Most habitat’s and species’ assessments in German Natura 2000 sites reflect unfavourable conservation states
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Elsevier
Abstract
biodiversity. In the European Union, conservation areas are mainly placed under protection through the Habitats
Directive. These so-called Natura 2000 sites currently cover 18.6 % of Europe’s land area. Obligatory status
reports enable a broad-scale analysis of conservation states to investigate if biodiversity is in the favourable
conservation status demanded by the directive and which factors may be inhibiting. With focus on Germany, we
evaluated the conservation states of habitat types and species groups as assessed in standard data forms and
related it to drivers commonly reported for the sites, e.g., land-use practices, protected area size and time since
designation. Our results are based on assessments from 23 % (1049) of Germany’s Natura 2000 sites protected
under the Habitats Directive and show that only 6 % of habitats’ and 4 % of species’ assessments report a
favourable conservation status. A review of the reported drivers showed that most negative influences on Natura
2000 sites were attributed to agricultural and forestry activities, as well as natural system modifications, while
for both land-use types also practices with positive impact were listed. For habitats, conservation status was
better in Natura 2000 sites that were established earlier than later. For both habitats and species, more
favourable conservation states were overall related to larger area sizes and the absence of direct land use
(agriculture, forestry). Our results highlight that a high proportion of protected areas alone does not suffice to
infer successes for biodiversity conservation when land-use activities continue to affect target species or their
habitats. Increased conversation efforts for Natura 2000 areas will be required to meet the goals of the recently
implemented EU Nature Restoration Law.
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