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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.

• Standard Data Form (Implementing decision - 2011/484 - EN - EUR-Lex)

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.

• Implementing decision - 2023/2806 - EN - EUR-Lex

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.

• Overview definition marine boundary

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.

• NUTS regions

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

• Map and boundaries of the Biogeographical Regions

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)

• List Annex I habitats

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

7) Other codelists (SDF fields 3.2, 3.3)

• SPECIES GROUPS:
  A =Amphibians, B = Birds, F = Fish, Fu = Fungi, I = Invertebrates,L = Lichens, M = Mammals, P =Plants, R = Reptiles
• TYPE:
  p = permanent; r = reproducing; c = concentration; w = wintering; (for plant and non-migratory species use permanent)
• DATA QUALITY:
  G = Good (e.g. based on surveys); M = Moderate (e.g. based on partial data with some extrapolation); P = Poor (e.g. rough estimation); DD = data deficient (use this category only, if not even a rough estimation of the population size can be made, in this case the fields for population size can remain empty, but the field "Abundance categories" has to be filled in)
• ABUNDANCE CATEGORIES:
  C = common, R = rare, V = very rare, P=present
• MOTIVATION CATEGORIES:
  A = National Red List data, B = Endemics C = International Conventions, D= other reasons

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

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

• Codelist for bird species under Directive 2009/147/EC

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)

• Codelist for species under Directive 92/43/EEC (Annex II,IV,V)

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.

• Habitat Classes

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)

• List of threats and pressures

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)

• List of national designation types

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)

• Example of Inspire identifier

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.

• Reporting guidelines - how to submit your database
• Note on de-designation
• Justification for de-designating Natura 2000 sites
• Justification for correcting the borders of a Natura 2000 site
• Justification for removal of habitats and species from subject of protection in Natura2000 sites

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.

• Introduction of the automated QC
• Conversion tool from MS Access to XML
• GIS data: information on spatial reference transformations
• Natura 2000 software
• Data transfer format XML schema
• Documentation (mapping between the XML schema and the database template)

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)

• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)