Nature protection and biodiversity - Why care? (France)

French species diversity: a rich but threatened heritage

France’s position at the crossroads of four of the EU’s nine biogeographical regions (Continental, Atlantic, Mediterranean and Alpine) gives it one of the richest natural heritages in Europe, as illustrated by the following examples:

·         there is considerable habitat diversity: of the 216 habitat types of Community interest, i.e. habitats within the territory of the EU which are rare or in danger of disappearing, 131 (61%) occur in France;

·         in metropolitan France, of the 696 species currently being evaluated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), 13 are classified as extinct and 140 (20%) are in danger of disappearing;

·         France is one of the four EU regions with the highest level of mammal diversity, having more than a hundred known species;

·         France is also one of the richest EU countries in reptiles, with 40 species.

Moreover, because of its overseas territories, French territory is home to a natural heritage of worldwide importance:

·         it is the only territory to be involved in five ‘hot spots’ of world biodiversity (the Mediterranean Basin, the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, New Caledonia and Polynesia) and one of the earth’s three major forest zones (Amazonia);

·         French overseas territories, which are very rich in biological terms, and occur in three of the world’s great oceans, are home to some 3 360 plants and almost 240 vertebrates, i.e. more than the whole of Continental Europe (on only 0.08% of all emerged land);

·         France’s huge maritime territory, the second largest in the world (with an exclusive economic zone of approximately 11 million km²), contains 10% of the world’s coral reefs and 20% of its coral atolls;

·         the most diversified seabird colonies in the world are at home in France’s Southern and Antarctic Territories.

Overseas, the rate of extinction is estimated to be more than thirty times the rate observed in metropolitan France. Purely owing to the large number of its tropical species, France is in fourth place in the world ranking for threatened animal species, and in ninth position for plant species.

Diversity and endemism of metropolitan and overseas France