Brussels, 09/12/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has decided to include more than 7000 natural sites in the Atlantic and continental regions of the European Union in its Natura 2000 network. European Commissioner for the environment, Stravros Dimas stated in a press statement that with Natura 2000, the EU was trying to put its objective of putting a brake on the decline of natural diversity by 2010. The new Commissioner noted that after a slow start to Natura at the end of the 1990s, we were able to increase the speed over the last five years with the adoption of lists for Atlantic and continental regions and NATURA 2000 was becoming the largest coherent network of protected zones in the world and the most effective instrument of the EU for protecting its fauna and flora.
The lists adopted cover: - in the continental list, including the totality of territory in Luxembourg and large parts of Germany, France, Italy, Belgium and Sweden; - in the Atlantic list, protected sites in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Portugal, the west of France, in certain parts of Germany, Belgium (essentially in Flanders), Netherlands and Denmark.
The protection of 197 animal species, 89 vegetable species and 205 habitats covered by the lists considered by scientific experts to be of great importance in the maintaining of bio-diversity in Europe. In this list: the wolf, otter, salmon, as well as coastal lagoons, pastures, lawns, peat bogs, different kinds of forests and hydrographic networks.
The press release points out that Natura 2000 was set up in the context of the "habitats" directive of 1992, which set up a list of protected zones: Member States have to ensure that these zones don not deteriorate and that any economic activity there is compatible with the protection of these habitats and the species living there. To complete this network, it will still be necessary to adopt two other lists of sites (polar and Mediterranean regions) and establish a Natura 2000 network in the new Member States. (For more information: http: //europa.eu.int/comm/environment/nature/home.htm).