Natura 2000
The Natura 2000 network is the uniform nature conservation system of the European Union, established by the member states based on two directives: the Birds Directive and the Habitats Directive. The aim of the network is to ensure the long-term survival of the formerly selected species and habitats of community importance or community concern. In Hungary, Natura 2000 sites and protected natural sites of national importance function in territorial overlap with each other, but not replacing one another.
Geographical location
Within the authority area of the Directorate, 8 Special Protection Areas (SPAs) and 64 Sites of Community Importance (SCIs or SACs) have been designated. Just like in the case of protected areas, there are identified Natura 2000 sites which are mosaic-like, consisting of several patches. The area with the largest number of mosaics is the Ormánság Forests, which is made up of 15 units.
If cadastral data are evaluated, it appears that in Hungary 107,943 hectares of bird protection sites and 202,390 hectares of habitat protection sites were proposed for inclusion in the network. This is more than twice the cca 90,000 hectares that had been protected previously in the total operational area.
An analysis of the distribution of land use type shows that forests dominate in both Natura 2000 site types (bird areas and conservation areas) with a share of around 70%, followed by areas removed from cultivation and then grassland types.
Natura 2000 – Birds Directive sites
In the case of Birds Directive sites, 46 species have been recorded in SPAs. The highest number of species was recorded in the Western Drava region where the occurrence of 25 listed species was recorded.
A downloadable table shows the frequency of each bird species.
Natura 2000 – Habitats Directive sites
The highest number of species recorded in a Special Area of Conservation was Mecsek, with 21 animal and 4 plant species out of 25 species. Almost the same number of species was recorded for Gemenc, with 1 plant and 23 animal species of which 10 were fish, highlighting the importance of aquatic habitats.
Fish species were also abundant in the Tolnai-Duna (Tolna Danube), Béda-Karapancsa, Nyugat-Dráva (West-Drava) and Közép-Dráva (Middle-Drava) sites. It is due to the karstic areas and the even higher proportion of old forest stands that 9 of the 21 species in the Mecsek site are bats. Altogether 58% of the SACs are designated on the basis of habitats only. The aforementioned facts are of course as much an indication of the extent to which the sites are explored as of their richness in Natura 2000 listed species.