Marine Sites Consultation
The Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), Natural England
and the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) are undertaking a
formal consultation on 10 possible Special Areas of Conservation
and two potential Special Protection Areas in English, Welsh and
offshore waters around the UK.
The closing date of the formal consultation is
26th February 2010.
Background
JNCC,
Natural England and CCW have been working together as the
Government's statutory advisers on nature conservation to identify
and propose:
- Examples of marine habitats in UK offshore waters for
designation as Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) to meet the
requirements of the European Habitats Directive;
- Examples of marine habitats in territorial waters around the
coast of England for designation as marine SACs to meet the
requirements of the European Habitats Directive;
- Sites of particular importance for seabirds for designation
around the coast of England and Wales as Special Protection Areas
(SPAs) to meet the requirements of the European Birds
Directive.
The Habitats and Birds Directives together provide for the
creation of a network of protected areas for important or
threatened wildlife and habitats across the European Union to be
known as "Natura 2000". Once the sites have been identified as
draft SACs or potential SPAs they are recommended to Government for
approval to undertake a public consultation. Once approval is given
draft SACs become possible SACs.
Further information on the Offshore Regulations and Habitat
Regulations.
JNCC is responsible for possible SACs and potential SPAs in UK
offshore waters, Natural England is responsible for possible SACs
and potential SPAs in English inshore waters (0-12 nautical miles)
and CCW is responsible for Welsh inshore waters.
The Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs and the Welsh Ministers have instructed JNCC, Natural
England and CCW to proceed with formal consultation of 10 possible
SACs and two potential SPAs. Seven of these sites sit entirely
within English and Welsh inshore waters. Five of them lie
completely or partly in offshore waters (see map and click on map
to enlarge):
- Two of the pSACs are completely offshore - Bassurelle Sandbank
and North-West Rockall Bank;
- Two of the pSACs are joint inshore/offshore sites sitting
partly in English inshore waters - Inner Dowsing, Race Bank and
North Ridge and Haisborough, Hammond and Winterton;
- One of the pSPAs is a joint inshore/offshore site sitting
mainly in English inshore waters - Outer Thames.
The purpose of the consultation
The purpose of the consultation is to seek the view of all
interested parties on:
- The scientific case for the designation of the
SACs and SPAs listed below; and
- The assessment of the likely economic and social
impact of the designation of each site.
The Habitat and Birds Directives do not permit socio-economic
impacts to influence the choice of sites or their boundaries. The
UK as a member state must identify the sites and boundaries based
only on the presence of habitats and bird populations supplied in
the Directives. This means that the impact assessments cannot
influence site selection or boundaries.
Impact assessments have been produced to meet with Government
guidance, and will be updated with information provided during the
consultation. Information from the impact assessments may be used
to update the Conservation Objectives and Advice on Operations, and
also to help develop any management measures which may be needed
for activities that might damage the habitats, species or birds for
which the sites are designated.
In a separate exercise, JNCC is also working with Natural
England to begin identifying those areas that could be recommended
as Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs) under the
Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009. The identification of MCZs will
follow a separate process than that for Natura 2000 sites.
How to respond to this consultation
First read this document which
provides you with full guidance to the consultation, including
important information about confidentiality.
Then read the documents you are interested in below.
Then make your response in writing using this template
for responses document and email or send back to the person
listed in the document. If you have difficulties opening this
document then please contact us for a Word 97-2003 version of the
file.
Site documentation
Please contact us if you have any questions
regarding the consultation that are not already covered in our
Frequently Asked Questions documents.
If commenting on impact assessments, please also read
this document
which applies to all the sites except for North-West Rockall
Bank.
Please note that the Draft Conservation Objectives and Advice on
Operations are for information only and do not form part of the
consultation. For reference, these can however be found for each
site on our possible SACs page.
Offshore pSAC and pSPA Selection Assessment Documents
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Offshore pSACs: Associated Documents |
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Bassurelle Sandbank pSAC (Annex I Sandbank
slightly covered by seawater all the time)
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North-West Rockall Bank pSAC (Annex I Reef)
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Inner Dowsing, Race Bank and North Ridge pSAC
(Annex I Sandbank slightly covered by seawater all the time and
Annex I Reef)
- Consultation documents can be found on
Natural England's website. As this is a joint site, please send
your consultation response on this site to Natural England.
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Haisborough, Hammond and Winterton pSAC (Annex
I Sandbank slightly covered by seawater all the time)
- Consultation documents can be found on
Natural England's website. As this is a joint site, please send
your consultation response on this site to Natural England.
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Information on the other six inshore pSACs being consulted upon
can be found on
Natural England's website.
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Offshore pSPAs: Associated Documents |
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Outer Thames pSPA (red throated diver)
- Consultation documents can be found on
Natural England's website. As this is a joint site, please send
your consultation response on this site to Natural England.
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Information on the other inshore pSPA being consulted upon can
be found on
Natural England's website.
Following the consultation
Following the consultation, JNCC, Natural England and CCW will
collate the responses and report to Government on the outcome. They
will also amend site recommendations if required and update impact
assessments to submit to Government with the report of the
consultation. A summary report will be available on this
website.
Taking account of the consultation responses, it is anticipated
that by August 2010 Government will decide whether to submit the
SACs to the European Commission, and whether to classify the
SPAs.
Information on the 2007-2008 public consultation on the first
tranche of offshore SACs is also available.