Article 17 Species Distribution

Article 17 of the Habitats Directive requires Member States to report every six years about the progress made with the implementation of the Habitats Directive. As the main focus of the directive is on maintaining and/or restoring a favourable conservation status for habitat types & species of community interest, monitoring & reporting under the directive is focusing on that. Monitoring of conservation status is not restricted to Natura 2000 sites and data need to be collected both in and outside the Natura 2000 network to achieve a full appreciation of conservation status. Some data on sensitive species is restricted from public access, as the disclosure of such might adversely affect the conservation of the species in question; this is in line with the provisions of Article 4 2(h) of Directive 2003/4/EC.