Marine Habitat and Species Action Plans
In response to the 1992 Convention of Biological Diversity,
the U.K. first launched
Biodiversity: the U.K. Action Plan
and then later in 1995, the UK Biodiversity Steering Group
established the framework and criteria for identifying species and
habitat types of conservation concern. Further information can be
found on the
UK Biodiversity
website.
Habitat
Action Plans (HAPs) have been written for various marine
habitats, including: inshore sublittoral rock and sediment,
offshore shelf rock and sediment, supralittoral rock and sediment,
littoral and sublittoral chalk, littoral rock and sediment,
sheltered muddy gravels, sublittoral sands and gravels, mudflats,
mud habitats in deep water, saline lagoons, seagrass beds, tidal
rapids, oceanic seas,
Lophelia pertusa reefs, maerl beds,
Modiolus beds,
Sabellaria alveolata reefs,
Sabellaria spinulosa reefs and serpulid reefs.
Species
Action Plans (SAPs) for marine species also exist such as
corals (
Eunicella verrucosa: Pink Sea fan), molluscs
(
Ostrea edulis: native oyster) and the sea squirt,
Styela gelatinosa. Grouped SAPs have been created
for commercial fish such as cod (
Gadus morhua) and plaice
(
Pleuronectes platessa) and for the following cetaceans;
baleen whales, toothed whales and small dolphins.
The original list of UK Biodiversity Action Plan
(BAP) priority species and habitats is now being reviewed in order
to reflect updated information on their current status.Ultimately
this may result in species/ habitats being added to or removed from
the list.
All BAP species and habitats in the UK are being
reviewed by groups of specialists split into three sections of
work; Marine Habitats and Species, Terrestrial and Freshwater
Species, and Terrestrial and Freshwater Habitats.
The assessment has been split into three stages:
Stage 1) Scientific Assessment of Conservation Status of
Marine Species and Habitats
Stage 2) Determining Priorities for Action
Stage 3) Determination of Delivery
Currently JNCC along with representatives from the country
conservation agencies, and Non Government Organisations are
involved with the first stage of the review which is an assessment
against set criteria,a
guidance
(PDF, 158kb) document for this first stage has been produced.
Information will be collated, resulting in a published list,
available at a later date on the UK BAP web site. The criteria for
marine species and habitats were developed during the
Review of Marine Nature Conservation (RMNC) and
the
Irish Sea
Pilot (ISP).
These criteria are;
- proportional importance (both regionally and globally),
- rarity,
- decline (extent and quality) and
- threat of significant decline.
Later stages of the review will apply practical considerations
about suitable conservation actions, to identify those species and
habitats that will most benefit from individual action plans. The
result will be a revised list of BAP priority species and
habitats.
It is anticipated that the whole process will be completed by
the end of 2006.