important plant areas in central and eastern europe - Plantlife

Section 5
Methodology summary
Criteria lists: the Criterion A list is based mainly on European threatened species and
Criterion C has a wide range of threatened habitats. Criterion B was based on indicator
species density maps produced from the CKFF database for each EUNIS level 2 habitat.
Data and fieldwork: much of the existing data was available in digitised form (“Flora of
Slovenia” database at CKFF with over 3 /4 million records) and was used to select
potential sites for field verification.Two field seasons were carried out in 2003 and 2004
by members of the Slovenian Botanical Society.
Site selection strategy: the Natura 2000 network proposed for vascular plant species,
forest and non-forest habitat types served as a rough basis.The existing and new field
data were assessed using GIS software to select the best sites and verified with expert
opinion. In the preliminary assessment c. 300 IPAs of varying sizes were identified. Many
of the smaller sites were included within large boundaries, which produced a final count
of 57 IPAs.
Key issues: Slovenia is already well covered with legally protected sites under the Natura
2000 network (approx. 36% of the national territory), and the IPA system also considers
additional species and habitats from the Bern Convention, which enlarges the potential
area for “best preserved nature”.The main aim of the ‘maximalistic’ approach to IPA
selection and boundaries is not so much to achieve legal protection of sites but to help
raise public awareness of the importance of high biodiversity and to illustrate the
Slovenian method as compared to other approaches in Europe.
Protection and management of IPAs in Slovenia
Total IPAs with National National protection European International
IPAs no legal protection of IPAs (lower level) recognition recognition
protection of IPAs of IPAs of IPAs
(excl. (high level)
Natura 2000
57 35 (20 have National Regional Park (2) SAC* (45) Ramsar (2)
proposals for Park (1) Landscape Park (20)
increased Nature Monument (2) Biosphere
protection) Nature Reserve (3) Reserve (1)
Thirty-five IPAs are currently without any protection in the form of Nature Parks or
Reserves, but in 20 of them some form of protection is planned. On the other hand
only 12 sites, do not currently overlap completely or partly with SACs.Almost 800 km 2
of the Julian Alps IPA are covered by the Triglav National Park, and a slightly smaller
area is covered by the 20 IPAs, which overlap Landscape Parks.Two IPAs overlap an
area of 200 km 2 of the Regional Parks and less than 30 km 2 in four IPAs are covered by
Nature Reserves or Nature Monuments. 1420 km 2 of 45 IPAs are also SACs and there
is also a substantial overlapping of IPAs with SPAs.
Major habitats at IPAs in Slovenia
Forest and grassland are major habitats occurring at over half of IPAs. Heath and scrub
habitats are also a common feature, occurring at over 50% (alpine/sub-alpine 6,
temperate 15, maquis 2, riverine scrub 27). Inland water habitats also form a significant
feature of IPAs (littoral habitats 23, running water 11, standing water 7).Wetland habitats
are frequent (sedge/reed beds 12, bogs 5, base-rich fens 5, valley mire/poor fens 5).
Coastal, marine and inland rocky habitats also occur at IPAs.
*SAC - sites officially proposed to the EU.
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