Environmental Indicators Ireland 2021

Natura 2000 sites consist of both Special Protected Areas (SPA’s) under the EU Birds Directive and Special Areas of Conservation (SAC’s) under the EU Habitats Directive. The area designated as Natura 2000 sites was stable over the 2013-2019 period and was 923,000 hectares in 2019.

Ireland, at 6.2% in 2019, had the fourth lowest proportion of total land area among EU Member States designated as terrestrial Special Protected Areas (SPA’s) under the EU Birds Directive. Croatia at 30.2% had the highest proportion of total land classified as SPA’s in 2019 and Malta, at 5.1%, the lowest.

In 2019, Ireland had 10.2% of its total land area designated as terrestrial Special Areas of Conservation (SAC’s) under the EU Habitats Directive. This was the eighth lowest rate in the EU and below the European average of 13.7%. Slovenia had 32.7% of its total land area designated as SAC’s, the highest in the EU. The United Kingdom, at 5.4%, had the lowest.

Note: A production error was discovered in Indicator 10.3. The figures for this indicator in the 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2020 publications refer to total Natura 2000 sites rather than Special Areas of Conservation.

Bird numbers in Ireland generally improved over the 1998-2019 period. The Irish index of common birds increased from 89.9 in 1998 to 126.7 in 2019, while the index of common farmland birds increased from 83.8 to 111.9 in the same period.