How are Natura 2000 protected areas covering different components of avian diversity in Spain?

Based on species occurrence records of museum collections, published literature, and unpublished records shared by mammalian experts, we compiled a distribution database for 59 terrestrial mammals populating the extensively protected Dobrogea Region of Romania. The spatial patterns of mammal distribution and diversity was evaluated and systematic conservation planning applied to identify priority areas for their conservation. The spatial analyses revealed that intensive sampling was not directly correlated to mammal diversity but rather to accessibility for inventory. The spatial prioritisation analysis indicated a relatively aggregated pattern of areas with a high or low conservation value with virtually no connecting corridors between them. The significant overlap between Natura 2000 sites and national protected areas induced an over-optimistic vision of the effectiveness and representativeness of existing Natura 2000 network for species found in Annexes II and IV of the Habitats Directive. These results represent a key step in identifying core areas for the protection of mammal diversity and dispersal corridors for improved connectivity, and to guide future conservation efforts in increasing the effectiveness of the existing protected areas in the context of environmental changes.

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Tourist Attractiveness of Protected Areas in the Podlaskie Province in the Opinion of its Residents

Economic and Regional Studies / Studia Ekonomiczne i Regionalne ◽

10.2478/ers-2018-0026 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 70-83

Author(s):

Joanna Pietrzak-Zawadka ◽

Jan Zawadka

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Sustainable Tourism ◽

Natura 2000 ◽

Tourist Destination ◽

Tourism Organization ◽

Selection Of

SummarySubject and purpose of work: The article explores the issue of protected areas in the Podlaskie Province with particular reference to Natura 2000 areas. Its purpose is to investigate the familiarity of those areas as well as the perception of their attractiveness among the inhabitants of the Podlaskie Province.Materials and methods: Surveys conducted in the study involved 275 adult inhabitants of the Podlaskie Province. The selection of the research sample was accidental.Results: The meaning of the Natura 2000 concept was widely known among the respondents. These areas were considered to be attractive to tourists and quite often visited by the respondents. The most popular were the Bialowieza, Augustow and Knyszyn Forests. Hiking, cycling and canoeing were held most often in those areasConclusions: Natura 2000 areas in the Podlasie Province constitute a valuable and popular tourist destination. What they need is proper tourism organization so as to give visitors an opportunity to get acquainted with their most important values, as well as ensure sustainable tourism and area protection.

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LIGHT POLLUTION IN SLOVENIA IN 2019 WITH SPECIAL REGARD TO NATURA 2000 AREAS

Geografski pregled ◽

10.35666/23038950.2020.42.69 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 42 ◽

pp. 69-81

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Remote Sensing Data ◽

Natura 2000 ◽

The State ◽

Light Pollution ◽

Sensing Data ◽

Special Regard ◽

Ljubljansko Barje

Light pollution in Slovenia in 2019 with special regard to Natura 2000 areas The article shows the state of light pollution in Slovenia. Remote sensing data from the Suomi satellite were analysed. Light pollution is shown by radiance expressed in nW/(sr cm2 ). In Slovenia, there are large differences in state of light polution. The most polluted areas are located in the area of larger settlements and in areas with higher levels of infrastructure. The spread of light does not stop at the borders of protected areas, so we also analyzed the state of light pollution in Natura 2000 sites in Slovenia. It turns out that the most lightpolluted areas are those that lie around larger settlements or suburbanised regions (Ljubljansko Barje, Šmarna gora, Drava).

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System [n] of Protected Areas Natura 2000

Encyclopedic Dictionary of Landscape and Urban Planning ◽

10.1007/978-3-540-76435-9_14457 ◽

2010 ◽

pp. 1011-1011

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Natura 2000

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Spain and Marine Protected Areas: Recent Developments

The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law ◽

10.1163/15718085-12334051 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 33 (4) ◽

pp. 847-855

Author(s):

Mariano J. Aznar

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Marine Protected Areas ◽

Protected Area ◽

Biological Diversity ◽

Marine Protected Area ◽

Natura 2000 ◽

Convention On Biological Diversity ◽

Recent Developments ◽

Barcelona Convention ◽

Specially Protected Areas

Abstract Spain has just declared a new marine protected area in the Mediterranean. This follows a protective trend taken by Spanish authorities during the last decades and has permitted Spain to honour its international compromises under the Convention on Biological Diversity. It contributes to a framework of protected areas established under conventional regimes such as OSPAR, RAMSAR or EU Natura 2000. The new area protects a ‘cetacean corridor’ and will be inscribed in the list of Specially Protected Areas of Mediterranean Importance under the Barcelona Convention regional framework.

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The geography of high-value biodiversity areas for terrestrial vertebrates in Western Europe and their coverage by protected area networks

Web Ecology ◽

10.5194/we-12-65-2012 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 65-73 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

M. J. T. Assunção-Albuquerque ◽

J. M. Rey Benayas ◽

F. S. Albuquerque ◽

M. Á. Rodríguez

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Protected Area ◽

Western Europe ◽

Natura 2000 ◽

Area Network ◽

Vertebrate Species ◽

Natura 2000 Network ◽

Study Region ◽

Terrestrial Vertebrates ◽

Major Taxon

Abstract. We identified high-value biodiversity areas (HVBAs) of terrestrial vertebrates according to a combined index of biodiversity (CBI) for each major taxon and a standardized biodiversity index (SBI) for all taxa in 2195 cells of 50 × 50 km in Western Europe to evaluate whether these areas are included in the current protected area networks. The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) and NATURA 2000 protected area network were used to assess the protected area cover in HVBAs. WDPA and NATURA 2000 were geographically quite complementary as WDPA is more densely represented in Central and Northern Europe and NATURA 2000 in the Mediterranean basin. A total of 729 cells were identified as HVBAs. From the total of these HVBA areas, NATURA 2000 network was present in more cells (660) than the WDPA network (584 cells). The sum of protected land percentages across all the HVBA cells was 28.8%. The identified HVBA cells according to the SBI included 603 or 78.2% of all vertebrate species in the study region, whereas the identified HVBA cells according to the SBI for individual taxa included 47 (90.4%) species of amphibians, 79 (74.5%) of reptiles, 417 (88.5%) of birds, and 130 (91.5%) of mammals. However, neither network was present in 7 or 3% of the identified HVBA cells. Thus, we recommend expanding protected areas in Europe to fill this gap and improve coverage of vertebrate species to strengthen biodiversity conservation.

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The Contribution of Ecosystem Services in Developing Effective and Sustainable Management Practices in Marine Protected Areas. The Case Study of “Isola dell’Asinara”

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12031108 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 1108 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Maddalena Floris ◽

Vittorio Gazale ◽

Federica Isola ◽

Francesca Leccis ◽

Salvatore Pinna ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Management Practices ◽

Marine Protected Area ◽

Economic Impacts ◽

Coastal Zone Management ◽

Natura 2000 ◽

Experimental Methodology ◽

Zone Management

Ecosystem Services (ESs) are assuming a constantly increasing importance in management practices due to their key role in ensuring a sustainable future to fauna and flora on Earth. In addition, ES degradation and quality loss jeopardize current human activities. For this reason, it is essential to develop methodologies and practices able to efficiently assess environmental and socio-economic impacts in terms of ES deterioration, especially within protected areas. Norms and regulations have to be able to identify habitat and species categories to be preserved, and to determine the cost of their destruction and decline, according to a holistic vision, which includes social and economic impacts, besides the environmental ones. The paper illustrates the case study of the “Isola dell’Asinara” Marine Protected Area (MPA) in Sardinia, where an experimental methodology was developed with the aim to draw new regulations that integrate conservation measures of Natura 2000 sites included in its territory, provisions determined by the integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) protocol and the Standardized Actions for Effective Management of MPAs (ISEA) project. Subsequently, in order to assess the status of ESs and impacts on ESs located within the MPA territory, an ecosystem-based approach was implemented and applied to the actions defined for the new regulation proposal. Results show that regulations are in this way valuably enriched by environmental aspects of the MPA that would otherwise be overlooked.

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The Comparative Analysis of Pressures and Threats to The Natura 2000 Sites for Wild Birds Protection - Case Studies in Wetlands in Romania and Bulgaria

Transylvanian Review of Systematical and Ecological Research ◽

10.2478/trser-2013-0015 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

pp. 183-192

Author(s):

Doina Cioacă

Keyword(s):

Comparative Analysis ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Natura 2000 ◽

Habitats Directive ◽

Infrastructure Development ◽

The European Union ◽

Natural Protected Areas ◽

Birds Directive ◽

Green Corridor ◽

Natura 2000 Site

ABSTRACT The Natura 2000 concept and wetlands protection are relatively new for Romania and Bulgaria, because they are former communist countries and, after the 1990s, had too little value placed on nature conservation in favour of infrastructure development and agriculture. The development of the European ecological network Natura 2000 on these territories has come as an obligation for accession of these countries to The European Union on 01.01.2007. During the period 2006-2009 I made an analysis for the management of protected areas along the Danube Green Corridor, between Romania and Bulgaria, especially for wetlands, similar to the results of the WWF Germany project “Lower Danube - Green Corridor (LDGC): Freshwater protected area management and freshwater restoration in Bulgaria, Romania and trans-boundary conservation along the Lower Danube”. To have a complete view of the situation of the protected areas management between Romania and Bulgaria, along the Lower Danube Green Corridor, and the perspectives for the next years, I carried out some evaluation for more than 20 Natura 2000 sites, which are alike in many ways, such as: the object of protection (Sites of Community Importance, SCI, under the Habitats Directive; Special Protection Areas for birds, SPAs, under the Birds Directive; natural protected areas of national importance for these two countries, or other natural and semi natural areas with the potential to be protected), human activities, pressures and threats, and other aspects. Later, I used these results to make a comparative analysis of the Cernica area (Ilfov County, Romania), to add another argument to include it in the Natura 2000 Network from Romania, as ROSPA0122 Cernica Lake and Forest. This analysis showed that Cernica faces approximately the same pressures and threats as other protected areas and has almost the same efficiency in management planning as the highest assessed Natura 2000 SPAs, respectively Iezer-Călăraşi in Romania and Srebarna of Bulgaria, which is an argument to establish this area as a Natura 2000 site.

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20 years of forest change in Natura 2000 protected areas network

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-11227 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Marinela-Adriana Chețan ◽

Andrei Dornik

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Satellite Data ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Natura 2000 ◽

Temporal Analysis ◽

Mean Value ◽

Google Earth ◽

Forest Change ◽

Forest Protection ◽

Forest Area Change

Natura 2000 network, the world's largest network of protected areas, is considered a success for habitat and biodiversity protection, in the last decades. Our objective is to develop an algorithm for satellite data temporal analysis of protected areas, and to apply subsequently this algorithm for analysis of all Natura 2000 sites in Europe. We have developed an algorithm for satellite data temporal analysis of protected areas using JavaScript in Google Earth Engine, which is a web interface for the massive analysis of geospatial data, providing access to huge amount of data and facilitating development of complex workflows. This work focused on analysis of Global Forest Change dataset&#160;representing forest change, at 30 meters resolution, globally, between 2000 and 2018. Our results show that at least regarding forest protection, the network is not very successful, the 25350 sites losing 35246.8 km2 of forest cover between 2000 and 2018, gaining only 9862.1 km2. All 28 countries recorded a negative forest net change, with a mean value of -906.6 km2, the largest forest area change recording Spain (-5106.4 km2 in 1631 sites), Poland (-4529 km2 in 962 sites), Portugal (-2781.9 km2 in 120 sites), Romania (-1601.4 km2 in 569 sites), Germany (-1365.7 km2 in 5049 sites) and France (-1270.9 km2 in 1520 sites). Among countries with the lowest values in net forest change is Ireland (-17.4 km2 in 447 sites), Estonia (-104.1 km2 in 518 sites), Netherlands (-132.3 km2 in 152 sites), Finland (-268.6 km2 in 1722 sites) and Sweden (-341.6 km2 in 3786 sites).

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