Europes ecological backbone.pdf

Integrated approaches to understanding mountain regions
Map 10.2
Natural and environmental assets for the EU‐27
-30°
-20°
-10°
0°
10°
20°
30°
40°
50°
60°
Natural and environmental
assets for the EU-27
60°
60°
Class 1
Class 2
Class 3
Class 4
Class 5
Environmental assets
Outside data
coverage
50°
50°
40°
40°
0 500
0°
1000 1500 km
10°
20°
30°
mountains (only France: 28 %) and Carpathians
(21 %). The dominant class for most massifs, however,
is that of average assets (class 3), which covers
more than a third of the area of five massifs: central
European middle mountains 2 (60 %), Carpathians
(57 %), Apennines (54 %), central European middle
mountains 1 (51 %), French/Swiss middle mountains
(France only: 42 %). In the class of low assets (class 2),
particularly high proportions are only found in the
central European middle mountains (1: 44 %, 2: 33 %)
and the Apennines (31 %).
In order to provide a greater detail of analysis,
Figure 10.3 shows the percentages of the national
area of the EU‐27 Member States with any
significant mountain area (i.e. excluding Estonia,
Latvia, Lithuania, Malta and the Netherlands)
across the five classes, comparing mountain and
non-mountain areas. A clear conclusion from
these graphs is that, in every country, the profile
of natural and environmental assets, as defined
here, is higher in mountain areas than outside
mountains.
10.3 Mountains and wilderness
In February 2009, the European Parliament passed
a Resolution — with a majority of 538 votes in
favour and only 19 votes against — calling for
increased protection of wilderness areas in Europe.
Three months later, the Czech Presidency and
the European Commission hosted a conference in
Prague organised by the Wild Europe partnership
on 'Wilderness and Large Natural Habitat Areas
in Europe'. Over 240 delegates helped draft an
agreement to further promote a coordinated
strategy to protect and restore Europe's wilderness
192 Europe's ecological backbone: recognising the true value of our mountains