A model for the assessment of habitat conservation status in the EU

Abstract

Under Article 17 of the Habitats Directive, Member States of the EU must submit information on how the Habitats Directive is being implemented every six years. For the reporting period 2001 to 2006, 25 Member States provided, for the first time, detailed assessments on the conservation status of each of the habitat types and species listed in the directive and found on their territory or different bio-geographical regions therein. This report presents a model based approach to assess how conservation status may change in the future. This approach is based on the available assessments and simulates the probability that a habitat assessment results in a favourable conservation status as a function of drivers of change.