important plant areas in central and eastern europe - hirc.botanic.hr ...

Section 5Methodology summaryCriteria lists: the Criterion A list is based mainly on European threatened species andCriterion C has a wide range of threatened habitats. Criterion B was based on indicatorspecies 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 ofSlovenia” database at CKFF with over 3 /4 million records) and was used to selectpotential sites for field verification.Two field seasons were carried out in 2003 and 2004by 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 fielddata were assessed using GIS software to select the best sites and verified with expertopinion. In the preliminary assessment c. 300 IPAs of varying sizes were identified. Manyof the smaller sites were included within large boundaries, which produced a final countof 57 IPAs.Key issues: Slovenia is already well covered with legally protected sites under the Natura2000 network (approx. 36% of the national territory), and the IPA system also considersadditional species and habitats from the Bern Convention, which enlarges the potentialarea for “best preserved nature”.The main aim of the ‘maximalistic’ approach to IPAselection and boundaries is not so much to achieve legal protection of sites but to helpraise public awareness of the importance of high biodiversity and to illustrate theSlovenian method as compared to other approaches in Europe.Protection and management of IPAs in SloveniaTotal IPAs with National National protection European InternationalIPAs no legal protection of IPAs (lower level) recognition recognitionprotection of IPAs of IPAs of IPAs(excl. (high level)Natura 200057 35 (20 have National Regional Park (2) SAC* (45) Ramsar (2)proposals for Park (1) Landscape Park (20)increased Nature Monument (2) Biosphereprotection) Nature Reserve (3) Reserve (1)Thirty-five IPAs are currently without any protection in the form of Nature Parks orReserves, but in 20 of them some form of protection is planned. On the other handonly 12 sites, do not currently overlap completely or partly with SACs.Almost 800 km 2of the Julian Alps IPA are covered by the Triglav National Park, and a slightly smallerarea is covered by the 20 IPAs, which overlap Landscape Parks.Two IPAs overlap anarea of 200 km 2 of the Regional Parks and less than 30 km 2 in four IPAs are covered byNature Reserves or Nature Monuments. 1420 km 2 of 45 IPAs are also SACs and thereis also a substantial overlapping of IPAs with SPAs.Major habitats at IPAs in SloveniaForest and grassland are major habitats occurring at over half of IPAs. Heath and scrubhabitats 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 significantfeature of IPAs (littoral habitats 23, running water 11, standing water 7).Wetland habitatsare 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.64