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

Existing legislation & programmesIPAs, the Bern Convention and the Emerald NetworkContextThe Bern Convention adopted by the Council of Europe in 1979 was one of the firstpan-European conservation initiatives, and contributed directly to the establishment ofthe EU Habitats Directive.The Emerald Network, seeks to establish a network of sitesto protect species and habitats of European importance.The Emerald Network is basedon the same principles as the EU Natura 2000, and represents its de facto extension tonon-EU countries.ReferencesThe Bern Convention and Emeraldnetwork website(www.nature.coe.int)The Council of Europe website(www.coe.int)There have been pilot Emerald Network projects in 22 European countries. In new EUmember states the Natura 2000 network has largely replaced the Emerald Network, butnew Emerald pilot projects are planned for non-EU European countries and also inAfrica.Bern Convention species and habitats listsThe Bern Convention currently recognises 179 threatened habitat types and 681threatened species [vascular plants (644), bryophytes (25), algae (12)].A list of 33threatened fungi species have been prepared by the European Council for theConservation of Fungi (ECCF), but are not currently included in the annexes of the BernConvention.The Council of Europe recognises 11 biogeographic zones in Europe.IPAs and the Bern ConventionThe criteria lists for selecting IPAs include all of the threatened habitats on Resolution 4,and all of the threatened species on Appendix 1.553 IPAs (69%) contain Bern Convention species or habitats.ANTOANETA PETROVAHaberlea rhodopensis, a species listedunder the Bern Convention91