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The Habitats Directive (as amended) includes lists of 189
habitat types and 788 species for which Member States must consider
designation of Special Areas of Conservation (SACs). On the basis
of current knowledge, 78 of the listed habitat types occur within
the UK (excluding Gibraltar), and 43 species are known to occur (or
to have occurred in recent times) as native populations within UK
territory (again, excluding Gibraltar).
The UK series of SACs comprises 614 sites covering a total
area of over 2,630,000 ha.
This publication describes the selection of sites as the UK
contribution to the Natura 2000 SAC network. Part 1 describes the
criteria set out in the Directive for the selection of sites and
how these have been interpreted and applied in the UK. Parts 2 and
3 provide information on the site selection process and the sites
for each of the habitat types and species that are known to occur
in the UK.
Some additions and changes to the national list of sites may
arise as a result of further scientific work and public
consultation. A number of additional sites (possible Special Areas
of Conservation) have already been identified but are not described
in this publication. Consultation on these sites will take place at
the same time as any necessary SSSI/ASSI notification, and these
pages will be updated when changes to the UK's list of candidate
Special Areas of Conservation are submitted to the European
Commission.
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