GoProForMED has dedicated a specific action to the assessment of the conservation status of 4 forest habitats in the Mediterranean biogeographical region, which are:
9260 - Castanea sativa woods
9330 - Quercus suber forests
9340 - Quercus ilex and Quercus rotundifolia forests
9530* - (Sub-)Mediterranean pine forests
This action, coordinated by the Sapienza University of Rome, aimed to define shared standard methodologies for the identification and assessment of the conservation status of habitats.
Watch the video interview with
SABINA BURRASCANO
Sapienza University of Rome
The identification and assessment of the conservation status of habitats are based on the selection of compositional and structural indicators.
The GoProForMED project, through multi-taxonomic biodiversity surveys and forest structure assessments carried out at project sites in Italy, Spain, France, and Greece, identified the most effective indicators and corresponding threshold values capable of determining the good conservation status specific to each habitat.
Identification of diagnostic species
Diagnostic species lists for each
habitat were compiled combining
national and European
references (EUFORGEN).
Regional and local diagnostic
species were classified based on
their frequency across lists.
Identification of indicators for the evaluation of the state of conservation
The biodiversity and structural
data collected during the project
GoProForMed allowed us to
combine the theoretical and
scientific background to a set
of data collected for the target
habitats across the Mediterranean
biogeographical region.
Reference values that the project was able to produce
Canopy Cover | Shrub Cover | IBP | N° of TreMs | Max decay class | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Castanea sativa | 50 - 70 % | > 15 % | > 14 | > 69 | ≥ 4 |
Quercus suber | 45 - 65 % | > 40 % | > 19 | > 72 | ≥ 4 |
Quercus ilex | 55 - 70 % | > 10 % | > 20 | > 44 | ≥ 4 |
Pinus nigra | 55 - 60 % | > 5 % | > 6 | > 10 | ≥ 4 |
The main results of this action
have been compiled in an
outreach publication, designed
as a practical field guide to
take into the forest, useful for
identifying the habitats studied by
the project and assessing their
conservation status.
Download the guide
Further details on the methodology,
data processing and analysis, as well
as the results and their discussion,
are available in the “Manual for the
recognition and conservation state
assessment of the target habitats”,
Deliverable of Task 2.5
Useful materials for assessing the conservation status of target habitats
Template tables and R-code for deriving the indicators
