Description
The Natura 2000 network consists of:
- Sites of Community Interest (SCI), identified by Member States according to the provisions of the Habitats Directive 92/43/EEC, which are subsequently designated as Special Areas of Conservation (SAC),
- Special Protection Areas (SPAs) established under the Birds Directive 2009/147/EC on the conservation of wild birds.
What are the objectives?
The main objective of Natura 2000 is to safeguard biodiversity by maintaining natural resources (natural and semi-natural habitats as well as wild flora and fauna) in a state of 'satisfactory conservation'.
Biodiversity contributes to sustainable development and must be promoted and maintained while taking into account social and cultural economic needs as well as regional and local particularities.
Why a network system?
The knowledge acquired in the field of ecology and conservation biology has shown that, for the protection of habitats and species, it is necessary to go beyond the conservationist approach aimed at individual endangered species and to operate instead from a network perspective, taking into account the complex interconnections between different living beings and their environment.
The Natura 2000 network was therefore not set up as a simple collection of isolated territories, albeit chosen from among the most representative, but as a system of functionally closely related areas that represent, with viable populations and appropriate areas, all the species and habitats typical of Europe, with their geographical variability and diversity.
The establishment of the network is also intended to ensure the continuity of migratory movements and gene flows of the various species and to guarantee the long-term viability of natural habitats.
In the same vein, importance is attached not only to areas of high naturalness but also to those contiguous areas that are indispensable for connecting areas that have become spatially distant but close in ecological function.
What is new compared to other nature conservation regulations?
Natura 2000 is intended to introduce a different approach to land use and resource exploitation, in a logic of sustainable development and vital maintenance of ecosystems. It is recognised that a number of human activities are indispensable for the protection of biodiversity (this is the case with many traditional agricultural practices) and should therefore be considered as an important factor in conservation management.
The innovative elements are:
- network approach: each site of Community interest is a node in a network, a place of interconnection; it is referred to as a 'coherent network' and Member States are invited to identify gateways to ensure connectivity;
- flexible and non-rigid regulation of protection, which leaves it up to local realities to choose appropriate management plans capable of responding both to the need to guarantee biological resources for future generations and to socio-economic and cultural needs;
- recognition of the role of a number of human activities in the production of biodiversity (this is the case of many traditional agroforestry practices). For this reason, the object of conservation is not only natural habitats, but also some semi-natural ones, for which traditional practices are considered an important factor in conservation management.
With regard to the obligations arising from the application of the Habitats Directive, an important novelty is the Impact Assessment (IA) of plans and projects affecting Sites of Community Importance. The impact assessment is a preventive procedure aimed at analysing the significance of the effects of plans/projects (PP) on habitats and species of the Natura 2000 network, based on the precautionary principle.
Click on the map to discover the Natura 2000 areas in Trentino
