In the EU plants, animals and areas are protected in nature conservation laws, for instance through Habitat directives or Bird directives. These laws state that the potentially negative effect of projects  in or in the vicinity of conservation areas, called the Natura 2000-network, need to be assessed before projects can be realized. Aqua-Terra Nova fulfills the role of assessing projects in order to comply to nature conservation laws. Our method consists of three steps, in which the first step is to conduct a quickscan, in our words an Eco-effectscan.

The Eco-effectscan consists of a short assessment to study the possibility that protected species or areas are affected by projects. If necessary, follow-up studies are conducted in order to assess the presence of protected species in the vicinity of project areas and the potential effect of projects on protected areas and species.

Aqua-Terra Nova has completed numerous assessments and conducted many species surveys, both in the field as in literature. These surveys include birds, bats, mice, plants and but also mollusks like the ramshorn snail and insects.