European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity
The current European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity (ETC/BD) is a partnership of twelve organisations led by the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (MNHN) under a contract with the European Environment Agency (EEA) which will be from January 2019 untill the end of 2021.
Dominique Richard who has been ETC/BD manager since 2009 and part of the core team since 1995 will retire in March 2019. The MNHN is currently recruiting her successor.
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Content of the Newsletter
Nature Directives
Natura 2000
The updated list of Natura 2000 sites, compiled by ETC/BD, was approved by the Habitats Committee on 29 November 2018.
Information on sites can be found using the Natura 2000 Network Viewer >>.
Biogeographical seminars
Three biogeographical seminars focused on Natura 2000 site management were organised this autumn, with active ETC/BD contribution, including the preparation of background documents.
Further information is available from the Natura 2000 Communication Platform >>
Habitat Action Plans
Action 7 of the EU’s ‘Action Plan for nature, people and the economy’ includes the preparation of two Habitat Action Plans and the European Commission has signed a contract with a consortium (Institute for European Environmental Policy, N2K Group and ETC/BD partner Ecologic) for technical support.
Emerald and Bern Convention
Training workshops
As partners of the ETC/BD consortium, partly with funding from the ENI SEIS II East project, MNHN, ILE-SAS and Space4Environment supported the preparation and organisation of two events held at the Council of Europe’s Paris office…
Standing Committee of the Bern Convention
During the 27-30 November meeting of the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention, 88 additional Emerald sites were formally adopted (52 from Moldavia and 36 from Georgia) and 9 Candidate sites were proposed by Moldavia.
Further information about the Bern Convention and Emerald can be found on the network’s website, particularly on the Emerald Reference portals for site designation and for reporting.
SEBI indicators
The SEBI001 indicator related to the Abundance and distribution of selected species has been updated mid-September based on new information from the European Bird Census Council.
Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES)
In support to EEA, DG ENV and JRC, ETC/BD is contributing to the preparation of the MAES Ecosystem assessment, following a scoping paper ‘Shaping an EU wide ecosystem assessment’ presented during the last MAES WG meeting in September.
EUNIS habitats classification
An EIONET based consultation was held in August and September on a proposed revision of the EUNIS habitats classification.
Invasive Alien Species – IAS
The 1 st meeting of the Invasive Alien Species Expert Group (IASEG) was held on 14th November in Brussels.
The list of IAS of Union concern and other relevant material is available at: http://cdr.eionet.europa.eu/help/ias_regulation
News from our partners
MNHN
Dominique Richard will retire in March 2019 after being director of the ETC/BD since 2009.
Her contributions to nature conservation have been recognised by the award of l’Ordre national du Mérite in 2006 and the Prix Binding in 2015 (see ETC/BD newsletter for December 2015).
Although Dominique retires from the ETC/BD she will continue to sit on the French ‘Comité national de la biodiversité’ (National Biodiversity Committee).
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Balint Czúcz, who has been our ‘Ecosystem assessment officer’ since 2016, will leave the ETC/BD core team at the end of 2018 to take up a post at the Joint Research Centre in Italy.
Publications
The following selected publications are from the EEA, ETC/BD and its partner organisations.
Marine Protected Areas
The EEA has published a briefing on marine protected areas – EEA Briefing No 13/2018 .
Updated crosswalks between European marine habitat typologies –
A contribution to the MAES marine assessment
This report updates the 2014 report on crosswalks between marine habitat/ecosystem typologies to take into account revisions to the EUNIS habitats. classification and the list of predominant habitat types listed by the MSFD.
See: https://bd.eionet.europa.eu/Reports/ETCBDTechnicalWorkingpapers/Crosswalks_EU_marine_hab_typologies
Managing the Natura 2000 network:
between Europeanization and societal engagement
This thesis by Irene Bouwma at Wageningen University reviews how different Member States have arranged the management of these sites and how people who own, use or live near these sites – or the organisations representing those people – have influenced the management of the sites.
http://library.wur.nl/WebQuery/wda/2247049
What can Natura 2000 teach us?
Doug Evans (MNHN) contributed to a paper about to be published in Bioscience examining how experience in implementing the Natura 2000 network in Europe could help elsewhere.
Campagnaro T., Sitzia T., Bridgewater P., Evans D., Ellis E.C. Half Earth or Whole Earth: What Can Natura 2000 Teach Us? BioScience, Published: 09 January 2019 biy 153.
Ecosystem services
Balint Czúcz (MNHN) has contributed to several recent papers on ecosystem services including
Czúcz B, Arany I, Potschin-Young M, Bereczki K, Kertész M, Kiss M, Aszalós R, Haines-Young R, 2018: Where concepts meet the real world: A systematic review of ecosystem service indicators and their classification using CICES. Ecosystem Services 29: 145-157.
Potschin-Young M., Burkhard B., Czúcz B., & Santos-Martín F., 2018. Glossary of ecosystem services mapping and assessment terminology. One Ecosystem, 3, e27110.
Van Oudenhoven A. P. E., Schröter M., Drakou E. G., Geijzendorffer I. R., Jacobs S., van Bodegom P. M., Czúcz B., Albert C., 2018. Key criteria for developing ecosystem service indicators to inform decision making. Ecological Indicators, 95, 417–426.
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.
The European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity is a consortium of 12 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.