Authors: Lanzas, Monica; Salgado, José Ignacio;Pla, Magda ;Pou, Nuria;Bota, Gerard;Hermoso, Virgilio;

The periodic monitoring report of the State of the Nature (2013-2018) in the European Union (EU) shows that biodiversity continues to decline, despite efforts carried out in the last decades. Therefore, improving adequacy of conservation action is urgently needed.
We aimed to identify conservation gaps in Catalonia in period 2013-2018. We collected information on management measures implemented, including allocation, budget, pressures aimed, and habitats/ species that potentially benefit. We also mapped the spatial distribution of pressures, species and habitats, and compiled information on the sensitivity of each species/habitat to each pressure. We crossed the information on the distribution of pressures, species/ habitats and measures to identify management gaps (pressures not covered by measures).
We then identified priority areas for filling those management gaps, by using the prioriactions R package, which aims to identify an optimal allocation of management actions to reduce the impact of multiple pressures on multiple species and habitats simultaneously.
We found that in many cases resources are not adequate distributed across species/habitats with duplicities of conservation investment a common issue. The gaps identified could be efficiently covered through our spatial prioritisation approach that could help improve adequacy of management efforts across the EU or elsewhere.