Red list of Natura2000 habitats in Poland

The Habitats Directive mandates the protection of selected aquatic and terrestrial areas distinguished on the basis of certain geographic and biological features, hereafter referred to as habitats. Such areas are usually identified by specific plant communities, less commonly concerning sedentary aquatic invertebrates or geological features. A community prohibition on activities that may significantly degrade the condition of natural habitats is written into Article 33 of the Law on Nature Protection.

The scope of the necessary measures is determined by the Conservation Plans of each Natura2000 site. There is money to be made from the protection of these habitats, using climate-agricultural-environmental programs, as well as implementing projects with European and national funds. Nevertheless, updates to the documentation, the so-called SDFs of individual Natura2000 sites, often bring saddening data about the deterioration of habitats or their complete disappearance. What does this look like on a national scale? The new Red List of Natural Habitats of Poland [1], downloadable for free from the website of the Chief Inspectorate for Environmental Protection (GIOŚ), answers this question.

First study of its kind in Poland

This is the first analysis of its kind, which was prepared in accordance with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) ecosystem assessment methodology [4, 5] and includes all Habitats Directive Annex I habitats recorded in Poland. In addition to the justification of the categories, it includes a short but informative characterization of all 81 assessed habitats, which brings it close to the Red Books. It was published on the initiative of the GIOŚ at the end of 2025, and was funded by the National Environmental Protection Fund. The execution of the whole thing was coordinated by five prominent scientists and practitioners, including Prof. Agnieszka Kolada, author of many articles for Water Matters. A summative assessment was made, based on four criteria:

1. The size of the area occupied by a given habitat,
2. trends of changes in that area,
3. The state of the structure and function of the habitat,
4. The sum of the pressure on the habitat.

The conservation status of most habitats was estimated based on:

1. results of the State Environmental Monitoring (PME);
2. reports on the status of habitat protection, submitted by Poland every six years to the European Commission.

In addition, for forest habitats, data from J.M. Matuszkiewicz’s 2001 monograph Forest Complexes of Poland were used to quantify acreage reduction. For many habitats, especially freshwater, marine and non-forest habitats, the authors had only scanty historical data. Thanks to the extraordinary commitment of many people, it was possible to overcome these obstacles, complete the data, and, as a result, make reliable estimates of the risk of disappearance of many Annex I habitats. [1, 2].

Hard data confirms our fears

Reading the Red List of Poland’s natural habitats confirms what scientists and wildlife activists have been mentioning for years. Seventy percent of Poland’s natural habitats are in danger of disappearing (57 out of 81 assessed, to be exact). Habitats closest to extinction, i.e. critically endangered (CR), were counted 12, followed closely by 28 habitats at risk (EN) and 17 only vulnerable (VU) to further degradation. 13 types of habitats were considered relatively safe on the scale of Poland, yet close to threatened (NT), and only 8 were given the status of least vulnerable to multiple risks, in other words, least concern (LC).

For a further 3 habitat types, the list’s authors had neither certain data nor the ability to complete them in a meaningful time. Therefore, they were assigned the category of insufficiently recognized (DD). Readers of Water Matters will be pleased to know that none of the riparian and freshwater habitats are critically endangered. They will be upset to learn, however, that among the country’s most endangered habitats are various types of peatlands, meadows and herbaceous grasslands that depend on webraces, as well as coastal salt marshes.

According to the Red List of Habitats, what threatens Poland’s waters and wetlands the most?

All are harmed by droughts and falling water levels as the effects of irrational management, and compounded by climate change. For oxbow lakes (3150), riverbeds (3260) and riverbanks (3220, 3230, 2340, 3270), flow dynamics remains crucial. This one, in turn, is threatened by hydrotechnical works. Most of Poland’s river valleys have lost their function as migration corridors for bi-environmental fish. Instead, they have often become invasion routes and seedbeds for alien species, both aquatic and terrestrial. Drylands, or natural dystrophic reservoirs (3160), are harmed by the loss of humic substances in the water due to deforestation.

In lobelia lakes (3110), the opposite is true – they are devastated by the influx of humus from the catchment. Lake habitats (3110, 3140, 3150, 3160) are struggling with additional nutrients, not only flowing in from the catchment, but also falling from the atmosphere, in places also coming from bait. Herbivores (6430) and a couple of grassland types are harmed by disturbances in the rhythm of periodic flooding and subsequent drying of soils. Nevertheless, for most pastures, hay meadows and other grasslands, the most damaging is the departure from traditional farming [1, 3].

Widespread drainage of wetlands has turned bogs (7110, 7120, 7140, 7210, 7230), springs (7220) and salt marshes (1310, 1330, 1340) into some of the more desolate, and close to disappearing, Annex I habitats. Old drainage systems are still in place in many places, worsening hydrological conditions. Water shortages are exacerbated by climate change: lowering of the groundwater table, reduced precipitation and its unfavorable distribution here, as well as increased evapotranspiration. Lack of blue liquid means peat mineralization, and thus an increase in the fertility of open mosses and sedges. They then rapidly succumb to the expansion of competitively strong species, from native reeds and reeds to alien ash-leaf maples. The disappearance of saltmarshes follows an analogous course. The cessation of saltwater inflow and stagnation, often combined with the cessation of hay and pasture use, transforms salt meadows into reedbeds [1, 2, 3].

The extraordinary diversity of marine habitats is threatened by an equally rich palette of human pressures. All habitats of the Polish section of the Baltic Sea (1110, 1130, 1150, 1160, 1170) are harmed by water contamination from municipal, agricultural, industrial pollution, fuel and lubricant spills, and remnants of war gases. Undersea meadows (1110), lagoons (1150) and marine clam beds (1170) are also harmed by changes in the relief of the bottom, caused by aggregate extraction, the creation of fairways or bank reinforcement. In places, fishing management is also harmful. It is already worth working out ways to mitigate and compensate for this type of work, especially since Poland has been given the priceless but almost unexplored Lost City hydrothermal fields near the Azores for exploitation.

Also, climate change is not indifferent to the habitats of our Baltic Sea. The increase in the number of natural disasters plus the growing dynamics of processes affecting the shores will force adequate modernization of development in the coastal strip. Add to this tourist pressure, some effects of the energy transition and new military challenges. This will locally worsen the condition of cliffs (1230), white dunes (2110, 2120), kidzina (1210) and shallow estuaries (1130). The latter two habitats mentioned here are also harmed by reduced ice phenomena [1, 2, 3].

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In writing the article, I used:

1. Korzeniak J., Perzanowska J., Cieśla A., Gawryś R., Kolada A. (eds.). (2025). Red list of natural habitats of Poland. GIOŚ, Cracow-Sękocin Stary-Warszawa.
2. Perzanowska, J., & Korzeniak, J. (2020). Red list of Natura 2000 habitat types of Poland. Journal for Nature Conservation, 56, 125834.
3. Perzanowska, J., Korzeniak, J., & Chmura, D. (2019). Alien species as a potential threat for Natura 2000 habitats: a national survey. PeerJ, 7, e8032.
4. Berg C., Abdank A., Isermann M., Jansen F., Timmermann T., Dengler J. (2014). Red lists and conservation prioritization of plant communities – A methodological framework. Applied Vegetation Science, 17, 504-515.
5. Bland L., Keith D., Miller R., Murray N., Rodríguez J (Eds.) (2016). Guidelines for the application of IUCN Red list of ecosystems categories and criteria, version 1.0, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland (2016) ix + 94pp.