Europe Protected Areas
This layer maps protected and conservation areas across Europe — places designated for their recognised natural or cultural value, where human presence or the use of natu
Source: Common Database on Designated Areas (CDDA) — European Environment Agency Year: 2024 Category: Transition risks · Sensitive areas · Protected areas Coverage: Region (Europe) Format: Boundary polygons Used in risk analysis: Yes — gates Sensitive areas
What it shows
This layer maps protected and conservation areas across Europe — places designated for their recognised natural or cultural value, where human presence or the use of natural resources is limited. It is used to screen whether a site or activity falls inside, or close to, a formally protected area, a key check for nature-related and regulatory risk.
How it is built
The boundaries come from the Common Database on Designated Areas (CDDA), the European Environment Agency's register of nationally designated protected areas, reported by member countries through Reportnet. Every feature carries its CDDA site identifier, reporting country and legal foundation year. Each area in the register has been formally designated for conservation because of its natural or cultural importance; designation types range from areas where human activity is excluded to areas where resource use (such as firewood, non-timber forest products or water abstraction) is restricted. The layer represents these designated areas as polygon boundaries.
How to read it
This is a boundary layer rather than a graded score. A site that falls within, or sits close to, one of these polygons should be flagged as intersecting a protected area and reviewed accordingly. Areas outside the polygons carry no protected-area designation in this dataset.
Class thresholds
This is not a continuous physical-flux layer and has no numeric thresholds. It is a presence / boundary mask: the underlying feature is the European protected-areas register (CDDA), stored as a vector layer of protected-area polygons (siteName and related attributes) with no modelled score. There are therefore only two states for any location: inside a designated protected area, or outside it.
The single "class" is presence. A site is flagged on the Sensitive areas dimension when it intersects a protected-area polygon (the proximity trigger is an intersection, so direct overlap with the feature is required), combined with a material ENCORE pressure/service as set out in the Risk analysis table below.
How these thresholds were set. There is no Darwin classification of a continuous quantity here. Membership is taken verbatim from the Common Database on Designated Areas; no numeric breaks or bins are applied, and no proximity buffer distance is configured — the trigger is direct spatial overlap.
Reference: European Environment Agency, Common Database on Designated Areas (CDDA) — eea.europa.eu.
Source
European Environment Agency — Common Database on Designated Areas (CDDA), reported by member countries via Reportnet.
Comparison with the WWF Risk Filter Suite
This corresponds to WWF Biodiversity Risk Filter indicator S14_1 Protected/Conserved Areas. WWF draws on a global protected-areas compilation accessed via IBAT. Darwin instead takes the European register at source, which gives designations as reported by the member countries themselves rather than a global compilation.
Risk analysis
A site is flagged on a dimension by combining a proximity trigger (this layer) with an activity trigger (the entity's ENCORE pressure/service). Proximity only → Potentially material; proximity and the matching ENCORE pressure/service is material → Very material; neither → Not material.
| Dimension | ENCORE service / pressure | Proximity trigger (this layer) | Activity trigger (entity) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sensitive areas | Sensitive area disturbance | Site overlaps / is near the feature | impact ratio ≥ 10%; “Disturbances (e.g noise, light)” pressure ≥ 4; “Introduction of invasive species” pressure ≥ 4; “Area of freshwater use” pressure ≥ 4; “Area of seabed use” pressure ≥ 4; “Area of land use” pressure ≥ 4; “Other biotic resource extraction (e.g. fish, timber)” pressure ≥ 4; “Volume of water use” pressure ≥ 4; “Emissions of non-GHG air pollutants” pressure ≥ 4; “Generation and release of solid waste” pressure ≥ 4; “Emissions of toxic soil and water pollutants” pressure ≥ 4; “Emissions of nutrient soil and water pollutants” pressure ≥ 4 |
Generated from darwin/layers/layer-europe-protected-areas.toml and risk_indicator_pairs.toml (develop).