1.2.2 Species of European interest

The strategy for conservation of species set out in the Directive is more complex than that for habitat types. It comprises measures related to site designation for species listed in Annex II, strict protection of all populations of species listed in Annex IV, and the managed exploitation of species listed in Annex V. A number of species are listed in more than one Annex. The present report is concerned only with the process of site selection and so considers only Annex II species.

Annex II (as amended by the 2003 Treaty of Accession) lists 788 species, of which 61 have been recorded in the UK (excluding Gibraltar) since 1900. A sub-set of species listed in Annex II are considered to be particularly rare or endangered and are defined as 'priority species'. Only one of these, the liverwort 1390 Western rustwort Marsupella profunda, is known to currently occur as a native in the UK.

Of the 61 Annex II species that have been recorded in the UK in the past century, 21 have not had specific sites proposed (Table 1.3), mostly because they are extinct in the UK or have been recorded only as non-natives or vagrants (see Section 1.5.2.5). A full list of species currently resident in the UK is provided. The site selection rationale for 1351 Harbour porpoise Phocoena phocoena is still being considered by the UK conservation agencies, together with the two UK native species added to Annex II in 2003, 4056 Ram's-horn snail Anisus vorticulus and 4035 Fisher's estuarine moth Gortyna borelii lunata.


Table 1.3 Annex II species recorded in the UK since 1900 for which no SACs have been proposed

In addition to the species listed in Table 1.3, experimental reintroduction of 1337 European beaver Castor fiber (long extinct in the UK) has been proposed, but no licence for this work has been granted (see Section 1.5.2.5).