Europe

The newsletter, which is published twice a year, provides up to date information on activities, events and initiatives on the EU’s biodiversity policy and the implementation of the Habitats and Birds Directives.

Saproxylic beetles are insects that depend on dead and decaying wood for at least part of their lifecycle, and play important ecological roles in European habitats. The current IUCN European Red List provides an assessment for 693 species of saproxylic beetles. In 2008, following a two-year project, a total of 436 species were assessed. In 2017, an additional 257 species were assessed.

Vultures are a characteristic, distinctive and spectacular component of the biodiversity of the environments they inhabit. They also provide critically important ecosystem services by cleaning up carcasses and other organic waste in the environment. The IUCN Red List status of African-Eurasian vultures has seen drastic changes for the worse in recent years.

The newsletter started in 1994 as a result of the third EFNCP biennial conference in Pau in July 1992. Its aim is to complement the conferences through the exchange of views, ideas and information.

The final product is an impressive and voluminous book with more than 900 pages of maps of distribution for 495 European bird species, accompanying text and information on the population size estimates for key countries where it is present. The area covered includes all of Europe, including Madeira, the Azores, Iceland, Svalbard, Franz Josef Land and Transcaucasia) although not Turkey or Cyprus.