Every six years, Member
States of the European Union are required (by Article 17 of the
Directive) to report on implementation of the Habitats Directive.
The first report provided an analysis of
implemention between 1994 and 2000, focussing on work to select
Special Areas of Conservation. The second Habitats
Directive report focuses on a first assessment of conservation
status of all habitats and species of Community interest. The
reporting format set by the European Commission requires a separate
analysis for each species and each habitat in each biogeographic
region which that country covers.
The report for the
UK covers both metropolitan UK (Atlantic biogeographic region)
and Gibraltar (Mediterranean biogeographical region). The Atlantic
part was completed by JNCC in consultation with species and
habitats specialists in the country conservation agencies. The
Mediterranean part was completed by the Gibraltar Ornithology and
Natural History Society under contract to the Government of
Gibraltar.
The UK report covers 167
habitats and
species in the
Atlantic biogeographic region, and 14 in the Mediterranean
biogeographic region. This is the first time assessments of
conservation status of the habitats and species on the annexes of
the Directive have been undertaken. The conservation status
assessment process is complex. Each assessment has four parts,
which are brought together using a format agreed at a European
level, to form the overall assessment. The conservation status
assessments use information from both protected sites and the wider
countryside and are, therefore, more than an assessment of
protected site condition.