Stakeholder consultation for the briefing on protected areas in the Eastern partnership countries is now open. All invited stakeholders can submit their comments on the report using the online tool by 5 June 2020.

Since 2017, the biodiversity experts of the Eastern Partnership countries are working on developing the protected areas indicator D1 (under the UNECE guidelines for the application of environmental indicators). This indicator addresses the development of area and number of protected areas in national designation types and in IUCN’s protected area management categories. The data for the indicator has been provided by all Eastern Partnership countries. National biodiversity experts developed the indicator in close and fruitful collaboration with the experts from the EEA and the European Topic Centre on Biodiversity (ETC/BD). The EEA indicator on “Nationally designated protected areas – SEBI 007” has been followed as methodological guide for developing the D1- Protected Areas in the Eastern Partnership countries.

This briefing is a building block on that indicator and providing overview at regional level:

• Countries’ contribution to the global Aichi target of protecting 17 percent of terrestrial areas
• A regional comparison on IUCN protected area management categories
• Development of the Emerald network in the Eastern Partnership countries
• Short outlook for the future in strengthening the monitoring programs. 

The EEA kindly asks the Eastern Partnership countries to provide a consolidated country response per country.