3. Reference Portal for Natura 2000

The Reference Portal for NATURA 2000 is part of the Standard Data Form (SDF). The portal provides those elements of the SDF which are subject to change over time and subject to changes due to technical developments. These elements are reference documents (e.g. the coding of species), technical support material (e.g. data-model, applications) as well as guidelines to ensure a consistent use of the SDF by all Member States and to outline the technical and administrative procedures on how to submit data to the Commission.

• Standard Data Form

1) ISO 3166 country-code (SDF field: 1.2)

Each Natura 2000 site is recognized by a unique code, whereof the first two characters form the country code. The EU rule of the use of the 2-letter ISO 3166 country-code is applied (see iso.org). Exception: UK is used instead of GB in order to keep the existing coding for site identifiers

English Name	ISO code	English Name	ISO code
Austria	AT	Italy	IT
Belgium	BE	Latvia	LV
Bulgaria	BG	Lithuania	LT
Croatia	HR	Luxembourg	LU
Cyprus	CY	Malta	MT
Czech Republic	CZ	Netherlands	NL
Denmark	DK	Poland	PL
Estonia	EE	Portugal	PT
Finland	FI	Romania	RO
France	FR	Slovakia	SK
Germany	DE	Slovenia	SI
Greece	GR	Spain	ES
Hungary	HU	Sweden	SE
Ireland	IE	United Kingdom	UK

Maintained by: International Organisation for Standardization (ISO), last updated: 24.5.2013

2) List of SCIs per Biogeographical Region (SDF field: 1.7)

The list of sites per biogeographical region, containing for each site the date of its first appearance on the community list is currently under preparation and will be checked with the Habitats Committee before being uploaded here". For some countries due to the change of site-codes and names between community list publications, bilateral contacts may be needed before finalising a first draft

Maintained by: DG Environment, European Environment Agency (EEA), last updated: 12.04.2011

3) Marine Boundaries (SDF field: 2.3)

For the calculation of the percentage of marine area the Mean High Water Mark should be applied. However some Member States need to apply a different definition due to national legislation.

• Overview definition marine boundary

Maintained by: DG Environment, European Environment Agency (EEA), (based on input by Member States), last updated: 18.05.2011

4) NUTS regions (SDF field: 2.5)

NUTS is the Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics of Europe, which is maintained by EUROSTAT. For the SDF field 2.5 the NUTS level2 is used.

• NUTS regions

Maintained by: EUROSTAT, last updated: 25.3.2011

5) Biogeographical regions (SDF field: 2.6)

The EU has currently nine terrestrial biogeographical regions (Alpine, Atlantic, Black Sea, Boreal, Continental, Mediterranean, Macaronesia, Pannonian, Steppic). Due to practical reasons, five Marine Regions are also used in the SDF (Marine Atlantic, Marine Mediterranean, Marine Black Sea, Marine Macaronesian, Marine Baltic Sea) See also here for further explanations

• Map and boundaries of the Biogeographical Regions

Note: The boundaries of the marine regions are based on those used during the 2007 Article 17 reporting process. They are subject to change under work being done under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive

Maintained by: DG Environment, European Environment Agency (EEA), last updated: 05.12.2012

6) Codelist of Annex I habitats (SDF field: 3.1)

• List Annex I habitats

Maintained by: DG Environment, European Environment Agency (EEA), last updated: 23.05.2013

7) Other codelists (SDF fields 3.2, 3.3)

• SPECIES GROUPS:
  A =Amphibians, B = Birds, F = Fish, Fu = Fungi, I = Invertebrates,L = Lichens, M = Mammals, P =Plants, R = Reptiles
• TYPE:
  p = permanent; r = reproducing; c = concentration; w = wintering; (for plant and non-migratory species use permanent)
• DATA QUALITY:
  G = ‘Good’ (e.g. based on surveys); M = ‘Moderate’ (e.g. based on partial data with some extrapolation); P = ‘Poor’ (e.g. rough estimation); DD = data deficient (use this category only, if not even a rough estimation of the population size can be made, in this case the fields for population size can remain empty, but the field "Abundance categories" has to be filled in)
• ABUNDANCE CATEGORIES:
  C = common, R = rare, V = very rare, P=present
• MOTIVATION CATEGORIES:
  A = National Red List data, B = Endemics C = International Conventions, D= other reasons

Maintained by: DG Environment, European Environment Agency (EEA), last updated: 1.1.2011

8) Codelist for bird species (SDF fields 3.2, 3.3)

• Codelist for bird species under Directive 2009/147/EC

In connection with the work on the checklist for reporting under Article 12 of the Birds Directive, the coding for Bird species has been extended. The Habitats Committee has been informed on the extended list (Meeting 25. Sept. 2011). This extended codelist is also available as reference table in the Natura 2000 database.

Maintained by: DG Environment, European Environment Agency (EEA), last updated: 29.11.2011

9) Codelist for species (Annex II,IV,V) (SDF fields: 3.2, 3.3)

• Codelist for species under Directive 92/43/EEC (Annex II,IV,V)

In connection with the work on the checklist for reporting under Article 17 Habitats Directive, the coding for species has been extended. The Habitats Committee has been informed on the extended list (Meeting 26. April 2012). This codelist is also available as reference table in the Natura 2000 database.

Maintained by: DG Environment, European Environment Agency (EEA), last updated: 23.05.2013

10) Population units (SDF fields: 3.2, 3.3)

Please use the units individuals (= i) or pairs (= p) wherever possible, otherwise follow the standardised list of population units and codes, which can be found here.

For additional information on the recommended population units for specific species groups check out the following table.

Maintained by: DG Environment, European Environment Agency (EEA), last updated: 20.01.2011

11) Habitat Classes for "General Site character" (SDF field: 4.1)

In order to describe the general site character broad habitat classes are used.

• Habitat Classes

For additional information on the correspondence between these broad habitat classes and the EUNIS units check out the following table.

Maintained by: DG Environment, European Environment Agency (EEA), last updated: 12.04.2011

12) Threats, Pressures, Activities (SDF field: 4.3)

• List of threats and pressures

The reference list on threats, pressures and activities is in accordance with Article 17 codelist.

Maintained by: DG Environment, European Environment Agency (EEA), last updated: 12.04.2011

13) Nature conservation designation types (SDF field: 5.1)

• List of national designation types

This table contains codes for all of Europe. For further information on CDDA Designations click on this link.

The list of national designations has been updated based on the 2011 CDDA data collation. The national designation type codes are maintained by the EIONET National Reference Centres (NRCs).

Maintained by: European Environment Agency (EEA), last updated: 07.07.2011

14) Inspire ID (SDF field: 7)

• Example of Inspire identifier

For further information on INSPIRE metadata click here.

The Member States Contact Point can be found in chapter 2 of the Member States INSPIRE reports.

last updated: 12.01.2010

Documentation

Guidelines for submitting Natura 2000 data

• Data transfer formats database template and xml schema
  The documentation is here
• Natura 2000 software


• Reporting guidelines
• Instruction explanation on deletions
• GIS data: information on spatial reference transformations

Maintained by: DG Environment, European Environment Agency (EEA), last updated: 08.02.2013

Helpdesk

If you have questions, please read the FAQ, if you don't find an answer there, please contact the helpdesk
(E-mail: refportnatura2000 [at] mnhn.fr)

• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)