The Natura 2000 is considered the biggest network of protected area in the world, consisting of over 27 000 sites which cover around 18% of terrestrial European land and 9% of marine. The Bird and Habitat directives on which the Natura 2000 is built on, state specific conservation goal to reach. However, the designation of a site alone is not enough and an effective management is key in the achieving of such goals.
Climate change is a newly arisen and growing threat to biodiversity and its impact is destined to drastically increase in the upcoming years. Some preliminary work, found that waterbird communities can adjust faster to climate change in Natura 2000 sites that have a management plan. Management actions can in fact help biodiversity in the face of climate change through two mechanisms: 1) by creating microrefugia that helps the persistence local species; 2) by facilitating the changing distribution of new coming species. However, information on which management actions are used and which ones are the most effective is missing. Standardized information on conservation measures is collected only at a national scale every 5 years to compile the state of nature reports, but readily available fine scale information is lacking.
The aim of his questionnaire is to fill this gap, by creating a comprehensive database containing detailed information on which management actions have been carried out and where.