Coordinated efforts in the European Union (EU) have produced a common legal framework for the nature conservation based on the Birds Directive and the Habitats Directive. The Natura 2000 network of reserves, complemented by specific provisions for the protection of endangered species of animals and plants, from the cornerstones for the implementation of the EU conservation directives. By committing 14.1% of its territory, Germany has provided an important contribution to the Natura 2000 network. The Natura 2000 network is key for the achievement of the political goal to "halt further loss of biodiversity by the year 2010" set by the European Heads of State in 2001.
For each feature contained in the source shapefile, a unique URI is created and a spatial literal is attributed to it. The spatial literal corresponds to the closed polygon and defines the underlined area. For example, nat:lake_1 a nat:Lake ; geo:hasGeometry "POLYGON ((24.12 34.80, ..., 24.12 34.80))"^^geo:wktliteral maps a protected area, which is a Lake, to a polygon in the Well Known Text Literal format provided by the GeoSPARQL ontology.
