed in Annex I of the Habitats Directive) at national biogeographic level, and supporting data, such as those on habitat surface area. EU regional assessments of conservation status are made by the EEA and its European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity (ETC/BD), based on data and assessments reported by Member States.

The conservation status of a habitat is derived using four parameters:

• range;
• area covered by the habitat within its range;
• structure and functions, including the status of typical species;
• future prospects.

Full details on the methodology are available from ETC/BD Technical paper 2/2020: State of Nature in the EU — Methodological paper, Methodologies under the Nature Directives reporting 2013-2018 and analysis for the State of Nature 2000.

Methodology for gap filling

No methodology for gap filling has been specified.

Methodology references

• State of Nature in the EU - Methodological paper Methodologies under the Nature Directives reporting 2013-2018 and analysis for the State of Nature 2000 Lina Röschel, Rebecca Noebel, Ulf Stein and Sandra Naumann (Ecologic Institute, DE), Carlos Romão, and Eleni Tryfon (European Environment Agency, DK), Zelmira Gaudillat and Sabine Roscher (Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, FR), Dietmar Moser and Thomas Ellmauer (Umweltbundesamt, AT), Manuel Löhnertz (space4environment, LU), Lubos Halada (Institute of Landscape Ecology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, SK) , Anna Staneva and Claire Rutherford (BirdLife International, UK) . ETC/BD Technical paper 2/2020.

Data specifications

EEA data references

• Conservation status of habitat types and species (Article 17, Habitats Directive 92/43/EEC) provided by Directorate-General for Environment (DG ENV) , European Environment Agency (EEA)

Data sources in latest figures

Uncertainties

Methodology uncertainty

Further streamlining and harmonisation of methodologies used by Member States are needed at EU level to reduce the differences that make aggregation and interpretation of data at the EU level difficult. The quality of the data reported (often based on simple expert judgement) also indicates that Member States need to further develop or complement their inventories and monitoring schemes.

Data sets uncertainty

Quality and availability of information from Member States impacts the quality of the EU assessment of status and trends.

Rationale uncertainty

No rationale uncertainty has been specified