Keeping historical records of protected areas

Changes in the coverage of protected areas are frequently used as a proxy or surrogate indicator to assess trends in the conservation of biodiversity.  To assess changes over time, historical records covering all boundary changes are needed. by adding together the areas of individual protected zones in a region the total coverage of protected areas can be calculated.

In Europe, vulnerable species and habitats are protected under the Birds and Habitats directives, through Natura 2000, which consists of Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and Special Protection Areas. There are predefined steps that must be followed when proposing any new areas to become SACs or when any changes, such as extending or reclassifying existing protected areas, are to be made. Keeping track of complex and interconnected regulations that govern protected areas together with associated boundary changes is a challenge.

This new system is a user-friendly tool designed to be used by public environmental organisations for managing information on regulatory and boundary changes in protected areas. In addition to providing legal texts and images for protected areas, the tool allows users to see maps of protected area boundaries as they are created or changed with each step of the administrative process. This starts with the initial proposal by the promoting body and ends with publication of the legal text in the official government bulletin.

Users can trace historical changes to the coverage of protected areas, for example, where the boundaries have been redefined. This allows changes in protected area coverage for the whole network to be assessed over time, which can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of biodiversity protection. Information from this system can also be sent by regional and national governments to update other databases, such as the World Database on Protected Areas and the European Common Database on Designated Areas.

Originally designed for handling information on protected areas in the legal framework of Catalonia, Spain, the researchers suggest the system could be adapted to deal with protected areas in other EU countries The tool is not yet publically available but for more information on the project, please see: ww.creaf.uab.es/eng/projects/20_113.htm

• This news article was adapted from an article posted on Science for Environment Policy News Alert Service. Original source: Marcer, A., Garcia, V., Escobar, A., Pons, X. (2010). Handling historical information on protected-area systems and coverage. An information system for the Natura 2000 European context. Environmental Modelling & Software. 25: 956-964.