EEA
You are here:
Eionet
CDR
General Help
Natura 2000

Navigation

Account Services

I have

Reference Portal for Natura 2000

The Reference Portal for NATURA 2000 is part of the Standard Data Form (SDF). The portal provides those elements of the SDF which are subject to change over time and subject to changes due to technical developments. These elements are reference documents (e.g. the coding of species), technical support material (e.g. data-model, applications) as well as guidelines to ensure a consistent use of the SDF by all Member States and to outline the technical and administrative procedures on how to submit data to the Commission.

A new version of the SDF was elaborated together with Member States and adopted in 2023. It will replace the SDF of 2011 from February 2025 onwards.

Data provided until January 2025 (that will be used for the update of the Union Lists in 2025) must be provided in the ‘old’ SDF format. From February 2025 onwards only data-submission in the new SDF format will be accepted. The EEA is currently working on implementing tools for the new SDF. More information on how to use this new system will be given in due time and this webpage will be updated accordingly.

1) ISO 3166 country-code (SDF field: 1.2)

Each Natura 2000 site is recognized by a unique code, whereof the first two characters form the country code. The EU rule of the use of the 2-letter ISO 3166 country-code is applied (see iso.org).

English Name ISO code English Name ISO code
Austria AT Italy IT
Belgium BE Latvia LV
Bulgaria BG Lithuania LT
Croatia HR Luxembourg LU
Cyprus CY Malta MT
Czechia CZ The Netherlands NL
Denmark DK Poland PL
Estonia EE Portugal PT
Finland FI Romania RO
France FR Slovakia SK
Germany DE Slovenia SI
Greece GR Spain ES
Hungary HU Sweden SE
Ireland IE

Maintained by: International Organisation for Standardization (ISO)

2) List of SCIs per Biogeographical Region (SDF field: 1.7)

The list of sites per biogeographical region, containing for each site the date of its first appearance on the community list is currently under preparation and will be checked with the Habitats Committee before being uploaded here. For some countries due to the change of site-codes and names between community list publications, bilateral contacts may be needed before finalising a first draft

Maintained by: DG Environment, European Environment Agency (EEA), last updated: 12.04.2011

3) Marine Boundaries (SDF field: 2.3)

For the calculation of the percentage of marine area the Mean High Water Mark should be applied. However some Member States need to apply a different definition due to national legislation.

Maintained by: DG Environment, European Environment Agency (EEA), (based on input by Member States), last updated: 18.05.2011

4) NUTS regions (SDF field: 2.5)

NUTS is the Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics of Europe, which is maintained by EUROSTAT. For the SDF field 2.5 the NUTS level2 is used.

Maintained by: EUROSTAT, last updated: 25.3.2011

5) Biogeographical regions (SDF field: 2.6)

The EU has currently nine terrestrial biogeographical regions (Alpine, Atlantic, Black Sea, Boreal, Continental, Mediterranean, Macaronesia, Pannonian, Steppic). Due to practical reasons, five Marine Regions are also used in the SDF (Marine Atlantic, Marine Mediterranean, Marine Black Sea, Marine Macaronesian, Marine Baltic Sea) See also here for further explanations

Note: The boundaries of the marine regions are based on those used during the Article 17 reporting process. They are subject to change under work being done under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive

Maintained by: DG Environment, European Environment Agency (EEA), last updated: 26.01.2016

6) Codelist of Annex I habitats (SDF field: 3.1)

Maintained by: DG Environment, European Environment Agency (EEA), last updated: 23.05.2013

7) Other codelists (SDF fields 3.2, 3.3)

Maintained by: DG Environment, European Environment Agency (EEA), last updated: 1.1.2011

8) Codelist for bird species (SDF fields 3.2, 3.3)

Revised species code list approved by the Habitats Committee in December 2021.

Maintained by: DG Environment, European Environment Agency (EEA), last updated: 25.01.2022

9) Codelist for species (Annex II,IV,V) (SDF fields: 3.2, 3.3)

Revised species code list approved by the Habitats Committee in December 2021.

Maintained by: DG Environment, European Environment Agency (EEA), last updated: 25.01.2022

10) Population units (SDF fields: 3.2, 3.3)

Please use the units individuals (= i) or pairs (= p) wherever possible, otherwise follow the standardised list of population units and codes, which can be found here.

For additional information on the recommended population units for specific species groups check out the following table.

Maintained by: DG Environment, European Environment Agency (EEA), last updated: 20.01.2011

11) Habitat Classes for "General Site character" (SDF field: 4.1)

In order to describe the general site character broad habitat classes are used.

For additional information on the correspondence between these broad habitat classes and the EUNIS units check out the following table.

Maintained by: DG Environment, European Environment Agency (EEA), last updated: 12.04.2011

12) Threats, Pressures, Activities (SDF field: 4.3)

The reference list on threats, pressures and activities is in accordance with the codelist that was used for the Article 17 reporting period 2007-2012. The codelist has been revised for the Article 17 reporting period 2013-2018. However this revised list is currently not yet used for Natura 2000. The further adaptation of the list for Natura 2000 is under discussion.

Maintained by: DG Environment, European Environment Agency (EEA), last updated: 04.04.2019

13) Nature conservation designation types (SDF field: 5.1)

This links to codes for all of Europe. For further information on CDDA Designations click on this link.

The list of national designations has been updated based on the 2011 CDDA data collation. The national designation type codes are maintained by the EIONET National Reference Centres (NRCs).

Maintained by: European Environment Agency (EEA), last updated: 07.07.2011

14) Inspire ID (SDF field: 7)

For further information on INSPIRE metadata click here.

The Member States Contact Point can be found in the individual INSPIRE reports.

last updated: 03.01.2019

Documentation

Reference lists

Annexes I and II of the Habitats Directive (EEC/92/43) list habitats and species for which Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) must be designated as part of the Natura 2000 network. As the Annexes cover all the EU, 'Reference Lists' have been developed which list the habitats and species in a given Biogeographical region and indicating for which habitats and species the Member States in the region have an obligation to designate SAC.

The Natura 2000 reference list are available here.

Habitats Interpretation Manual

  • Interpretation Manual of European Union habitats

    • Guidelines for submitting Natura 2000 data

    For submitting Natura2000 data please read the reporting guidelines. Please note: any area de-designation or a border correction that would result in apparent loss of area has to be justified using the justification forms below. Furthermore, any removal of habitats or species from the subjects of protection of a Natura 2000 site has to be justified using the justification form below.

    Introduction of the automated QC
    In order to be able to deliver your Natura 2000 envelope, you must now run the automated QC and review the QC report. For this purpose the tabular database must be uploaded in XML format to the envelope. We recommend to use the conversion tool instead of the SDF manager for the conversion from MS Access to XML. For further information see the first two links below.

    Data quality

    The EEA and the Commission regularly run data quality checks for High Quality Data for Nature Policy.

    A quality check exercise related to some of the major errors detected in the Natura 2000 sites' SDF fields. Member States will find reports on their datasets here

    [Archive] The 2019 results of checking the coherence of Natura 2000 and conservation status and trends data can be found here

     

    The Natura2000 reference portal is maintained by: DG Environment, European Environment Agency (EEA), last updated: 21.09.2023

    Helpdesk

    If you have questions, please read the FAQ, if you don't find an answer there, please contact the helpdesk
    (E-mail: natura2000.helpdesk@eionet.europa.eu)