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Environmental information systems
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The indicator shows the share of designated terrestrial protected areas expressed as a share of the total land area. It includes areas protected by other effective area-based conservation measures. The EU and global targets aim for 30% protection.
According to the indicator for ‘Terrestrial protected areas’ (see graph), the EU policy target for 2030 has already been achieved. However, this indicator is based on the data from all Natura 2000 sites and the nationally designated protected areas listed in the Nationally Designated Areas database. These areas include national nature conservation sites, national parks, national nature monuments and landscape protection areas. A significant portion of the listed sites cover terrestrial areas, many of which do not meet the European Commission’s criteria for the 30% protected area target set out in the EU biodiversity strategy.
Since a large portion of terrestrial area in Germany is already under protection, the current focus is not on designating new protected areas. Instead, Germany is concentrating on improving the quality of existing designated areas, particularly in terms of effective site management and monitoring.