20 years of forest change in Natura 2000 protected areas network

Natura 2000 network, the world's largest network of protected areas, is considered a success for habitat and biodiversity protection, in the last decades. Our objective is to develop an algorithm for satellite data temporal analysis of protected areas, and to apply subsequently this algorithm for analysis of all Natura 2000 sites in Europe. We have developed an algorithm for satellite data temporal analysis of protected areas using JavaScript in Google Earth Engine, which is a web interface for the massive analysis of geospatial data, providing access to huge amount of data and facilitating development of complex workflows. This work focused on analysis of Global Forest Change dataset representing forest change, at 30 meters resolution, globally, between 2000 and 2018. Our results show that at least regarding forest protection, the network is not very successful, the 25350 sites losing 35246.8 km² of forest cover between 2000 and 2018, gaining only 9862.1 km². All 28 countries recorded a negative forest net change, with a mean value of -906.6 km², the largest forest area change recording Spain (-5106.4 km² in 1631 sites), Poland (-4529 km² in 962 sites), Portugal (-2781.9 km² in 120 sites), Romania (-1601.4 km² in 569 sites), Germany (-1365.7 km² in 5049 sites) and France (-1270.9 km² in 1520 sites). Among countries with the lowest values in net forest change is Ireland (-17.4 km² in 447 sites), Estonia (-104.1 km² in 518 sites), Netherlands (-132.3 km² in 152 sites), Finland (-268.6 km² in 1722 sites) and Sweden (-341.6 km² in 3786 sites).