Terrestrial protected areas in Europe

By the end of 2022, protected areas covered 26.1% of European Union land, with 18.6% of EU land designated as Natura 2000 sites and 7.5% under other complementary national designations. The EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 sets out a target of protecting at least 30% of EU land by 2030, while ensuring that all protected areas are managed effectively. The area reported as protected has steadily increased since 2011, by 1.8 percentage points, yet there are no signs of growth in the last years. It is currently uncertain whether the EU will meet the 30% target, unless rate of designation of protected areas more than doubles by 2030.

Protected areas benefit species, ecosystems, and the environment. They provide significant economic and societal benefits, including employment opportunities, contribute to human health and well-being, and have significant cultural value. Historically, protected areas have taken many forms and have been established for different purposes, such as protecting wild game resources, preserving natural beauty and, more recently, safeguarding biodiversity.

The EU's protected areas are highly diverse, varying in size, aim, and management approach. They are large in number – over 100,000 sites in total – but mostly small in size, with an overall protected surface of 1,079 million km2. This reflects the high pressure on land use, arising from agriculture, transport and urban development, and the increasing competition for land for production of renewable energy and biofuels.

Designation of protected areas is an important policy tool to halt biodiversity decline. One target of the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 is to legally protect and effectively manage a minimum of 30% of EU land by 2030. The CBD Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework also includes a similar coverage target. Based on Member States reports, 26.1% of EU land was protected by the end of 2022, with 18.6% of EU land designated as Natura 2000 sites – areas protected under the EU Birds and Habitats Directives – and 7.5% as other complementary national designations.

While the area reported as protected has steadily increased since 2011 (by 1.8 percentage points), it has not done so in recent years and presently, it is rather uncertain whether the EU will meet the 30% target. For this to occur, the rate of designation of protected areas is required to more than double by 2030.

The designation of protected areas is not a guarantee of biodiversity protection, as their management is a decisive factor in achieving conservation aims. However, there is a lack of comprehensive information on how effectively these areas are managed. A well-connected and effectively managed network of protected areas is a pre-condition to prevent species and habitats being lost. This requires building an ecologically coherent network that ensures both spatial and functional connectivity within countries and across borders. Member States will need to establish appropriate conservation objectives and measures as well as consistent monitoring for all the existing and future sites to achieve this.

The environmental diversity of Europe’s countries and biogeographical regions is matched by the diversity in its protected areas. By the end of 2022, nine Member States had designated more than 30% of their land area as protected (Figure 2): Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. Five EU Member States with 15% or less of protected areas will need to significantly intensify their efforts to reach the target .

While Natura 2000 is the backbone of the protected areas network in the EU, it is complemented by additional areas designated at national level. The different patterns among Natura 2000 and other national designations reflect the diversity of historical, geographical, administrative, political and cultural circumstances and the management regime. However it is clear that the designation of Natura 2000 sites has significantly increased protected areas in Europe .

Protected areas coverage in non-EU EEA member countries and cooperating countries varied hugely by the end of 2022. Many countries will need to strongly increase their efforts to reach the target for protected areas adopted as part of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

In addition, Figure 2 shows the contribution of the Emerald network of sites, established under the Bern Convention, to protect species and habitats in those countries.

Supporting information

DefinitionMethodology

The data for the nationally designated protected areas inventory are delivered by the Eionet partnership countries as spatial and tabular information. The inventory began in 1995 under the CORINE programme of the European Commission.

The Natura 2000 network is based on the 1979 Birds Directive and the 1992 Habitats Directive. The European database of Natura 2000 sites consists of a compilation of the data submitted by the Member States of the European Union. This European database is generally updated once a year to take into account any updating of national databases by Member States. However, the release of a new EU-wide database does not necessarily mean that a particular national dataset has recently been updated.

The Emerald network is an ecological network made up of Areas of Special Conservation Interest. The objective of the Emerald Network is the long-term survival of the species and habitats. The Emerald Network consists of the Areas of Special Conservation Interest (ASCI) designated under Recommendation No. 16 (1989) and Resolution No. 3 (1996) of the Standing Committee to the Bern Convention. The Emerald Network aggregated database is updated annually.

Other national designations are nationally designated areas, created in each country under their specific national legislative instruments. These protected areas include a variety of designation types with different protection regimes and regulations. EEA collects information on nationally designated areas from 38 EEA member countries. This information is updated annually and provides an overview of the number of nationally designated areas in each country, their size and designation type.

The same geographical area may be designated several times under different legislation. When producing area statistics on protected areas, nationally designated protected areas and Natura 2000 datasets are overlayed to avoid double counting of overlapping site designations in the datasets. The Reporting guidelines with full details on the methodology are available from: http://cdr.eionet.europa.eu/help/cdda and https://cdr.eionet.europa.eu/help/natura2000/.

Policy/environmental relevance

The indicator is a headline indicator for monitoring progress towards the 8^th Environment Action Programme (8^th EAP) . It contributes mainly to the monitoring of the 8^th EAP biodiversity-related priority objective Article 2.e that shall be met by 2030: ‘protecting, preserving and restoring marine and terrestrial biodiversity and the biodiversity of inland waters inside and outside protected areas by, inter alia, halting and reversing biodiversity loss and improving the state of ecosystems and their functions and the services they provide, and by improving the state of the environment, in particular air, water and soil, as well as by combating desertification and soil degradation’. The European Commission Communication on the 8^th EAP monitoring framework specifies that this indicator should monitor progress towards the target to ‘legally protect at least 30% of the EU’s land area … by 2030’.

The establishment of protected areas is a direct response to concerns over biodiversity loss, so an indicator that measures protected area coverage is a valuable indication of commitment to conserving biodiversity and reducing biodiversity loss at a range of levels.

Comprehensive data on officially designated protected areas are regularly compiled and there is international acceptance of the use of the indicator at the global, regional and national scales.

The EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 contains specific commitments and actions to be delivered by 2030, including establishing a larger EU-wide network of protected areas on land and at sea, building upon existing Natura 2000 areas, with strict protection for areas of very high biodiversity and climate value.

The key commitments for nature protection in the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 are:

"1. Legally protect a minimum of 30% of the EU’s land area and 30% of the EU’s sea area and integrate ecological corridors, as part of a true Trans-European Nature Network.

2. Strictly protect at least a third of the EU’s protected areas, including all remaining EU primary and old-growth forests.

3. Effectively manage all protected areas, defining clear conservation objectives and measures, and monitoring them appropriately."

Terrestrial protected areas are used in the EU biodiversity dashboard to monitor progress towards the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and as an EU indicator to monitor progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal 15: “Life on land”.

At the global level, new targets for protected areas have been adopted as part of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework , including Target 3 to effectively conserve and manage at least 30% of the world’s terrestrial areas.

Accuracy and uncertaintiesData sources and providers

Metadata

DPSIRTopicsTagsTemporal coverageGeographic coverage

TypologyUN SDGsUnit of measureFrequency of dissemination

References and footnotes

EEA, 2012. Protected areas in Europe: an overview, 2012, No 5/2012, Publications Office, Luxembourg.

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Dudley, N., Shadie, P. and Stolton, S., 2013, Guidelines for applying protected area management categories including IUCN WCPA best practice guidance on recognising protected areas and assigning management categories and governance types, IUCN, Gland.

^↵
EU, 2022, Decision (EU) 2022/591 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 April 2022 on a general Union environment action programme to 2030, OJ L 114, 12.4.2022, p. 22-36.

^↵
CBD, 2022, 'COP 15: final text of Kunming-Montreal global biodiversity framework', Convention on Biological Diversity (https://www.cbd.int/article/cop15-final-text-kunming-montreal-gbf-221222) accessed June 28, 2023.

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Terrestrial protected areas in Europe

Figure 1. Coverage of protected areas in the EU-27 land area in 2011-2022

Figure 2. Terrestrial protected area coverage by country and in the EU-27 by end of 2022

Supporting information

Metadata

References and footnotes