Final Report
Written by The N2K Group, October 2022
According to the Birds Directive, Member States must classify the most suitable territories in number and size as Special Protection Areas (SPAs) for the conservation of species listed in Annex I of the Birds Directive.
Annex I species must also be the subject of special conservation measures concerning their habitat to ensure their survival and reproduction in their area of distribution.
Member States must take similar measures for regularly occurring migratory species not listed in Annex I, bearing in mind their need for protection as regards their breeding, moulting and wintering areas and staging posts along their migration routes.
In total, 5407 sites have been classified as SPAs across the EU, covering altogether 527,567 km of land and a further 304,516 km at sea (Status Dec 2021). SPAs form an integral part of the EU-wide Natura 2000 network.
Now that the SPA network is considered largely complete, Member States’ focus is on ensuring the effective protection and management of the sites within the network. This study aimed to assess the implementation of the measures established in Special Protection Areas and their effectiveness.
It included five main tasks, which involved the following: 1. Selection of a representative sale of SPAs to carry out the assessment 2. Analysis of the classification of the SPAs. 3. Assessment of the conservation objectives set and the conservation measures established in the SPAs. 4. Assessment of the implementation of the conservation objectives 5. Assessment of the effectiveness of the measures implemented in terms of improving or at least not deterioration the status of the bird species populations presents in the SPAs.
The assessment was carried out by the N2K Group using its network of experienced independent experts for each of the 10 Member States selected. Tasks 1-3 were carried out by the experts themselves using all available information they could find on the selected SPAs (including for instance, the Standard Data Forms, the legal acts, site management plans, official government websites, etc).
However, for tasks 4-5, it quickly became clear that the level of information available on the effective implementation of conservation measures in SPAs is generally very scant and incomplete.
It was therefore decided to consult the site managers and relevant stakeholders in order to gather standardised information from them on these issues. This was done via a questionnaire and followed up with telephone calls where appropriate to help the managers complete the respective sections of the questionnaire in as time efficient way as possible for them. In total, 180 responses were received for 96 SPAs.
The questionnaire is provided in annex 2. The present report provides a summary of the main findings of the study (based on more detailed individual reports prepared for each task) and draws some overall conclusions at EU level as to the management effectiveness of the sample 100 SPAs examined.
A summary of key findings for each of the ten Member States investigated (Croatia, Finland, France, Italy, Ireland, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Spain) is also presented in a second part of the report.
