Identifying peatlands
of international biodiversity conservation importance in Europe:
Using red lists of wetland
species
by Thomas Heinicke & Hans Joosten
The occurrence of
rare and threatened species provides important incentives for the
protection of mires and peatlands. Most countries list these species in
Red Data Books.
To make this
information more easily accessible and to provide a framework for
international comparison, we have compiled electronic databases (in MS-Excel
table-format) of all (available) national red data lists for all countries
of Europe and of similar listings in international conventions and
agreements. Where possible, we included information on the distribution
(occurrence per country) of the species.
The data thus
not only inform on the status of a species in one country, but also in a
wider context. In this way, the distributional pattern, the threat situation
in other countries, in Europe as a whole, and on a world-wide scale can be
taken into account when assessing the conservational value of mires and
peatlands.
With
respect to animals (vertebrates), it is much more difficult to select
explicit mire or wetland species. Therefore all (breeding) birds, mammals,
amphibians and reptiles of Europe have been listed. The user has to decide
whether in his country mires/peatlands are important for the conservation of
these animals. For birds the frequency of occurrence (limit > 10 % of the
population) has been presented. This is also planned for the other groups.
The databases
are not yet complete for all countries. If you have information to add,
please contact the IMCG Secretariat at info@imcg.net.
The latest version of each database can be downloaded in MSExcell97 format
here.
With respect to
species (but see additional criteria under
http://www.imcg.net/docum/criteria.htm),
the following guidelines for identifying mires and peatlands of
international biodiversity importance are proposed:
1.
With respect to species, listed on appendices of international conventions
or with a global or European threat status according to the IUCN or other
to the IUCN connected organisations:
All sites are of
international importance and should be protected, which are regularly used
(for reproduction, feeding, migration or wintering) by species, which are
nearly extinct, critically endangered or endangered. These include species
of
·Appendix
I of the Bonn Convention: Endangered Migratory Species
·IUCN-lists
of globally threatened plants and animals
·European
lists for threatened plants and animals (e.g. bird list from EBCC)
·Appendices
I and II from CITES
For
species with another threat status, all sites should be protected, which are
important for the reproduction, feeding, migration or wintering of a
substantial part of the population (>1 % of the geographical population;
cf. Ramsar-Convention1). These include
species of:
·Appendix
II of the Bonn Convention: species with an unfavourable conservation status
and which require international agreements for their conservation and
management
·Appendices
I and II of the Bern Convention: strictly protected flora and fauna species
·Appendix
III of the Bern Convention: protected fauna species
·Appendices
II and IV of the Habitat-directive from the European Union
·Appendix
I of the Bird-directive from the European Union
·Appendix
III from CITES
·IUCN-lists
of globally threatened plants and animals
·European
lists for threatened plants and animals (e.g. bird list from EBCC)
N.B.
for birds, additional criteria have been formulated (see appendix).
2. With respect to
species, listed on national red lists:
All
sites are of international importance and should be protected, which are
regularly used (for reproduction, feeding, migration or wintering) by
species, which are nearly extinct, critically endangered or endangered2.
For
species with another threat status, all sites should be protected, which are
important for the reproduction, feeding, migration or wintering of a
substantial part of the population (>1 % of the geographical population;
see Ramsar-Convention).
3. With respect to
species, that have a main distribution (>10 % of the European
population3) in one or more European
countries:
The
international responsibility of such country/countries for the protection of
such species implies that all areas, which are regularly used by >1 % of
the geographical population (cf. Ramsar-Convention) for reproduction,
feeding, migration or wintering should be protected.
list of references
PLEASE NOTE:
|
The font of the data in the files tells about the status:
|
normal font:
not yet done |
bold font:
distribution done |
red bold:
red list done |
Appendix:
Additional criteria for
birds4
Criteria
for areas of global significance
category A1:
species of global conservation concern
·definition:
The site regularly holds significant numbers of a globally threatened
species, or other species of global conservation concern
category A2:
restricted-range species
·definition:
The site is known or thought to hold a significant component of the
resticted-range species whose breeding distributions define an
Endemic Bird Area (EBA) or Secondary Area (SA)
category A3:
biome-restricted species
·definition:
The site is known or thought to hold a significant assemblage of the species
whose breeding distributions are largely or wholly confined to one biome
category A4:
globally important congregations
·definition:
The site may qualify on any one of the four criteria listed below:
·A4i:
The site is known or thought to hold, on a regular basis, 1 % or more of a
biogeographic population of a congregatory waterbird species
·A4ii:
The site is known or thought to hold, on a regular basis, 1 % or more of the
global population of a congregatory seabird or terrestrial species
·A4iii:
The site is known or thought to hold, on a regular basis, at least 20,000
waterbirds, or at least 10,000 pairs of seabirds, of one or more species
·A4iv:
The site is known or thought to be a’bottleneck site‘ where at
least 20,000 storks, raptors or cranes pass regularly during spring or
autumn migration
Criteria
for areas of European significance
category B1:
regionally important congregations
·definition:
The site may qualify on any one of the four criteria listed below
·B1i:
The site is known or thought to hold 1 % or more of a flyway population or
other distinct population of a waterbird species
·B1ii:
The site is known or thought to hold 1 % or more of a distinct population of
a seabird species
·B1iii:
The site is known or thought to hold 1 % or more of a flyway or other
distinct population of other congregatory species
·B1iv:
The site is a ‘bottleneck site’ where 5,000 or more storks, or
3,000 or more raptors or cranes, pass regularly on spring or autumn
migration
category B2:
Species with an unfavourable conservation status in Europe
·definition:
The site is one of the ‘n’-most important sites in a country for a
species with an unfavourable conservation status in Europe (endangered,
vulnerable, rare, declining, localized or insufficiently known in Europe),
and for which the site-protection approach is thought to be appropriate.
category B3:
species with a favourable conservation status but concentrated in Europe
·definition:
The site is one of the ‘n’-most important sites in a country for a
global range concentrated in Europe, and for which the site-protection
approach is thought to be appropriate
Criteria
for areas of European Union significance
category C1:
species of global conservation concern
·definition:
The site regularly holds significant numbers of a globally threatened
species, or other species of global conservation concern
category C2:
concentrations of species threatened at the European Union level
·definition:
The site is known to regularly hold at least 1 % of the flyway or EU
population of a species considered to be threatened in the EU
category C3:
migratory non-threatened species
·definition:
The site is known to regularly hold at least 1% of a flyway population of a
migratory species, that is not considered to be threatened in the EU
category C4:
large congregations
·definition:
The site is known to regularly hold at least 20,000 migratory waterbirds, or
at least 10,000 pairs of migratory seabird, of one or more species
category C5:
large congregations – ‘bottleneck’ sites
·definition:
The site is a ‘bottleneck’ site where at least 5,000 storks, or at
least 3,000 migratory raptors or cranes, regularly pass on spring or autumn
migration
category C6:
species threatened at the European Union level
·definition:
The site is one of the five most important in the European region in
question for a species or subspecies considered threatened in the European
Union (listed in annex I of the EC Birds Directive)
category C7:
other ornithological criteria
·definition:
A site which has been designated as a Special Protection Area (SPA), or has
been selected as a candidate SPA, based on ornithological criteria (similar
to, but not equal to, C1-C6) in recognized use for identifying SPA’s
1
if no data on population sizes are available, the area and number of
occurrences in distribution atlases can be used as an alternative.
2
The appearance of a species on the Red List of one individual country is
sufficient to give that species (and the area) an international importance
because the natural distributional pattern is an aspect of supra-taxonomic
biodiversity (“ecosystem diversity”) ànd because
populations at the margin of their distributional area generally are
genetically distinctively different (“intra-specific diversity”,
cf. Biodiversity Convention).
3
The 10% criterium is the logarithmic mean of the 100 % value of an endemic
species and the 1%-criterium of the Ramsar-Convention. The value is used to
assess the main distribution in Europe.
4
Heath, M.F. & Evans, M.I. eds. (2000). Important Bird Areas in Europe:
Priority sites for conservation. 2 vols. Cambridge, UK: BirdLife
International (BirdLife Conservation Series Nr. 8)