Today is the 21 of May, it is the European Day of Natura 2000. Natura 2000 is a program by the European Union to preserve the wildlife. More than 27.000 Areas are part of it. They cover a area which is the same as Spain and France combined. Unfortunately
, this network is not well known.
Europe has such a diverse nature, even though Europe is such a small continent in comparison, and then the European Union is even smaller. But the range of different ecosystems is enormous, from the tundra in Finland to the Mediterranean coast in Greece. From the Mountains in the Alps to the plain in Hungary. To save this rich and diverse nature is one goal of Natura 2000.
The main concept of Natura 2000 is to create a connected System of protected Areas (Nature parks, wildlife parks), so that they can exchange their information about endangered species and landscapes . Because in the nature there are no borders, so in one country one species could be endangered and in another one could have healthy population size. Therefore, a big part of this project is to exchange information between the member states. This project should prevent endangered species from the extinction. All member states are included, and there are areas as well on land as well on sea.
Due to the fact, that the European Nature is extremely diverse, is Natura 2000 divided into 9 biogeographical zones. This should simplify the process of data exchange between the member states. Then not all species are located everywhere in Europe. For example, all member states that are in the Mediterranean area, have a more similar nature than for example the states which are part of the Boreal zone. Therefore it makes more sense , when this countries work closer together.
The 9 biogeographical regions
Natura 2000 is a network and that is the key point, this means that most of the areas which are part of it are already a National Park or in other way protect by national law. That means that the national law for the protection of one of these areas can be stricter than the European regulations. But that suits not for all areas. In total there are more than 27.000 areas part of it (still including the UK). One point which the Natura 2000 network focus is, that the Human is also part of the nature and you can’t keep Humans out of all Nature 2000 areas. Therefore, the regulations are made in a way which acknowledge this aspect. It is possible to work or to live in a Natura 2000 area, the only point is that the people has to accept these regulations and follow them. Still the people should see the advantage of keeping the ecosystem alive as it is and understand the concept