Surface of the terrestrial protected areas (2011-2022)

This indicator measures the extent and share of terrestrial protected areas. The indicator comprises nationally designated protected areas and Natura 2000 sites. A nationally designated area is an area protected by national legislation. Natura 2000 network sites consists of sites designated under the EU Habitats and Birds Directives with the goal to maintain or restore a favourable conservation status for habitat types and species of EU interest.

Simple

Identification info

Date (Creation)
2024-11-14
Date (Publication)
2024-11-14
Date (Revision)
2025-05-26
Edition

01.00

Citation identifier
eea_s_eu-sdg-15-20_p_2011-2022_v01_r00

Identifier

Code
10.2909/c3e9f2ff-dd53-4f84-9b12-a4b8067e4e58
Status
Superseded
Point of contact
Organisation Individual Electronic mail address Website Role

European Environment Agency

sdi@eea.europa.eu

http://www.eea.europa.eu

Point of contact
Topic category
  • Environment

Extent

Temporal extent

Time period
2011-01-01 2022-12-31
Maintenance and update frequency
Annually
Date
2025-11
Date type
Next Update
GEMET
Continents, countries, sea regions of the world.

  • EU27 (from 2020)

Reporting obligations
EEA Management Plan

  • 2024 1.1.16

EEA topics
Available breakdowns

  • Country

Unit of measure

  • Percentage

  • Square kilometre

Reference period

  • Calendar year

Resource constraints

Use constraints
Other restrictions
Other constraints

License CC-BY 4.0 ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Copyright holder: European Environment Agency (EEA).

Language
English

Distribution Information

Distribution format

  • Microsoft Excel (.xls, .xlsx)

  • ascii (.csv, .txt, .sql)

OnLine resource

https://sdi.eea.europa.eu/webdav/datastore/public/eea_s_eu-sdg-15-20_p_2011-2022_v01_r00

OnLine resource

Direct download

OnLine resource

EEA Indicator: Terrestrial protected areas in Europe

OnLine resource

Eurostat indicator: Surface of the terrestrial protected areas

OnLine resource

Data quality info

Hierarchy level
Dataset

Report

Name of measure

Frequency of dissemination

Measure description

Indicator is updated annually.

Result

Value
Every year

Report

Name of measure

Timeliness

Measure description

New data points are disseminated within two years after the reference year.

Result

Value
T+2 years

Report

Name of measure

Reference area

Measure description

Data are presented for all EU Member States for 2021. Before 2020 only EU27 aggregate.

Result

Value
All EU MS

Report

Name of measure

Comparability - geographical

Measure description

Data are comparable between all EU Member States.

Result

Value
All EU MS

Report

Name of measure

Time coverage

Measure description

Presented time series starts in 2011, EU aggregate starts in 2011.

Data per Member State before 2021 not available.

Result

Value
> 10 years

Report

Name of measure

Comparability - over time

Measure description

Length of comparable time series without methodological break is > 4 data points.

The time series is fully comparable without methodological changes.

Result

Value
> 4 data points

Resource lineage

Statement

The data for nationally designated protected areas are delivered by Eionet partnership countries as spatial and tabular information and are updated every year. For Natura 2000, the European database of Natura 2000 sites is used. This consists of a compilation of the data submitted by the Member States of the European Union. This European database is generally updated once a year to take into account any changes at national level by Member States.



Data provided by the Member States to the European Commission (Natura 2000) or the European Environment Agency (nationally designated areas) are consolidated yearly by the European Environment Agency.



However, the release of a new EU-wide database does not necessarily mean that a particular national data set has recently been updated. The same geographical area may be designated several times under different legislation. When producing area statistics on protected areas, nationally designated protected areas and Natura 2000 datasets are overlaid to avoid double counting of overlapping site designations in the datasets. The Reporting guidelines with full details on the methodology are available from: http://cdr.eionet.europa.eu/help/cdda and https://cdr.eionet.europa.eu/help/natura2000/.

Hierarchy level
Dataset
Source

Metadata

Metadata identifier
c3e9f2ff-dd53-4f84-9b12-a4b8067e4e58

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8
Contact
Organisation Individual Electronic mail address Website Role

European Environment Agency

sdi@eea.europa.eu

Point of contact

Type of resource

Resource type
Non geographic dataset
Name

Tabular dataset

Metadata linkage

https://doi.org/10.2909/c3e9f2ff-dd53-4f84-9b12-a4b8067e4e58

Date info (Creation)
2024-11-14T08:03:54.419126Z
Date info (Revision)
2026-01-22T07:43:29.109829Z

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115/19139

Edition

1.0

 
 
Access to the catalogue

Overviews

Spatial extent

Keywords

Available breakdowns

Country
EEA Management Plan

2024 1.1.16
EEA topics

Biodiversity: state of habitats and species Nature protection and restoration Sustainability solutions
GEMET

biodiversity ecosystem environmental policy protected area statistical data terrestrial area
Reference period

Calendar year
Reporting obligations

Emerald Network Information on Natura 2000 sites (SCIs/SACs, Habitats Directive) Information on Natura 2000 sites (SPAs, Birds Directive) Nationally designated areas (NatDA)
Unit of measure

Percentage Square kilometre


Provided by

Access to the catalogue