Nation of Natura 2000 Sites and the Status of Nature and Effort the Danish Contribution
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Scientific analysis on the desig- nation of Natura 2000 sites and the status of nature and effort The Danish contribution Notat fra DCE - Nationalt Center for Miljø og Energi Dato: Jesper Fredshavn1, Bettina Nygaard2, Jesper Bak2, Jesper Bladt2 og Gregor Levin3 1DCE, Nationalt Center for Miljø og Energi, AU 2Institut for Bioscience, AU 3Institut for Miljøvidenskab, AU Rekvirent: Miljøstyrelsen Antal sider: xxx Faglig kommentering: xxxx Kvalitetssikring, centret: xxxxx Tel.: +45 8715 0000 E-mail: [email protected] http://dce.au.dk 2 Indhold 1. The designation of Danish Natura 2000 sites 4 2. The state of nature and effort 7 1. The designation of Danish Natura 2000 sites a) Number of SAC’s (land and sea) and the variation in sizes and number of habitat types in the sites Denmark has designated 261 Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) consisting of 237 sites designat- ed solely as Habitat sites plus 24 sites designated as both SAC and Special Protection Areas (SPA). The variation in size and number of habitat types of the 261 SAC’s are shown in Appendix 1. The variation in size varies between 1.6 ha up to 22,627 ha in land area and the number of habitat types in the sites varies between 1 and 39. b) The total habitat area distributed in biogeographical regions There are two terrestrial biographical regions in Denmark, the Atlantic and the Continental region. The total of 3219 km2 land area in the SAC’s are distributed with 36 percent in the Atlantic region and 64 percent in the Continental biogeographical region. There is also two marine biogeographi- cal regions, the Marine Atlantic and the Marine Baltic region. c) The percentage of land area covered by Natura 2000 sites 261 Natura 2000 sites are designated as SAC, with a total land area of 3219 km2 and 113 sites are designated as Special Protection Areas (SPA) under the Bird Protection Directive with a total land area of 2642 km2. 24 of these sites are designated as both SAC and SPA giving a total of 350 Natura 2000 sites. With an overlap of 2211 km2, the total land area is 3640 km2 equivalent to 8,5 percent of the Danish land area covered by Natura 2000 sites. d) The percentage of the land area covered by SAC’s The 261 SAC’s cover a total of 3219 km2 equivalent to 7.5 percent of the Danish land area (43051 km2). e) The percentage of the land area covered by Special protection areas (SPA) The 113 SPA’s cover a total of 2642 km2 equivalent to 6.1 percent of the Danish land area (43051 km2). f) The percentage of Danish land area covered by natural, non-cultivated areas The latest land cover update in Denmark (Levin et al 2016) shows that open nature areas (Paragraph 3 area) in Denmark are 4,494 km2 including lakes, and 3.790 km2 without lakes. That is equivalent to 10.4 percent and 8.8 percent resp. of the Danish land area. The forest area, comprising both natural areas and forested areas, is 14.1 percent. Table 1. Percentages of land cover classes in Denmark. Source: Danish Statistics, based on DCE-report TR95 (Levin et al 2017) Land cover class Percentage Agricultural area 61.1 % Forest 12.7 % Lakes 2.2 % Built up area 6.9 % 4 Infrastructure 5.8 % Nature 8.6 % Not mapped 1.7 % g) Annex I habitats and Annex II species present on the designated sites Appendix 1 gives an overview of the designated SAC’s with the number of Annex I habitat types and the number of Annex II species, for which the sites have been designated. In all, sites have been designated for 60 Annex I habitat types and 38 Annex II species. For each Annex I habitat type App. 2 shows the total land area and the number of designated sites and for each Annex II species Appendix 3 shows the total area and the number of designated sites (Source: Standard Data Form, DK 2016). h) Short description of the designation process and subsequent updates (update in designated sites and in species and habitats present) The designation process has taken several steps in the period 1983 till today. In 1983 a preliminary designation of SPA’s was carried out, and in 1994 the final designation of the SPA’s was adapted. In 2002, substantial marine SPA’s were added. In 1992, Denmark signed the Habitats Directive with a deadline in 1995 to propose Sites of Com- munity Importance (pSCI’s). Based on the already designated SPA’s and the available information from the former 14 Danish Counties, green NGO’s, University experts etc., pSCI’s were delimited on topographical paper maps in scale 1:25.000. After a formal letter of notice from the EU commis- sion a revised proposal were finished in 1998 and further revised during the following years, fol- lowing the EU Commission evaluation of the proposals, supported by input from experts, NGO’s etc. A final revised Danish proposal was adopted by the EU commission in 2004. The designation has later been supplemented by e.g. a number of marine sites in 2010. The formal designation as SAC’s was done in 2011, following the government adoption of the Natura 2000 management plans. The features for designation of the sites (habitat types and species (including birds) have been up- dated during the period up until today, based on new information, including monitoring data, expert knowledge etc. i) The involvement of NGOs and the European Commission's reaction to the ini- tial appointment NGO’s have been involved the designation process from the beginning. They have contributed with relevant knowledge to the proposed sites and all NGO’s with input in designation process have been invited and consulted by the EU commission in their final adoption of the designated sites. j) Total area with intensive agricultural production in each Natura 2000 site and in percentage of all Natura 2000 sites Based on a GIS analysis of the Danish Digital Field Maps the area of intensive agricultural produc- tion, both in hectares and in percentages of the site area are shown for each designated area in Ap- pendix 3. A total of 227 Natura 2000 sites include land area, and the total area with intensive agri- cultural production is 466 km2 equivalent to 14.4 percent of the land area of the Natura 2000 sites. k) The percentage of area in a 100 meter buffer outside the Natura 2000 sites with intensive agricultural production In a 100 m buffer outside the Natura 2000 sites the total land area is 788.4 km2. 35.5 percent of this area (279.5 km2) is with intensive agricultural production. l) Number and total area of husbandry farms in the Natura 2000 sites and in a buffer of 1000 and 2000 meters outside the N2000 sites In a buffer of 1000 m outside the Natura 2000 sites the total land area is 7031 km2 and in a 2000 m buffer the land area is 13.932 km2. The number of husbandry farms with a household of more than 15 animal units and the stable situated in the 1000 m buffer is 2215 and in the 2000 m buffer, the number is 4450 farms. Only 202 husbandry farms have their stable inside the Natura 2000 sites. The number of farms with intensive agricultural farm land within the Natura 2000 sites and in the 1000 m and 2000 m buffer is 2691, 6195 and 9120 respectively. The total area of the intensive agri- cultural land use managed by husbandry farms with more than 15 animal units is 215 km2 (6.6 percent) within the Natura 2000 sites, 1670 km2 (24 percent) in the 1000 m buffer and 3502 km2 (25 percent) in the 2000 m buffer. 6 2. The state of nature and effort a) To what extend is the assessment of the state of the Natura 2000 sites based on data from the Danish monitoring programme The assessment of conservation status of species and habitats in the Article 17 reporting is based on mapping and monitoring data from the National Monitoring and Assessment Programme for the Aquatic and Terrestrial Environments (NOVANA). In the latest reporting (2013) the assessments of range and area was based on a national upscaling of the site-specific mapping of habitat sites in the Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) in 2010- 2011 for all 44 terrestrial habitats (Nygaard & Ejrnæs 2017). For 18 of the 34 open habitats (Table 2) the assessment of structure and function was based on a “complete survey or a statistically robust estimate” from NOVANA monitoring data from the first programme period (2004-2010) (Nygaard etc. 2014). The assessment for the remaining 16 open habitats and the 10 forest types was based on “partial data with some extrapolation and/or modelling” from the habitat mapping in 2010-2011. In the 2019 reporting all assessments of structure and function will be based on a “complete survey or a statistically robust estimate” from NOVANA monitoring data. Table 2. Mapping and monitoring of the 44 Danish terrestrial habitat types in the first monitoring period (2004-10) and the second monitoring period (2011-2016) of the NOVANA programme. In the first period, 18 selected open and 10 forest habitat types were monitored. In the second period, all 34 open and 10 forest habitat types were monitored. * are prioritised habitat types. Mapping Monitoring 2011- 2016- 2004- 2011- 2016- 2004-10 Kode Danish name English name 15 21 10 15 21 Strandvold med X x x x 1210 enårige planter Annual vegetation of drift lines Strandvold med X x x x 1220 flerårige planter Perennial vegetation of stony banks Vegetated sea cliffs of the Atlantic X x x x 1230 Kystklint eller – klippe and Baltic coasts Enårig strandengs- Salicornia and other annuals colo- X x x x 1310 vegetation nising mud and sand Spartina swards (Spartinion mari- x x x x 1320 Vadegræssamfund timae) Atlantic salt meadows (Glauco- X x x x x x 1330 Strandeng Puccinellietalia maritimae) 1340* Indlandssalteng Inland salt meadows X x x x x x 2110 Forklit Embryonic shifting dunes x x x x Shifting dunes along the shoreline with Ammophila arenaria (white x x x x 2120 Hvid klit dunes) Fixed coastal dunes with herba- x x x x x x 2130* Grå/grøn klit ceous vegetation (grey dunes) Decalcified fixed dunes with Em- x x x x x x 2140* Klithede petrum nigrum 2160 Havtornklit Dunes with Hippophae rhamnoides x x x x Dunes with Salix repens ssp.