21 October 2014 Protected area approaches in the EU By: Evelyn Underwood Robert Ashcroft Marianne Kettunen Andrew McConville Graham Tucker This work was funded by the statutory nature conservation bodies in the UK, as part of a contractual arrangement with IEEP to provide intelligence on EU environment policy and other policies which impact on the environment. It reflects the independent views of IEEP and not necessarily the views of the funding bodies. For further information contact Emma Watkins at [email protected]. Disclaimer: The arguments expressed in this report are solely those of the authors, and do not reflect the opinion of any other party. The report should be cited as follows: Underwood, E., Ashcroft, R., Kettunen, M., McConville, A.J. and Tucker, G.M. (2014) Protected area approaches in the EU. Institute for European Environmental Policy, London/Brussels. Corresponding author: Graham Tucker [email protected] Acknowledgements: We are especially grateful to the following experts for supplying information and comments on protected areas in their country: Croatia: Irina Zupan, State Institute for Nature Protection; Ivan Budinski, Association BIOM. Czech Republic: Pavlina Kuncova, Natura 2000 Unit, Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic; Alena Kubánková, Head of Natura 2000 Unit, Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic; Michael Hošek, independent expert; Stanislava Bartošová, CSOP (Czech Union for Nature Conservation). Estonia: Andres Kalamees and Veljo Volke, Estonian Ornithological Society. Finland: Mervi Heinonen - Natural Heritage Services / Metsahallitus, Aulukki Alanen - Finnish Ministry for Environment; Tero Toivanen, BirdLife Finland; Tapani Veistola, Finnish Association for Nature Conservation. France: Pierre Commenville, Adjoint au sous-directeur, Ministère de l'Écologie, du Développement durable et de l'Énergie; Thierry Lefebvre, head of protected areas programme, IUCN France. Germany: Volker Scherfose and Götz Ellwanger, Bundesamt für Naturschutz; Elke Baranek, EUROPARC Deutschland. The Netherlands: Annemiek Adams, Natura 2000 Policy Officer, Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands. Spain: Dr Octavio Infante, SEO – BirdLife Spain; Marta Múgica, EUROPARC España. We also thank David Baldock and Andrew Farmer of IEEP, Stewart Pritchard, Clive Mitchell and Greg Mudge of Scottish Natural Heritage, Paul Corbett of the Department of the Environment Northern Ireland, Adam Cole- King of Natural Resources Wales and Stephen Grady of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee for their helpful comments on the draft report. 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Table of Contents Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. 3 Executive Summary .......................................................................................................... 4 1 Introduction and background .................................................................................... 6 1.1 Aims and scope of this review of protected areas in the EU ............................................. 6 1.2 Methods ............................................................................................................................. 8 1.3 Structure of this report ...................................................................................................... 9 1.4 The role of protected areas in biodiversity conservation.................................................. 9 1.5 Protected areas in Europe ............................................................................................... 16 2 Protected areas in the UK ........................................................................................ 24 2.1 The role of protected areas in biodiversity conservation in the UK ................................ 24 2.2 Protected area designations and coverage in the UK ..................................................... 26 2.3 Objective setting for protected areas in the UK .............................................................. 30 2.4 Protection levels and approaches in the UK .................................................................... 31 2.5 The monitoring of protected areas in the UK .................................................................. 32 3 Observations on protected area approaches in selected European Member States .. 34 3.1 The role of protected areas in biodiversity conservation................................................ 34 3.2 Protected area designations and their specific roles ...................................................... 38 3.3 Protected area objective setting...................................................................................... 43 3.4 Protection levels and approaches.................................................................................... 45 3.5 The monitoring of protected areas .................................................................................. 46 4 References .............................................................................................................. 49 ANNEXES ........................................................................................................................ 56 5 Protected areas in Croatia ....................................................................................... 58 6 Protected areas in the Czech Republic ..................................................................... 68 7 Protected areas in Estonia ....................................................................................... 77 8 Protected areas in Finland ....................................................................................... 87 9 Protected areas in France ........................................................................................ 98 10 Protected areas in Germany .................................................................................. 110 11 Protected areas in The Netherlands ....................................................................... 122 12 Protected areas in Spain ........................................................................................ 130 References ................................................................................................................... 139 Executive Summary This report was commissioned to gather information on the approaches and rationale of designating and managing terrestrial protected areas across the EU. The study aimed to understand how conservation objectives and legislative requirements shape protected area systems in a range of countries in order to provide new insight into the role of protected areas in addressing biodiversity loss. It focused on protected area types that receive some form of national or regional statutory protection primarily for biodiversity purposes, thus excluding geological designations, and designations for landscape and cultural values. The report outlines the UK approach to protected areas and assesses a sample of eight other EU Member States with a variety of habitats and species across various biogeographical regions; biodiversity threats; historical and current socio-economic and governance characteristics; and nature conservation history, specifically in: Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain. This study has shown that the reviewed Member States generally recognise the important role of protected areas in achieving biodiversity conservation targets. Reflecting the long history of protected areas in Europe, countries use a wide variety of protected area designations and management regimes, and in federally organised countries, each region may also have its own system of protected areas. Nevertheless some widely used approaches (which are not followed in the UK) include the designation of National Parks that protect large-scale ecological processes (IUCN category II) and the use of strict biodiversity conservation protection areas (category Ia) (although generally over relatively small areas). Several countries are also showing increasing interest in designating wilderness areas (category Ib). The overall coverage of terrestrial protected areas that primarily focus on biodiversity conservation aims (i.e. IUCN categories I – IV) varies considerably amongst the countries studied, and cannot be reliably quantified in some due to overlaps in types, i.e. some areas have multiple designations. Moreover, all types of protected area play a role in supporting biodiversity conservation to some extent. The role of protected areas is also dependent on the level of protection (i.e. its strictness), which varies according to type; such that there is a trade-off between coverage and protection level. Furthermore, species and habitats have different needs with respect to the adequacy of protection coverage, and protection strictness. Management requirements also tend to depend on the habitats and