An overview of biodiversity data reporting by Member States under Article 17 of the Habitats Directive for the reporting period 2013-2018
The European Union's Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) mandates Member States (MS) to report on the conservation status of species and habitats listed under Annexes I, II, IV, and V every six years. The latest Article 17 reports cover the period from 2013 to 2018, with MS submitting their reports and the EU compiling all information to provide an EU wide assessment for the conservation status and trends of species and habitats along with their main drivers. Despite some improvements between the previous and latest reporting period, most protected habitats and species still have a poor, bad and unknown status, highlighting the immediate actions that need to be taken by MS and the EU to enhance the effective monitoring of biodiversity Europe. We made a technical analysis on the biodiversity data generated by the reporting of Article 17 in 2018 to assess the way in which these data are reported and highlight the similarities and discrepancies among countries. Our analysis revealed several patterns and inconsistencies in the content and process of assessing and reporting biodiversity data, including differences in the units and methods used to calculate different estimates of species’ and habitats’ conservation status. A more comprehensive analysis would be needed to identify specific data gaps and mismatches in the data provided, including both spatial and tabular information, to work towards a more standardized and comprehensive EU-wide monitoring and reporting process. This study complements the analyses performed by the European Topic Center for Biodiversity and may help MS and the European Commission identify first steps to improve the harmonisation of datasets generated by the reporting of Article 17.
LORILLA Roxanne Suzette;
KEFALAS George;
BORMPOUDAKIS Dimitrios;
DRAKOU Evangelia G.;
2025-03-19
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC141168
978-92-68-25554-4 (online),
OP KJ-01-25-174-EN-N (online),
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC141168,
10.2760/1928210 (online),
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