Biogeographic regions of Europe

They were initially limited to the European Union member states, but later extended to cover all of Europe west of the Urals, including all of Turkey.

[2] The challenges to habitats and species vary across Europe due to differences in climate, topography, soil conditions and so on, but the problems and solutions may be similar between neighboring countries, which may benefit from coordinating conservation efforts for sites within the same biogeographical region.

[3] Annex III of the Habitats Directive discusses a 2-stage approach to prioritizing conservation:[4] Alfred Russel Wallace made an early classification of the world's biogeographical regions and subregions in 1876.

The subregions roughly matched Augustin Pyramus de Candolle's botanical regions, and were basically an attempt to define areas of strongly related endemism.

[5] The modern Biogeographical Regions Map of Europe was developed for use by the European Union member countries in applying the criteria of the Habitats Directive, Annex III, Stage 2: "... to assess the community importance and to select from the national lists the sites which will become Special Areas for Conservation."