How much biodiversity is found in the nature areas of the European Natura 2000 network?
This was more or less the question that the European Commission asked an Alterra-led team of researchers from Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, in which researchers of the University of Twente's ITC Faculty participated. Their research demonstrated the crucial importance of the network for all groups of species investigated, especially for birds, butterflies and plants.
The European Natura 2000 areas were set up for the protection of threatened European species and habitats covered in the Birds and Habitats Directives. This is the first large-scale study to investigate whether other flora and fauna benefit from the Natura 2000 network. For the purposes of the study, the research team was granted access to large data files containing distribution information on mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, butterflies and plant varieties across the European Union. The researchers of ITC studied how much reptiles and amphibians are protected by the network.
Benefits
An analysis of the data inside and outside the Natura 2000 network showed that all flora and fauna investigated benefit from the network. The rarer species of flora benefit the most. And it was found that both the more common and rarer species of fauna occur more frequently in the Natura 2000 areas than in other areas. Butterflies in particular, and most bird species, were found to benefit from the Natura 2000 network.
In the case of butterflies, this is probably correlated with the presence of habitat most of which has long disappeared in areas with large-scale agriculture located outside the Natura 2000 network.
In regards to birds, the added value of the Natura 2000 network is strongly linked to the type of habitat. For example, the network provides little added value for woodland bird species, which can be explained by the fact that there are a great number of wooded areas outside the Natura 2000 areas.
The same goes for species that thrive in open landscapes that are mostly used for agriculture, which may be linked to the limited area of agricultural land within the Natura 2000 areas.
Relatively high amount
Approximately 35% to 40% of the populations of threatened species investigated were found to occur within the Natura 2000 areas. While this may seem a small number, the fact that only 18% of the surface area of the European Union is designated as Natura 2000 area highlights that this is a relatively high amount.
In conclusion, the Natura 2000 network is of crucial importance for the protection of biodiversity. Not only for the species covered in the Birds and Habitats Directives for which the areas were designated, but also for many other threatened and non-threatened European species of flora and fauna.
