Resource description:
Freshwater ecosystems in the EU are under severe pressure from habitat alteration, pollution, water abstraction and climate change, and biodiversity continues to decline despite existing legal protections. This trend undermines the objectives of the EU Biodiversity Strategy, the European Green Deal and key environmental directives. Although Natura 2000 is the EU’s primary conservation tool, it remains insufficiently effective for freshwater habitats. Evidence from the MERLIN project shows that these habitats are inadequately covered, unevenly distributed and often fragmented within the network. A coordinated EU-level effort is therefore needed to review and strengthen freshwater designations under Natura 2000.
Author/Contact:
Annette Baattrup-Pedersen1 , Astrid Schmidt-Kloiber2, Ellis Penning3, Rob St. John, Marta Baumane1 , Daniel Hering4, Sebastian Birk4
(1 Aarhus University, Denmark; 2BOKU University, Austria; 3Deltares, The Netherlands; 4University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany)