Natura 2000 Bird Sanctuary Sites in Europe

Natura 2000 is a network of protected areas for the conservation of European habitats and rare species. This dataset contains sites designated by EU Member States under the Birds Directive for the protection of important bird species and their habitats. The data is provided by the Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie and is available as a Web Map Service (WMS).

Use Cases

• Map and analyze the spatial distribution of bird-focused protected areas based on the Natura 2000 network.
• Assess habitat conservation coverage for specific bird species based on the Birds Directive designations.
• Integrate protected area boundaries into environmental impact assessments based on the WMS service.
• Study the connectivity and representativeness of the Natura 2000 network for avian fauna.

Strengths

• Data is part of the legally established Natura 2000 network.
• Spatial data is provided via a standardized WMS service for easy integration.
• License is CC0-1.0, allowing for unrestricted use.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie

Collection Method

Designated by EU Member States in accordance with the Birds Directive.

Geography

European Union Member States