NATURA 2000 is a European ecological network, designed on the basis of the Birds Directive and the Habitats Directive. Its goal is the protection of species and habitats that are essential for maintaining the natural balance in the European Union. This paper provides an overview and systematization of the benthic habitat types of the ecological network NATURA 2000 in the Croatian territorial waters of the Adriatic Sea. Based on the results of a detailed analysis of the data of the National Nature Protection Information System (Bioportal) and their processing using the Geographical Information System QGIS 3.20.2. 226 NATURA 2000 areas were systematized with regard to: type of benthic habitats and their geographic location, regional affiliation (northern, middle, southern Adriatic), protection measures (PPOVS and POVS), pressures, total area of protected areas with percentage of sea surface, and the surface of the total number of 496 NATURA 2000 benthic habitats, on a total surface of 4508 km2. Summary results and comparative results for the areas of the northern, central and southern Adriatic are presented. The basic geographical distribution of the benthic areas of the NATURA 2000 ecological network in the Adriatic was mapped