Proposal on a criteria system for a National Red Data Book of Biotopes

The proposed criteria system should be able to describe the status of biotopes and biotope complexes as exactly as possible and it should provide useful guidelines for nature conservation. The given proposal includes two criteria to estimate the threat of biotopes: 1. threat by destruction (loss of area); 2. threat by qualitative changes (creeping degradation/destruction of certain variants); supplemented by a third criterion: 3. assessment of regeneration ability.The categories and their definitions use basically the criteria system developed for the National Red Data Book of Species (Blab et al. 1984) but adjusted to the special needs of biotope evaluation. The first steps to realise a National Red Data Book of Biotopes are described and the limitations in the use in nature conservation are discussed.