Title; Preface and Table of Contents

Topic report 2/97

Juan Manuel de Benito

European Topic Centre on Nature Conservation

January 1997

This report was prepared under the supervision of Ulla Pinborg, Project Manager,
European Environment Agency

ANNUAL SUMMARY REPORT 1996

Download the report as PDF File (Approx. 196 Kb)

The European Topic Centre on Nature Conservation (ETC/NC) was appointed in December 1994 by the European Environment Agency’s Management Board to carry out specific tasks identified in the Agency’s Work Programme.

The report for 1996 summarises the main results and points to future work needed. In 1996 the ETC/NC became increasingly involved in the Agency’s reporting tasks and in collaboration with other ETCc, but the main tasks were still continuations of work started in 1995.

The ETC/NC performed the following main tasks in 1996:

Technical support to the EU Commission in handling incoming data from Member States on sites for the NATURA 2000 Network, including assistance to a regional seminar for Macaronesia.
Updating of information on datasources on nature.
Major work on definition of the content and the first data collections for a European Information System on Nature - EUNIS - which aims to serve both the Commissions’ NATURA 2000 information needs and the Agency’s wider reporting and integration needs.
Development of a Pan-European descriptive frame and revised Habitat classification.
Development of first list of synonyms for environmentally important species.
Continuation of development of map on ecological regions in Europe.
Assistance in definition of indicators for the Agency’s reporting needs.
Assistance to the Agency monograph on excess nutrients in the environment.
Assistance to the Agency in representation and preparation for meetings.

Table of contents
1 Background
2 Work Programme 2.1. Project Mn1 - General Approach to Nature Conservation 2.2. Project Mn2 - State and Trends of Biodiversity in Europe 2.3. Project Mn3 - Support to Natura 2000
3 Progress During the Year 3.1. Project Mn1- General Approach To Nature Conservation 3.1.1. EEA Strategic Priorities in the Field of Nature Conservation 3.1.2. Development of the EEA Information Strategy for Nature 3.1.3. Contribution to the EEA Catalogue of Data Sources 3.2. Project Mn2 - State And Trends of Biodiversity in Europe 3.2.1. Digitised Map of European Ecological Regions (DMEER) 3.2.2. Methodology for an Assessment of Europes Biodiversity 3.2.3. European Information System on Nature 3.2.4. Reporting Activities 3.3. Project Mn3 - Support to Natura 2000 3.3.1. Improvement of the Natura 2000 Software 3.3.2. Handling the Natura 2000 Database (table 3.5 - product n° 4) 3.3.3. Assessment of Natura 2000 Proposals (table 3.5 - product n° 18) 3.4. Ad Hoc Technical Support to the Agency 3.5. Products / Outputs Produced by Etc/Nc in 1996 3.6. Main Meetings Attended and Missions by Etc/Nc Core Team 3.7. Visitors to the Etc/Nc Central Office
4 Proposed ETC/NC Work Programe Items for 1997 4.1. Development of Eunis 4.2. Support to NATURA 2000 4.3. Foreseen 1997 Budget Distribution