This data set represents the boundaries of the area of interest where activities and researches promoted by the Carpathian Convention Parties take place. It consists of the area, extended with a 50 km buffer zone, identified in the Carpathian Environment Outlook (KEO) described in the 2010 EEA Report No 6/2010 "Europe´s ecological backbone: recognising the true value of our mountains" (https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/europes-ecological-backbone). The area covered within these boundaries includes part of EU countries, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, an EEA cooperative countries, Serbia and Ukraine. The boundaries delimitation was proposed and agreed by the signatories of the Partnership agreement, the EEA and the Secretariat of the Carpathian Convention (SCC).

This dataset is based on the Environmental Stratification of Europe (EnS) dataset from the University of Edinburgh, a statistically derived land classification which provides a novel global spatial framework for the integration and analysis of ecological and environmental data (Metzger, Marc J. 2018). It provides a robust spatial analytical framework for the aggregation of local observations, identification of gaps in current monitoring efforts and systematic design of complementary and new monitoring and research. The version 8 of the source EnS dataset, used for the creation of this dataset, distinguishes 84 strata that are relatively homogeneous in environmental conditions and can be aggregated into 13 environmental zones: • Alpine North (ALN) • Boreal (BOR) • Nemoral (NEM) • Atlantic North (ATN) • Alpine South (ALS) • Continental (CON) • Atlantic Central (ATC) • Pannonian (PAN) • Lusitanian (LUS) • Anatolian (ANA) • Mediterranean Mountains (MDM) • Mediterranean North (MDN) • Mediterranean South (MDS) The original dataset (vector format, 1 km spatial resolution) has been rasterised into pixel size of 100m to align with Corine Land Cover. Its spatial coverage has been extended as follows: • Turkey is covered only partially in the original dataset. Missing parts are supplemented by a comparable national dataset provided by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry of Turkey. • The dataset is extended along the coastline to fully cover the spatial extent of CORINE Land Cover. • Canary Islands, Madeira archipelago and the Azores are not included in the original dataset and added as environmental zone “Macaronesia (MAC)”. • Iceland is not included in the original dataset and added as environmental zone “Arctic (ARC)”

The biogeographical regions dataset contains the official delineations used in the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) and for the EMERALD Network set up under the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (Bern Convention). The Pannonian region of Serbia was missing in previous versions and this has been corrected in the 2016 version. Some Arctic islands which do not belong to the European part of Russia and which were erroneously included in previous versions have been removed.