A new contract will assess protected areas and ecosystem services to set site‑specific goals across the Natura 2000 network, strengthening evidence for conservation.
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A two‑lot contract from Bulgaria’s Ministry of Environment and Water (Ministerstvo na Okolnata Sreda i Vodite) aims to tighten the evidence base for conservation. It will evaluate data and results behind site‑specific goals and measures for protected areas, and map and assess ecosystems and their services across the country’s Natura 2000 network. That combination of target‑setting and ecosystem accounting is central to how governments translate EU biodiversity policy into local action.
The notice, published in October 2025, sets out a programme to review how objectives for protected areas are defined and to test the robustness of the underlying data. It couples this with work to map ecosystems and assess the services they provide, all within the Natura 2000 framework.
Released under the title Evaluation of Protected Areas and Ecosystems, the procurement is divided into two lots. While the notice does not spell out the split, it highlights two core strands of activity:
The first strand speaks to whether local conservation targets are clear, defensible and aligned with evidence. The second brings in ecosystem services—such as flood protection, carbon storage or pollination—linking biodiversity priorities to wider societal benefits. Together, they point to a programme that seeks consistency between what is measured, what is valued and what is managed.
Key details such as timetables, methodologies and deliverables are not included in the notice. Those will determine how results feed into management plans and national reporting, and how findings support decisions on active measures in the field.
The focus on site‑specific objectives and standardised evidence echoes recent moves across the EU. In October 2024, Croatia’s agriculture ministry set out a service to define specific conservation objectives for target species and habitat types in 238 Natura 2000 areas, aligning with EU directives and Commission guidance (Conservation Goals for Natura 2000 Network). That emphasis on clarity of goals sits at the heart of Bulgaria’s brief.
Standard methods are also in focus. In September 2023, Greece’s Organismos Fysikou Perivallontos kai Klimatikis Allagis commissioned the creation of uniform protocols for scientific monitoring across species and habitat types, including GIS database design and validation methodologies (Service for the creation of uniform protocols). Establishing such protocols helps ensure that assessments are comparable over time and across regions—an issue that Bulgaria’s evaluative strand will likely have to navigate.
Agricultural policy is another driver. In October 2023, Ireland’s Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine announced plans for a multi‑cycle monitoring and evaluation programme to assess the Common Agricultural Policy Strategic Plan’s impacts on habitats and biodiversity, combining stratified spatial mapping, desk‑based assessments of connectivity and change, field quality surveys, and staged reporting (Environmental monitoring PIN). Bulgaria’s inclusion of ecosystem services suggests a similarly broad lens that can engage land‑use policy.
On the planning side, France’s Region Grand Est set up a framework in December 2022 to implement Natura 2000 objective documents (DOCOB) across multiple sites, covering site animation, monitoring and updates to keep conservation guidance current (Framework for DOCOB implementation). Bulgaria’s contract appears aimed at feeding such planning processes with validated data and clear objectives.
Water management is part of the picture, too. In November 2024, Poland’s State Water Holding Wody Polskie sought methodologies for setting environmental objectives and environmental flows across water bodies and protected areas (Establishing Environmental Objectives). Bulgaria’s focus on ecosystem services would allow similar integration of hydrological considerations into conservation goals.
Quality assurance has also come to the fore. In October 2024, the Maritime Office in Gdynia commissioned consulting and reviews to help ensure Natura 2000 plans met standards for quality and consistency (Consulting Services for Natura 2000 Plans). The Bulgarian brief’s emphasis on “controlling data and results” points to a similar concern with defensibility.
European contracts of this kind tend to combine spatial data, fieldwork and standardised reporting. In January 2024, the Czech nature conservation agency sought expert botanical field surveys to collect current data on habitat distribution and quality, to be recorded via Wanas software for mapping (Collection of Up‑to‑Date Data). In February 2025, it returned to market with a similar habitat mapping project (Habitat Mapping Project), underlining the demand for repeatable, software‑ready data.
Greece’s protocol project in September 2023 went deeper into method, requiring sampling designs, standard data sheets, parameter choices linked to EU six‑year reporting, remote‑sensing options, GIS database templates and data‑quality verification. Those elements signal the toolset likely to be in play when mapping ecosystems and services or validating site objectives.
Scale management matters, too. Estonia’s Riigi Tugiteenuste Keskus launched a 48‑lot wildlife and landscape monitoring procurement in December 2019, spanning taxa from plants and mosses to bats and marine mammals, and using both field collection and remote sensing (Environmental indicators analysis). While Bulgaria’s programme is split into two lots rather than dozens, that Estonian example shows how contracting can be structured to handle varied subject matter without losing methodological consistency.
Methodology also links to the legal process. In August 2023, the Czech Republic’s technology agency commissioned work to create a certified methodology for assessing the significance of habitat and species habitat loss under national law implementing Natura 2000 assessments (Methodology of evaluation of significance). Clear, agreed methods are a precondition for robust decisions—precisely the sort of defensibility Bulgaria’s contract seeks through data evaluation and control.
Bulgaria’s notice sits within a wider sequence from data and planning to action and monitoring. In January 2025, Yugozapadno Darzhavno Predpriyatie DP set out a contract to execute biodiversity measures under the national Natura 2000 framework in Blagoevgrad Municipality, focusing on forest management and natural regeneration (Biodiversity Measures Execution). The new evaluation and ecosystem‑mapping work is upstream of such interventions, shaping which measures are justified where, and why.
Monitoring the effects of those measures is the final link. In May 2022, Poland’s Regional Directorate for Environmental Protection in Olsztyn commissioned six lots to assess how conservation activities affected the status of habitats and species in specific Natura 2000 sites (Assessment of conservation impacts). That kind of feedback loop depends on clear objectives and reliable baseline data—the very outputs Bulgaria is now procuring.
Cities are pushing in parallel. In February 2025, Oslo’s Bymiljøetaten sought external support to map and assess natural values, revise existing data and prepare care plans to better safeguard biodiversity in the capital (Mapping Nature Values in Oslo). The tools and standards developed for national networks often cascade into local practice.
As Bulgaria moves to award this contract, watch for clarity on the two‑lot split, the deliverables for ecosystem mapping and services assessment, and how data quality control will be handled. The degree to which outputs align with standard protocols seen elsewhere, and how they integrate with agricultural and water objectives, will shape their usefulness for management plans and EU reporting.
Across Europe, similar programmes continue to mature—from Croatia’s conservation goal‑setting to the Czech Republic’s repeat habitat mapping—pointing to a steady convergence on shared methods and measurable targets. The Bulgarian contract is another step in that direction; its impact will be judged on how well it turns data into clear, actionable objectives for Natura 2000 sites.
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