Decision-making flowchart for the determination of the clues and evidence of damage to biodiversity

The determination of the clues of damage to biodiversity protected by the ELD can be done by considering as STATE the conservation status of the species and/or habitat at local (i.e. in the area where the event occurred), national and biogeographical level, for example on the basis of the Reporting data of the Habitat and Birds Directives^1 2 3, using the parameters available for the evaluation of the conservation status⁴.
If a Natura 2000 site is involved, the evaluation should consider the standard forms of the European Community for Natura 2000 sites⁵ (Special Protection Areas (SPA), Proposed Sites for Community Importance (pSCI), Sites of Community Importance (SCI) and for Special Areas of Conservation (SAC)).
If a Natura 2000 site is not involved, an evaluation should consider the possible deviation from the baseline of the parameters such as the rarity / density of the species, the area covered by the habitat and the resilience (recovery capacity) of species and habitats in the site negatively affected by the damaging occurrence and damage factors.
Reference should be made to the tables of IMPACT and STATE for the determination of clues and evidence of damage to biodiversity. The following fig. 14 represents the decision-making flowchart for the determination of the clues of damage to biodiversity protected by ELD: