Surface of the marine protected areas_superseded (2012-2022)

This indicator measures marine protected area (MPA) coverage at the EU and Member State levels in this coverage over time. It considers MPAs reported as both Natura 2000 sites and nationally designated protected areas.

Simple

Identification info

Date (Creation)
2025-02-04
Date (Publication)
2025-02-05
Date (Revision)
2025-02-05
Edition

01.00

Citation identifier
eea_s_eu-sdg-14-10_p_2012-2022_v01_r00

Identifier

Code
10.2909/b4a21df7-5614-4fe6-b23f-8153847a6457
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Superseded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
  • Oceans

Extent

Temporal extent

Time period
2012-01-01 2022-12-31
Maintenance and update frequency
Annually
Date
2025-09
Date type
Next Update
GEMET
Continents, countries, sea regions of the world.

  • Italy

  • Netherlands

  • Denmark

  • Lithuania

  • Latvia

  • Cyprus

  • Greece

  • France

  • Slovenia

  • Spain

  • Finland

  • Bulgaria

  • Portugal

  • Ireland

  • Sweden

  • Romania

  • Croatia

  • Belgium

  • Estonia

  • Poland

  • Malta

  • Germany

Reporting obligations
EEA Management Plan

  • 2024 1.1.16

EEA topics
Unit of measure

  • Percentage

  • Square kilometre

Available breakdowns

  • Country

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-14-10_p_2012-2022_v01_r00

OnLine resource

Direct download

OnLine resource

EEA Indicator: Marine protected areas in Europe's seas

OnLine resource

Eurostat indicator: Surface of the marine protected areas

OnLine resource

Data quality info

Hierarchy level
Dataset

Report

Name of measure

Frequency of dissemination

Measure description

Indicator is updated every year.

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, however do not apply to Czechia, Luxembourg, Hungary, Austria, Slovakia (landlocked countries). The area of marine waters is as reported by Member State under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (2008/56/EC). The European Commission and European Environment Agency have no responsibility on this matter.

Total marine protected areas coverage in km2 and %, including Natura 2000 and Nationally designated sites for 2012-2022 and Regional Seas Conventions sites for 2012-2022.

Result

Value
All EU MS

Report

Name of measure

Comparability - geographical

Measure description

Data are comparable between all EU Member States (as far as applicable).

Result

Value
All EU MS

Report

Name of measure

Time coverage

Measure description

Presented time series (including EU aggregates) starts in 2012.

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 data processing environment changed from vector to raster-based calculations for 2022 data point.

Result

Value
3 to 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 EU database of Natura 2000 sites is used. This EU database is generally updated once a year to take into account any changes at national level by Member States.

For total coverage of EU waters, protected areas designated under the Regional Sea Conventions namely the Barcelona Convention, the Helcom Convention and the OSPAR Convention, were also included, using the latest available data from the databases published under these conventions.

Hierarchy level
Dataset
Source

Metadata

Metadata identifier
b4a21df7-5614-4fe6-b23f-8153847a6457

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/b4a21df7-5614-4fe6-b23f-8153847a6457

Date info (Creation)
2025-02-03T08:02:51.322282Z
Date info (Revision)
2025-10-09T11:09:59.798176Z

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 Water
GEMET

biodiversity ecosystem environmental policy marine conservation area marine environment protected marine zone sea water protection statistical data
Reference period

Calendar year
Reporting obligations

Information on Natura 2000 sites (SCIs/SACs, Habitats Directive) Information on Natura 2000 sites (SPAs, Birds Directive) Nationally designated areas (NatDA) Report on progress and implementation (Article 12, Birds Directive) Report on progress and implementation (Article 17, Habitats Directive)
Unit of measure

Percentage Square kilometre


Provided by

Access to the catalogue