Uniqueness of protected areas based on priority species as a potential driver of conservation strategies in Europe
Samuel Hoffmann, University of Bayreuth (DE)
The protection of an area is one of the most common tools of nature conservation policy. In the European Union, the Natura 2000 framework is a well-known example of a continental system that does not only refer to a protected area network. It especially rests on species protection policy, namely the Birds and Habitats Directive, which legally preserve Europe's characteristic, rare, endemic and threatened species. We took advantage of published occurrence data of species listed in the Annexes of both directives in order to demonstrate the uniqueness of protected areas concerning their potential contribution to biodiversity conservation at the European scale. However, protected areas vary substantially in size, management and conservation goals. We only considered large, renowned protected areas which concentrate on the biodiversity conservation, and are characterized by comparable, integrative and intensive management. We developed new and adapted existing methods and indices to highlight different aspects of protected area uniqueness with respect to inventory diversity, differentiation diversity, species rarity and the species-area-relationship. We identified the most and least unique protected areas of the selected network within the European Union. We discuss the applied conservation policy framework and give suggestion to improve conservation strategies in future.