The five Biogeographical Regions are
a key concept in the EC Habitats Directive (Council Directive
92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna
and flora). Sites for the protection of habitats listed at Annex I
and species listed at Annex II of the Directive, will be selected
as Special Areas of Conservation in the context of their
Biogeographical Region.
In October 1994 a meeting of scientific representatives from
Member States with territory in the Atlantic Biogeographical Region
was held, to discuss matters of common concern and to clarify the
conservation requirements of in that region. Central to this was
the collation of data regarding the presence of the Annex I
habitats and Annex II species. This information can be used to
characterise the Atlantic Biogeographical Region and will enable
the final selection of SACs. This report draws some tentative
conclusions from that data and presents synopses of some of the
discussions at the meeting.
JNCC Report No. 247: The Habitats Directive Atlantic
Biogeographical Region was published in July 1995.
The report is being republished in its present form to help
provide contextual information to the selection of special areas of
conservation in the UK, with only minimal changes to the text to
enable the report to be made available in electronic format.
Consequently, the codes and names for habitat types, and species
names, used in the present report are those used in the original
Directive, not those later adopted by Council Directive 97/62/EC
Adapting to technical and scientific progress Directive 92/43/EEC
on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and
flora.