Legislation ensures biodiversity
Within the European Union, the joint European Natura 2000 initiative protects a number of different habitats as well as plant and animal species. These have been selected because they are either endangered, vulnerable or rare.
Such protective measures take the form of so-called Natura 2000 areas designed to help ensure the survival of a species or habitat and comprise everything from small, isolated areas to large areas of heathland, bog and forest to the individual species that live there, such as the great crested newt, the golden eagle, otters and common seal.
Common European legacy
As members of the EU, Denmark and Germany are committed to the protection of the two countries’ Natura 2000 areas. This means that special consideration must be given to these areas during major construction projects such as the Fehmarnbelt link.
In Germany, this comes under the Bundesamt für Naturschutz Natura 2000 legislation while in Denmark, responsibility falls to the Agency for Spatial and Environmental Planning.
“As the overall authority in this area, it is the role of the Agency for Spatial and Environmental Planning to administer the legislation aimed at protecting our common European legacy,” says Lars Rudfeld from the Agency for Spatial and Environmental Planning. “We are, for instance, tasked with drawing up Natura 2000 plans for future protection and for designating new protected areas.”
Bats and their slow reproduction
Under Natura 2000, Europe’s birds are protected by the special Bird Protection Directive while the Habitat Directive covers natural habitats such as heathland, sand dunes and meadows as well as those species that are endangered in the EU as a whole. This means that even species that are common in Germany may enjoy Natura 2000 protection if they are endangered at a European level.
“This may be because the populations are small or because the species is in decline,” explains biologist Jan Fischer Rasmussen from COWI. “One example of a group of mammals threatened at European level are bats which live for a short time and breed relatively slowly. There is, therefore, a special need to protect them.”
Natura 2000 at sea
It is not only plants and species on land and in the air that have to be protected. It is also important to ensure that marine species and habitats do not come to any harm. This includes the common seal which lives in the Natura 2000 area, ””Smålandsforvandet and Guldborgsund with coastline.”
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As a designated Natura 2000 area, “Smålandsfarvandet og Guldborgsund with coastline” is the habitat for the common seal.
The large pan-European Natura 2000 partnership aims at ensuring biodiversity. The initiative protects vulnerable and threatened habitats and species.
Natura 2000 is the joint designation for the Bird Protection Directive of 1979 and the Habitats Directive of 1992.
The Bird Protection Directive aims to protect bird species while the Habitats Directive is designed to protect other species and their habitats.
Denmark has designated more than 400 habitat and bird protection areas which cover around 8% of Denmark’s land area and around 18% of its sea areas. At the end of 2008, some 5,300 habitat and bird protection areas had been designated in Germany. In total, they cover approximately 10% of Germany’s land areas and 11% of its marine areas.
