CDDA data collection 2022

Released on 2021-12-20 by Mette Lund
To: Eionet National Focal Points, Eionet CDDA reporters and Thematic group for Biodiversity monitoring

Dear Colleague,

We are writing to inform you of the detailed plans for the nationally designated protected areas (CDDA) annual data collection. CDDA is, as you will know, one of the agreed EIONET core data flows. We hope the information will be useful as you organise a programme of work with your network to validate the existing data published by EEA and to provide any new information available by the deadline for deliveries 22 March 2022 (the deadline is postponed due to technical issues on Reportnet 3 [update 04/03/2022]).

The CDDA reporting has moved to Reportnet 3

There is no change to the reporting format in 2022 but the reporting will take place on Reportnet 3 platform. To get access to Reportnet 3 platform, the reporter needs to acquire an EU login and then register on the platform https://reportnet.europa.eu/. Please use the support document Login and check this video (30 seconds) for the steps to do this. Send a mail to helpdesk@reportnet.europa.eu informing you have logged in and you are the CDDA reporter. If you are new to the reporting, your National Focal Point (NFP) should send the email to the helpdesk and confirm your role. Only after you registration on Reportnet 3 platform, will we be able to add you as a Lead reporter for the CDDA dataflow for you to access it. Again, your NFP should confirm your role as lead. The Lead reporter will be able to add additional reporters to support the dataflow work without involvement of the EEA. Supporting reporters may have either Write or Read permissions. Please note the Lead reporters are the only ones who can make the final submission and release the dataset.

  • Support document: Please see the dedicated document for CDDA reporting on Reportnet 3 platform, available from the CDDA reference page. In addition, use the support document Reporter for getting familiar with the main platform general functionalities available for reporters.

We expect to invite for a technical webinar for CDDA reporters in the first week of February 2022. More information will come in early January.

Please familiarise yourself as usual with Reporting guidelines and other material available from the CDDA reference page.

Data collection coordination with the World Database on Protected Areas

The contribution from Eionet members to the 2020 evaluation of the Aichi Biodiversity target 11 on protected area coverage amounted to 23% of the land territory and ~8% of the marine territory. The numbers include national designations, Natura 2000 and Emerald sites. As you are probably aware, the Aichi 11 coverage targets were 17% on land and 10% for the marine realm. While we wait for the new global targets to 2030 from the coming Biodiversity COP 15 in Kunming, China, see the global and regional scoreboards at ProtectedPlanet.net. You can also see the most recent Eionet contribution in the indicator on nationally designated protected areas here.

The 2022 CDDA database will as usual be the European contribution, delivered by the EEA on your behalf, to the global level, the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA). You allow the EEA to do so at site level as part of the CDDA reporting.

Regional statistics for marine sites

Within the regions and sub-regions referred to in the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), the Aichi Biodiversity target 11 goal of minimum 10 % coverage of marine protected areas was reached. A recent report from ETC/ICM documents that within EU-27 the marine protected area coverage is now 12 %. This conclusion was possible as you in recent years made an effort to report marine nationally designated areas via the CDDA. The report is available here.

The focus for future analysis will be to prepare overviews for each of the regional seas including statistics from all Eionet as well as EU statistics. The EEA will also pick up statistics by country. To do so, Eionet is kindly requested to keep responding to the CDDA data call with attention to marine designations.

OECMs

The geographical area of the so-called "other effective area-based conservation measures", OECMs, were included when the Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 was evaluated in 2020. OECMs do not meet the IUCN definition of a protected area but have their own definition adopted in CBD CoP 2018. OECMs should contribute to both coverage targets and ecological representation of nature. OECMs are recognized by the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2030 and are expected to be included in the new global coverage targets. Please consider if some of the sites reported by your country are actually OECMs rather than protected areas. Candidate sites that may meet the OECM definition can be reported using the category B designation type. You may also consider if some areas not previously reported to CDDA, do provide benefits for biodiversity according to the definition and should be included as OECMs.

The 2019 guidelines on recognising OECMs from the IUCN World Commission of Protected Areas as well as their 2020 draft site-level methodology are available to support your work on OECMs in the coming years.

For marine sites it is relevant for EU Member States to refer to ‘spatial protection measures’ as identified by article 13.4 of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive. These sites can also be reported using the category B designation type.

Ensure to update your Designation types

The Designation types reporting webform is available for your updates at any time. The webform is simple to use, you can add your changes directly on the screen. Instructions and background information on designation types reporting is available from the Designation type reference page.

The Designation type code list includes designation types as reported by your country by 2017 unless you updated the information via the webform already. The code list is used in the automatic QC of your CDDA delivery (field: national designation type). Please ensure that your country’s designation types are up to date before submitting your CDDA 2022 delivery. The EEA's update of the designation types registry is currently not automated. It may take a few days for a new delivery to be processed and visualised online.

The full table may be downloaded from the CDDA dataset download page.

 

Key issues for the reporting

The cddaId codes

The site code cddaId is the thematic identifier for the CDDA dataset. It is vital that you give all Type 2 records correct cddaIds. The cddaId is identical to the WDPA ID used as the unique identifier by the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA).

The web service for allocation of cddaId for new sites is available at:

http://dd.eionet.europa.eu/services/siteCodes

The service has been updated with the information from the last year reporting cycle. We kindly ask you to use this service to reserve new codes for your sites. A detailed user guide is available for download at the site code allocation web service page. Please note that the layout of the web page has been changed, compared to the user guide, but the functionality of the page remains the same.

The localId and PSlocalId codes

All Type 1 features and their corresponding Type 2 records must be assigned correct and identical localId and PSlocalId. The localId and PSlocalId are the principal linking elements, which allows Type 1 and Type 2 data to be properly joined.

Calculating majorEcosystemType

If a spatial analysis is used by your country to determine the major ecosystem type of sites, we recommend that you introduce a threshold to reduce the number of marineAndTerrestrial artifact sites. A spatial analysis, using a coastline likely digitised at a different scale than the designated areas, will introduce false marineAndTerrestrial sites.

We recommended considering sites with less than 1% terrestrial ecosystem as fully marine sites and sites with less than 1% marine ecosystem as fully terrestrial. If your country has a complicated coastline, you may consider to manually investigate all sites below a 5% threshold to determine the appropriate major ecosystem type. If in doubt, please consider the Tabular data. Is a site for example to be considered marine, if no marine features are included in the conservation objectives?

Coordinate reference system (CRS) encoding in GML

If your country creates the GML file from a national service, please ensure that the CRS encoding is using 'http' quotation. The correct CRS encoding is e.g., 'http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/.

Data delivery

When preparing the data delivery, please revise the QC feedback from ETC/BD and automated reports available in your 2021 CDDA collection folder on the Central Data Repository (CDR). In addition, ETC/BD has prepared a dashboard with more information on your recent submission. Please update and correct, if necessary, your data for the 2022 delivery.

Your quality checked data should be uploaded, after consultation with the National Focal Point, to the Reportnet 3 platform by the deadline of 15 March 2022. As this is the first year of using Reportnet 3, please consider starting early the upload. You may consider uploading your submission from last year as a trial to get acquainted with the platform. You can upload and delete files as you see fit.

Please follow the instructions in the CDDA reporting on Reportnet 3 platform.

The delivery should consist of the following parts:

  • Type 1 spatial data (shapefile or GML format) – it is not mandatory to convert spatial files to GML anymore. Shapefile is also an accepted format. Those implementing INSPIRE may consider to use INSPIRE download services in 2022. A first trial is taking place on Reportnet 3 platform, see section 1.4.3 in the above instructions.
  • Type 2 data (XLS or XML format)
    • DesignatedArea - includes records with thematic information of each nationally designated area
    • LinkedDataset – this table is redundant on Reportnet 3.0 platform. There is no need to update or provide it for the 2022 submission. In case it is part of the output from your national system, it is accepted to provide it.
  • Additional information - any supporting or clarifying information that you think is necessary to explain your delivery. Use any format you think will serve the purpose. This year please use the parallel dataflow "Nationally designated areas (CDDA) - Supporting documents".

Following automatic QCs and successfully released, the envelope enters the Final feedback stage, and the envelope will be locked. In this step, the data processor (ETC/BD) will perform additional checks and decide whether the envelope can be "technically accepted" or they will ask for a correction and redelivery from you ("correction requested").

Only technically accepted envelopes will be harvested and processed into the European dataset. If ETC/BD asks for a correction of your delivery, the detailed reasons will be provided in the envelope as manual feedback and you will be notified about it if you activated Notifications.

 

Scoring criteria

The scoring of the reporting will follow the Eionet core data flows scoring criteria for the Timeliness parameter:

  • Timely delivery 22 March (the deadline)
  • Small delay 21 April (+30 days)
  • Serious delay 22 April (and thereafter)

For the Data Quality parameter, in 2022, the scoring will be the following:

  • Basic test failed: Generation of "blocker" messages during the QC test.
  • Basic test passed: Only "error", "warning" or "ok" messages have been generated.
  • All tests passed: Only "warning" or "ok" messages have been generated.

Helpdesk and support

helpdesk@reportnet.europa.eu
cdda.helpdesk@eionet.europa.eu

  • In the case of login problems or any other technical difficulties with Reportnet 3 web services, please contact Reportnet Helpdesk
  • In the case of questions related to the content of the data requested, please contact CDDA helpdesk. This support is provided by ETC/BD staff.

If colleagues working directly on the CDDA data delivery in your country are not NRCs or nominated CDDA data reporters, please copy this letter to them so that they are aware of the wider context of their work at the European level.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support. We look forward to another successful annual data flow.

Mette Lund - Biodiversity data and information systems expert
Marek Staron - Technical support for water and biodiversity data flows