The Natura 2000 Network, the EU project to conserve biodiversity, expanded to 25 thousand km² as a result of 235 new areas designated by the Commission as Sites of Community Importance: the total of the new areas represents 3.4% of the overall ecological network, amounting to 768 thousand km² of land and 217 thousand km² of European waters (respectively 17.9% and 4% of the total) located in all nine biogeographical regions of the EU.
The most significant extension is registered in the UK, with the designation of Dogger Bank (12,330 km ²), a marine shallow area, characterized by the submerged sand bank in the middle of the North Sea, with adjacent sites in Germany and the Netherlands, that creates a large transfrontier Natura 2000 site of more than 18 thousand km².
As regards Italy, the boundaries of 42 sites have changed and 12 new Sites of community interest have been approved covering an area of 1,500 square kilometers. The regions concerned are Abruzzo, Campania, Friuli, Veneto, Tuscany and Sicily. EU member states now have six years of time to implement the necessary measures to protect these sites and transform them into Special Conservation Zones.
Natura 2000 (29/11/2012)