page_title: Biogeographic regions of Europe
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Biogeographic regions of Europe / History
caption_attribution_description: Brachland, Baustelle für den w:de:Weser Tower
context_page_description: The biogeographic regions of Europe are biogeographic regions defined by the European Environment Agency.
  They were initially limited to the European Union member states, but later extended to cover all of Europe west of the Urals, including all of Turkey.
  The map of biogeographic regions is deliberately simplified and ignores local anomalies.
  It is intended primarily as a framework for coordinating and reporting overall results of conservation efforts.
context_section_description: Alfred Russel Wallace made an early classification of the world's biogeographical regions and subregions in 1876.
  He placed Europe in the Palaearctic Region (today called the Palearctic realm), divided between the North Europe and Mediterranean subregions.
  The subregions roughly matched Augustin Pyramus de Candolle's botanical regions, and were basically an attempt to define areas of strongly related endemism.
  The modern Biogeographical Regions Map of Europe was developed for use by the European Union member countries in applying the criteria of the Habitats Directive, Annex III, Stage 2: "... to assess the community importance and to select from the national lists the sites which will become Special Areas for Conservation." 
  The proposed sites within each of the biogeographical regions are evaluated against the criteria given in Annex III.
  The original Habitats Directive of 21 May 1992 identified five biogeographical regions: Alpine, Atlantic, Continental, Macaronesian and Mediterranean. 
  These provide a geographical framework for creating a draft list of Sites of Community Importance from the lists provided by the member states.
  The Boreal region was added in 1995 when Austria, Finland and Sweden joined the European Union.
  In 1996 the Standing Committee of the Berne Convention decided to set up the Emerald network of Areas of Special Conservation Interest (ASCI’s).
  In 1998 the Standing Committee of the Berne Convention made it clear that for European Union member states the Emerald sites were the European Union's Natura 2000 network sites.
  The map of Biogeographical Regions therefore had to be expanded to cover all of Europe, not just the European Union.
  Five more biogeographical regions were added: Anatolian, Arctic, Black Sea, Pannonian and Steppic.
  The revised Biogeographical Regions map for the Pan-European area was approved by the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention in November 2001.
caption: Fallow land in Bremen, Atlantic region, site of the Weser Tower
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