3: EU Species and Habitats directive

To counteract the loss of biodiversity, the EU Member states have adopted several directives, including the Species and Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC).

The Directive lists species and habitat types that are of interest to conserve in order to safeguard biodiversity in the EU Member States.

For each species and habitat type listed in the Directive, four parameters have been assessed and a weighting of these has been made. Distribution range and future prospects are assessed for both species and habitats.

For the species, population size and the species' habitat are also included, while for the habitat types, area of occurrence and quality are included. The combined assessments result in favorable, unsatisfactory or poor conservation status. Favorable conservation status describes the condition that must be achieved for a species or habitat type to remain in the long term.