Identification of top priority areas and management landscapes from a national Natura 2000 network

The Natura 2000 (N2k) network of protected areas is a backbone of biodiversity conservation in Europe, with likely further relevance for the development of green infrastructure. EU member states have legal responsibilities for evaluating the condition of and maintaining their national networks. While it is desirable to maintain the condition of the N2k network or even improve it by habitat restoration, it is a fact that national environmental bodies operate under budgetary constraints - money available for conservation is limited. Consequently, there may be a need to prioritize targeting of conservation effort in and around the N2k network. In this study we develop a high-resolution spatial conservation prioritization for the Finnish national N2k network, using data about the distribution and quality of 68 N2k habitats occurring in Finland. The aim of the work is to identify management landscapes, landscapes that have exceptionally high conservation value and which could be managed as one management unit. We identify top-priority areas of the N2k network. We also identify highest-priority N2k areas that do not have the status of a protected area in the Finnish legislation. The present work was commissioned by the Natural Heritage Services of Metsahallitus, a national administrator that is responsible for the maintenance of the Finnish protected area network. The primary purpose of this work is to assist targeting of habitat maintenance, management and restoration in and around the Finnish N2k network. The analysis done here could be replicated elsewhere using publicly available spatial prioritization software. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.