Offshore Natura 2000
Natura 2000 is a European network of protected sites
developed to maintain or restore natural habitats and species
of wild flora and fauna to favourable conservation
status within the European Union.
The Natura 2000 programme is driven by two
European Council Directives, the
Habitats Directive and the
Birds
Directive. The Habitats Directive requires the identification
of suitable areas for the protection of habitats and species
listed in the Directive, and their designation as
Special Areas of
Conservation (SACs). The Birds Directive requires each
Member State to identify the most suitable territories for the
protection of bird species listed in the Directive (and
regularly occurring migratory bird species), and their designation
as
Special Protection
Areas (SPAs).
The obligations placed on the UK by the Birds and Habitats
Directives were initially transposed into UK law in the
mid-1990s, through regulations applying only to terrestrial areas
and inshore waters (within 12 nautical miles of the coast).
Identification of
marine SACs within these territorial waters
is the responsibility of the relevant country conservation
agencies: Natural England (NE), Northern Ireland Environment Agency
(NIEA), Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and the Countryside Council
for Wales (CCW); co-ordinated and reported to the UK Government
through the Joint Nature Conservation Committee
(JNCC). Identification of
marine SPAs within territorial limits is
undertaken by JNCC, on behalf of the country conservation agencies.
All of the existing marine Natura 2000 sites are coastal or
associated with small islands/islets, although several do have
substantial subtidal areas.
To date, JNCC has identified seven possible offshore SACs for
Annex I Reefs,
Sandbanks which are slightly covered by
seawater all the time and Submarine structures made by
leaking gases. These sites were subject to
a
public consultation, which ran from December
2007 to March 2008.