Sweden has a total of 531 SPAs comprising 25 837 km² and there are 3984 SCIs (64.425 km²).

Some sites are both SPA and SCI and there is a substantial overlap between the total areas. However, the overlap between SPA and IBA is only 55%.

Furthermore for some species of special conservation concern, the protection is poor as only small portions of the populations are found in the protected areas.[1]

The protection and management of endangered species and habitats is currently only partially satisfactory. This also applies to the protection and management of species outside protected areas.

This is important since a majority of threatened bird species show scattered occurrences in the landscape.

Several endangered species are still decreasing, especially on farmland and in managed forests. (This is therefore also linked to insufficient SPA designation).

The total budget for nature conservation is about 1 billion SEK in 2012^[2]. This includes about 580 million SEK for land purchase (one off cost). The management and operating costs include some 447 million SEK, of which 40 million SEK is spent on threatened species.

The majority of funds come from state conservation funds, used for protection (land purchase) and management. In the agricultural landscape, a large percentage, ca. 250-300 million per year, come from agri-environmental payments.

Funding for nature conservation has been reduced the last few years, due to political reasons. The reduction has been particularly severe for the work with threatened species (only 40 million SEK in 2012). A Prioritised Action Framework is currently being developed, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2012.2