Recital 13

(13) Some criminal offences defined in this Directive include a qualitative threshold for the conduct to constitute a criminal offence, namely that such conduct causes the death of, or serious injury to, a person or substantial damage to the quality of air, water or soil, or to an ecosystem, animals or plants. In order to protect the environment to the fullest extent possible, that qualitative threshold should be understood in a broad sense including, where relevant, substantial damage to fauna and flora, habitats, to services provided by natural resources and by ecosystems as well as to ecosystem functions. The term ‘ecosystem’ should be understood as a dynamic complex of plant, animal, fungi and microorganism communities and their non-living environment, interacting as a functional unit, and should include habitat types, habitats of species and species populations. An ecosystem should also include ecosystem services, through which an ecosystem contributes directly or indirectly to human wellbeing, and ecosystem functions, which refer to natural processes in an ecosystem. Smaller units such as a beehive, an anthill or a stump can be a part of an ecosystem but should not be considered to be an ecosystem in its own right for the purposes of this Directive.

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Source: EUR-Lex CELLAR · retrieved 2026-09-04 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.