ETC/BD Newsletter, December 2016

ETC_BD Newsletter

The European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity

Full story of the Newsletter here>>

 

Content of the Newsletter

Nature Directives

The ‘Fitness check’

Оn the 7 th December, the European Commission announced “that the European Birds and Habitats Directives remain relevant and fit for purpose. They will not be ‘opened’”.

Natura 2000

The second regional Natura 2000 seminars were be held for the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Macaronesian marine regions on the  27-29  September  in  Malta.

Reporting under the Nature Directives

Work continues in preparation for the next reports under Article 12 of the Birds Directive and  Article 17 of  the  Habitats  Directive. The Article 17 format will be formally approved at the spring meeting of Habitats Committee. The Article 12 format does not require formal approval.

The ‘New’ biogeographical process

The Natura 2000 Review Seminars, «Boreal» in Vilnius (Lithuania) and «Atlantic» in Ennistymon (Ireland), seminars focused on site management and are intended to monitor and evaluate the results of the actions agreed at the earlier Kick-off Seminars.

Emerald and Bern Convention

The European Environment Agency and the Council of Europe have agreed on a revision and an update of the Memorandum of Cooperation signed in 2001, with the objective to better frame and enhance the collaboration  in the implementation of the Emerald network >>

The Emerald network in Belarus >>

The Emerald network in Russia>>

The Emerald network in Ukraine>>

EEA and EIONET

The 3 rd  annual meeting of the National Focal Points (NFPs), held on 13-14 th 0ctober, was largely dedicated  to  the preparation for  the EEA Management Board.

SEBI* 2020

The SEBI indicators have been updated such as SEBI003 and 005 “Species and Habitats of European interest”, SEBI 026 “Public awareness” and SEBI 001 “Abundance & Distribution of selected species”.

Information about SEBI indicators here>>

Ecosystem assessments and their services

The Working Group on Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES) met twice in March and September in 2016. Information on progress made by Member-States is available on the BISE website>>

BISE & the CHM

The European Environment Agency and the European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity have been working over the last years in developing the Target Crosslinking Tool (TCT) for the 2020 biodiversity targets.

EUNIS

The European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity has revised the sections («A» – marine, «G» – forests, «F» – heaths, scrub and tundra) of the EUNIS habitats classification and it is expected these will become available next year.

News from our partners

MNHN

In September, Bálint Czúcz (HU) joined the ETC BD core team as Ecosystem Assessment Officer. He has an MSc in Meteorology and Horticulture, and a PhD on integrating natural ecosystems into climatic vulnerability assessments.

JNCC                 JNCC

  JNCC has just published the third review of the UK’s network of Special Protection Areas.

See the JNCC website >> 

Publications

The following publications are from the ETC/BD, its partners or from the EEA.

     Зонтичный эффект_  The ‘Umbrella effect’ of Natura 2000 

This report, funded by DG Environment, and produced by a group led by ETC/BD partner Alterra  (Wageningen Environmental Research), assesses the contribution of Natura 2000 to the conservation of species that are not in the annexes of the Nature Directives. A summary and the full report can be downloaded from the Commission’s website>>

The  science, policy and practice of nature-based solutions:

An  interdisciplinary perspective

This paper published in Science of The Total Environment is a review of the implications for science, policy and practice of the recently introduced  concept  of  Nature-Based  Solutions  (NBS). The co-authors of this paper are partners from ETC/BD, Alterra and ECNC. The paper can  be found on the journal’s website.

Red lists   European Red List of Habitats

A project funded by DG Environment and jointly led by ETC/BD partner Alterra and IUCN has produced the first Red List of habitats in Europe. The reports published and are available from DG Environment’s website now. Results will also be incorporated into the EUNIS website and will inform future revisions of the EUNIS habitats classification.

ETC/BD Technical Papers and Working papers

The ETC/BD and its predecessors have produced many reports over the past 20 years. A selection of these reports is now being made available on our website  in  the ETC/BD Technical papers and Working papers section.

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The European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity is a consortium of 13 partners who share the responsibility for the work programme defined by the EEA, in collaboration with a Core Team based in Paris at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (National  Museum  of Natural  History), the coordinator of the consortium.