The UK Marine SACs project was set up in response to the
challenges placed by the European legislation known as the
EC Habitats Directive that requires Member
States to designate and manage Special Areas of Conservation (SACs)
for habitats and species. The project was undertaken by the UK
government's conservation agencies (CCW, EHS, SNH, Natural England
(formally English Nature)) and the
Scottish Association for Marine
Science (SAMS) with the financial assistance of the EC's
LIFE-Nature fund. It ran from May 1996 to October 2001.
The UK Marine SACs project was also set up to establish
management schemes on selected marine Special Areas of Conservation
(SACs). It focused on twelve marine SACs around the UK coastline to
build our knowledge and establish the best practice needed for the
management and monitoring of European marine sites. JNCC was
responsible for testing and evaluating monitoring techniques to
assess the status of marine features, preparing a handbook using
these results and other available best practice, and providing
recommendations on appropriate information systems to support
marine SAC management.
The
Marine Monitoring Handbook is one of the key
outputs of the project and is being used as guidance by the UK
Government statutory nature conservation agencies (CCW, EHS, SNH,
Natural England (formally English Nature)) and their key partners
in drawing up monitoring schemes for marine SACs.