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Based on work by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) on the effectiveness of measures to ensure continuous ecological functionality (CEF) (RUNGE et al. 2010), the Ministry for Environment of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) has initiated the development of a guideline on the “ Effectiveness of species conservation measures for the consideration of measures required under species protection law in North Rhine-Westphalia" (MKULNV & FÖA 2013). This serves to standardise the assessment of the species-specific suitability and effectiveness of CEF measures for a large part of planning-relevant species in NRW. Since there was still need to supplement requirements for evidence of the effectiveness of measures initiated under species protection law and concerning consistent design of risk management for these measures, this guideline has been supplemented by a “Manual of Methods for Species Protection Assessments in North Rhine-Westphalia – Survey and Monitoring" (MKULNV & FÖA 2017). Regarding the legal framework, standards developed in the two guidelines for NRW will be presented. Questions being addressed include which species conservation measures require monitoring, as well as how the selection of methods and the procedure can be standardised in practice. The methodology, criteria and results can essentially be transferred to other German federal states – provided that respective (state-specific) particularities are considered and the corresponding assessment is adjusted if deemed necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The German Environmental Damage Prevention and Remediation Act regulates the liability of damages of species and habitats protected under European Law. Such a "damage of biodiversity" includes each alteration of the respective species and habitats which has "significant negative effects on the restoration or maintenance of a favourable conservation status of these habitats or species". The enforcement of the Environmental Damage Act requires methods and scales for the evaluation of the significance of damaging events. The valuation standards to be applied in the method proposed have to be brought into line with the scales of the European protection of species and habitats and in this context contribute to a harmonization of the checking tools according to European nature conservation legislation. The scales are embedded in a pragmatic series of checking steps derived from the legal specifications of the Environmental Damage Act. The testing starts with a checking of those aspects which help to exclude the existence of a damage of biodiversity rather simply. Only if a serious damage can obviously not be excluded the significance of damages has to be analyzed in the course of a more detailed investigation and specific scales of significance have to be applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]