The role of Natura 2000 in relation to breeding birds decline on multiple land cover types and policy implications
Introduction
Impoverishment and homogenization of the land mosaic are among the main drivers of biodiversity decline at regional and global scale (McKinney & Lockwood, 1999), and birds are among the most studied animal taxa that respond to climate and land cover change (de Chazal & Rounsevell, 2009; Jetz, Wilcove, & Dobson, 2007). To halt these drivers, several policy tools and initiatives have been envisaged (Boere & Rubec, 2002; Butchart et al., 2010) as they are also recognized to be one of the causes of land-use change and nature conservation (Donald et al., 2007). Among commonly applied approaches is the designation of protected areas for conservation, owing to the general assumption that they host more biodiversity than other areas (Gray et al., 2016; Peach et al., 2018).
The Natura 2000 network of protected areas, the pillar of biodiversity conservation in Europe, is the largest of the very few coordinated nature conservation actions explicitly aimed at improving ecological connectivity at the continental scale (Campagnaro et al., 2019; European Commission, 2011; Orlikowska et al., 2016; Wurzel, 2008). The network is composed of protected Natura 2000 sites designated under the European Union (EU) Nature Directives: Birds Directive (79/409/EEC, repealed by the 2009/147/EC) and Habitats Directive (1992/43/EEC). The network aims at the protection of a range of habitats and species of conservation concern. In particular, the Birds Directive established a protection regime for all native bird species occurring in the wild. Member States must classify Special Protection Areas (SPA) specifically for the habitats of 193 threatened bird species and regularly occurring migratory species. In 1992, with the application of the Habitats Directive, the network was integrated with the inclusion of Sites of Community Importance (SCI) which, after conservation measures are applied, are designated as Special Areas of Conservation (SAC), aiming at the conservation of the 233 habitat types listed in Annex I of the Directive and about 900 species listed in Annex II. The habitat types range from natural to seminatural, and farmlands and forests cover 40 % and 50 % of the protected sites, respectively (Olmeda et al., 2018).
In contrast to this continental conservation effort, the main trends of land cover change since the early 1990s are showing a continuous increase in artificial areas, a loss of agricultural areas, and an increase of forest land in Europe (EEA, 2017a). Agricultural intensity changed according to heterogeneous patterns, with the establishment of more intensive practices wherever highly suitable areas were available (Kuemmerle et al., 2016). In EU countries, the intensification of production and consequent negative effects on farmland bird populations are in part due to the price-support policies, like the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) (Donald et al., 2001; Reif & Vermouzek, 2019). In this context, the EU has oriented its most recent CAP towards the sustainable management of natural resources and has activated a monitoring and evaluation framework to assess its performance. The CAP identifies agricultural areas with high species and habitat diversity as “high nature value farmland” (HNV) and adopted the farmland bird index (FBI), an indicator of population trends of 36 bird species conceived within the Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme (PECBMS) of the European Bird Census Council (EBCC), to assess its performance. Data needed to calculate this index come from nationwide samples of annual breeding bird surveys. The measures of this index confirmed that the decline of HNV (EEA, 2017a, 2017b) has resulted in a sharp decline of common farmland birds (Gregory et al., 2005). Several other scientific studies confirmed that European bird species are declining, although the rate of the trend may differ between guilds and levels of habitat specialization (Donald et al., 2001; Gregory et al., 2007; Holling, 2019; Inger et al., 2014). Moreover, biodiversity losses at a continental scale do not always correspond to those at regional and local scales (Chase et al., 2019; Primack et al., 2018).
These negative trends legitimize asking whether the Natura 2000 conservation efforts have achieved their targets and proved to contribute to the protection of bird diversity. Indeed, the two EU Nature Directives have proved to be beneficial for bird species (Donald et al., 2007; Koschová et al., 2018; Pellissier et al., 2013). However, almost 30 years after the Natura 2000 implementation, the impact of the measures taken have not shown the expected advancement towards the overall objective of the Directives (Milieu et al., 2016). According to the results from the last Article 12 reporting on the Birds Directive (EEA, 2015), only half of the EU bird populations are considered secure; whereas 32 % of bird species have a threatened, declining, or depleted population status. Around one-third of the EU breeding bird species are increasing, both in the short- and long-term, but a number are decreasing. It is also evident that further monitoring is needed, since 19 % and 30 % of EU breeding bird population trends are unknown in the short- and long-term, respectively.
A few comparisons have been made on the bird populations within and outside Natura 2000 sites. For example, a gap analysis made by Albuquerque et al. (2013) concluded that the relationship between European bird species richness patterns and Natura 2000 sites is poor. In Sweden, to achieve the conservation of three forest birds, actions should also be implemented outside Natura 2000 sites, particularly when the protected sites are small (Orlikowska et al., 2020). In Portugal, Santana et al. (2013) found that only flagship and specialized fallow field species variations in richness and abundance were more favourable inside Natura 2000 sites than in those nearby and stressed the need to improve correspondence between conservation and agricultural policies. In France, Natura 2000 sites showed a greater abundance of many common specialist bird species (Pellissier et al., 2013). In Lower Saxony, Germany, the area covered by maize, which negatively influenced bird trends, was mitigated by Natura 2000, and Natura 2000 alone positively affected farmland birds and non-field nesters (Jerrentrup et al., 2017). These observations have been confirmed at European level: from 2001 to 2010 the abundance of most bird species not included in Annex I of the Birds Directive improved with increased Natura 2000 coverage (Pellissier et al., 2020).
Although large-scale analyses may attract more attention from EU policymakers, the implementation of Natura 2000 should consider “regional and local characteristics” (Art. 2, Habitats Directive). Consequently, many Member States decided to delegate implementation and monitoring of the Natura 2000 network to sub-national administrative levels. In Italy, the administrations of the Regions and Autonomous Provinces are in charge of the identification, monitoring and management of Natura 2000 sites, and report data and information about the sites to the Ministry of the Environment, which refers these to the European Commission. An estimation of the contribution of Italian SPA and other protected areas performed more than ten years ago concluded that these covered all areas with the maximum possible bird species richness (Maiorano et al., 2007). In partial contradiction, a gap analysis which used a nationwide annual breeding bird monitoring scheme (Florenzano et al., 2009), suggested that the Italian network of protected areas fails to conserve farmland birds, while it guarantees a good level of protection to birds of open mountain habitats (Campedelli et al., 2010). After further years of Nature Directives implementation, a sub-national approach is needed to bridge the gap between reaching a good conservation status of habitats and species at a national level while defining conservation objectives and measures at a protected site level (Campagnaro et al., 2018; Louette et al., 2011).
In this paper, we assess the contribution of the Natura 2000 network in buffering the decline of bird abundances, species richness and diversity between 2000 and 2015, across land cover types in the Veneto Region, North-Eastern Italy, 22.5 % of which is covered by the Natura 2000 network. We assume that the decline of bird species population known for Europe will be confirmed in Veneto, but with a positive contribution of Natura 2000 in the mitigation of this trend. Due to its biogeographical position and topography, Veneto has some of the areas among the richest in bird species, particularly in the Alps and the Venice lagoon (Maiorano et al., 2007). Agricultural, seminatural and forest lands cover 78 % of the Natura 2000 network in Veneto. Therefore, when assessing species richness and diversity, we focused on common farmland and forest bird species and on the land cover classes that may contain their suitable habitats. We expect that the Natura 2000 contribution will be more relevant for these species, at least in terms of species richness and diversity. We used the data from the annual breeding bird monitoring scheme, the same used by Campedelli et al. (2010) and its continuation (Rete Rurale Nazionale & LIPU, 2018), which, being nationwide, ensures the possible replication of the method in other Italian regions.
Section snippets
Study area
The landscape of the Veneto Region is a mosaic of diverse habitats and environmental conditions, corresponding to high levels of biodiversity. According to Londi et al. (2010), Veneto encompasses five out of the six ornithological zones present in Italy (floodplains, Prealpine reliefs, Alpine zone, hills, and a small portion of Mediterranean reliefs by the Lake Garda banks). The bird fauna is composed of 412 species, including both native and naturalized, of which 280 have been regularly
Results
The points placed within Natura 2000 sites corresponded to 19 % of the total (201), while the remaining 81 % (884) were outside. The proportion of survey points inside Natura 2000 is comparable to the Natura 2000 relative cover in the Region. At the regional level, artificial and agricultural areas are largely underrepresented by Natura 2000, while forests and seminatural areas, wetlands and water bodies are overrepresented (Table 2).
General trend
The trend of bird populations observed in Veneto mirrored recent evaluations of bird decline at larger spatial scales (EEA, 2015; Rete Rurale Nazionale & LIPU, 2018; Scarton et al., 2017), particularly regarding farmland and woodland species in agricultural and forest and seminatural areas (Gregory et al., 2019). A recent study by Scarton et al. (2017) showed that among the species showing declining trends in Veneto (30 % of the 202 species considered), most were farmland passerines. Farmland
Conclusions
Our findings show that the efforts made to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss are not enough to match the ambitious Aichi Target 5 of the Rio Convention on biological Diversity. Consequently, to achieve biodiversity conservation targets, further steps need to be taken to catch up with the aims shared at national and international levels.
We agree with Zivkovic et al. (2017) when they state that additional long-term monitoring programmes are needed, at local, regional, or sub-regional scales,
Funding
Alessia Portaccio was supported by a PhD grant given by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Padova e Rovigo (Cariparo Foundation) and supervised by Tommaso Sitzia, Davide Pettenella and Andrea Favaretto. Marco Basile was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG), under the ConFoBi Research Training Group “Conservation of Forest Biodiversity in Multiple-Use Landscapes of Central Europe” (number GRK 2123).
Declaration of interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Consent to participate
not applicable
Consent for publication
not applicable
Availability of data and material
the bird-related data are not available for deposit in a public repository, since they are the property of the Italian Ministry of the Environment, Land and Sea.
Code availability
A script and the guidelines for the database organisation are given for the replicability of the analysis.
Authors’ contributions
Alessia Portaccio, Marco Basile, Andrea Favaretto and Tommaso Sitzia conceived the research idea. Material preparation and data collection were performed by Alessia Portaccio. Data analysis was performed by Marco Basile. A first draft of the manuscript was written by Alessia Portaccio and Marco Basile and integrated by Tommaso Sitzia and Andrea Favaretto. Thomas Campagnaro and Davide Pettenella contributed significantly to improve and refine the manuscript. Tommaso Sitzia supervised the
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors report no declarations of interest.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Laura Silva and Simonetta Cutini of LIPU non-governmental organization and the Italian Ministry of the Environment, Land and Sea who provided the bird-related data. We also thank Lisa Causin and Raul Romano who helped in the collection of relevant policy information. Alison Garside is acknowledged for her English quality revision.
References (106)
- et al.
European bird distribution is well represented by Special Protected Areas: Mission accomplished?
Biological Conservation
(2013) - et al.
Multi-scale analysis of alpine landscapes with different intensities of abandonment reveals similar spatial pattern changes: Implications for habitat conservation
Ecological Indicators
(2017) - et al.
Assessing the sensitivity of alpine birds to potential future changes in habitat and climate to inform management strategies
Biological Conservation
(2013) - et al.
Land-use and climate change within assessments of biodiversity change: A review
Global Environmental Change Part A
(2009) - et al.
To leave or not to leave? Understanding determinants of farmers’ choices to remain in or abandon agri-environmental schemes
Land Use Policy
(2018) - et al.
Further evidence of continent-wide impacts of agricultural intensification on European farmland birds, 1990–2000
Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment
(2006) - et al.
Using CORINE land cover and the point survey LUCAS for area estimation
International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation
(2008) - et al.
The challenge of financing the implementation of Natura 2000 Empirical evidence from six European Union Member States
Forest Policy and Economics
(2017) - et al.
An analysis of trends uncertainty and species selection shows contrasting trends of widespread forest and farmland birds in Europe
Ecological Indicators
(2019) - et al.
Impact of recent changes in agricultural land use on farmland bird trends
Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment
(2017)
Continent-wide test of the efficiency of the European Union’s conservation legislation in delivering population benefits for bird species
Ecological Indicators
Bridging the gap between the Natura 2000 regional conservation status and local conservation objectives
Journal for Nature Conservation
How cost-effective are result-oriented agri-environmental measures? An empirical analysis in Germany
Land Use Policy
Biotic homogenization: A few winners replacing many losers in the next mass extinction
Trends in Ecology & Evolution
Gaps in ecological research on the world’s largest internationally coordinated network of protected areas: A review of Natura 2000
Biological Conservation
Hit or miss? Evaluating the effectiveness of Natura 2000 for conservation of forest bird habitat in Sweden
Global Ecology and Conservation
Biodiversity gains? The debate on changes in local- vs global-scale species richness
Biological Conservation
Protected area connectivity: Shortfalls in global targets and country-level priorities
Biological Conservation
Natural reforestation is changing spatial patterns of rural mountain and hill landscapes: A global overview
Forest Ecology and Management
Synergies of planning for forests and planning for Natura 2000: Evidences and prospects from northern Italy
Journal for Nature Conservation
Model selection for ecologists: The worldviews of AIC and BIC
Ecology
Changes in land-cover within high nature value farmlands inside and outside Natura 2000 sites in Europe: A preliminary assessment
Ambio
Incentive contracts for Natura 2000 implementation in forest areas
Environmental & Resource Economics
Spreading free-riding snow sports represent a novel serious threat for wildlife
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Consumo di suolo 2016 e 2017 nella Regione Veneto
European red list of birds
Comparing implementations of global and local indicators of spatial association
TEST
Point counts with unlimited distance
Studies in Avian Biology
Conservation policies and programmes affecting birds
Modelling at the edge: Habitat types driving the occurrence of common forest bird species at the altitudinal margin of their range
Ornis Fennica
Temperate mountain forest biodiversity under climate change: Compensating negative effects by increasing structural complexity
PloS One
Global biodiversity: Indicators of recent declines
Science
Half earth or whole earth: What can Natura 2000 teach us?
BioScience
Identifying habitat type conservation priorities under the Habitats Directive: Application to two Italian biogeographical regions
Sustainability
Effectiveness of the Italian national protected areas system in conservation of farmland birds: A gap analysis
Ardeola
Metodo e sintesi dei risultati ottenuti nella redazione del PAF “prioritised action framework” per la conservazione della biodiversità nella Rete Natura 2000 del Veneto
Changes in the abundance of farmland birds in relation to the timing of agricultural intensification in England and Wales
The Journal of Applied Ecology
Rarefaction and extrapolation with Hill numbers: A framework for sampling and estimation in species diversity studies
Ecological Monographs
Species richness change across spatial scales
Oikos
Le foreste nei siti delle Rete Natura 2000. Aspetti normativi, attuazione misure di conservazione e ruolo delle politiche di sviluppo rurale. Primo caso studio: Umbria. Rete Rurale Nazionale 2014-2020
Seabird conservation status threats and priority actions: A global assessment
Bird Conservation International
Disproportional risk for habitat loss of high‐altitude endemic species under climate change
Global Change Biology
Agricultural intensification and the collapse of Europe’s farmland bird populations
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B, Biological Sciences
International conservation policy delivers benefits for birds in Europe
Science
Rural development programmes and transaction effects: Reflections on Maltese and English experience
Journal of Agricultural Economics
State of nature in the EU - Results from reporting under the nature directives 2007–2012. EEA Technical report No 2/2015
CORINE land cover
Landscapes in transition - an account of 25 years of land cover change in Europe
Natura 2000 EUNIS database
Biodoversità marina e terrestre: statoStato, evoluzione e trend
Ministero dell’Ambiente e della Tutela del Territorio e del Mare
Cited by (7)
Clear-cuts and warming summers caused forest bird populations to decline in a southern boreal area
2023, Forest Ecology and ManagementSite-based vs. species-based analyses of long-term farmland bird datasets: Implications for conservation policy evaluations
2022, Ecological IndicatorsCitation Excerpt :Substantial conservation investment has been made to maintain the Natura 2000 network through the LIFE-Nature program and Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) funds. However, evaluation of the performance of these funds (mainly CAP’s) to effectively preserve the species protected by this network are still scarce, particularly at the site- and habitat scales (Santana et al., 2014; Concepción, 2021; Gameiro et al., 2020; Portaccio et al., 2021; Princé et al., 2021). So far, the analysis of the trends of the species protected by the Natura 2000 network and the Nature Directives has been based on species-by-species monitoring (e.g. De Victor et al., 2012; Pellissier et al., 2013, 2020; Princé et al., 2021), classifying each species according to the general type of habitat to which they are associated to deduce these trends at the habitat scale (Inger et al., 2015; Brlík et al., 2021).
Birds and Natura 2000: A review of the scientific literature
2023, Bird Conservation International