Government conservation advisers are reneging on a promise to distribute
a map that identifies stretches of British coastal waters that they are
considering for protection under the European Community鈥檚 new habitats directive.
The clampdown appears to be at the request of the Department of the Environment,
which is engaged in negotiations over coastal conservation with other Whitehall
departments.
Drawn up by scientists at the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, the
map highlights waters off up to 10 per cent of the British coast that could
be designated as special areas of conservation under the directive.
Britain has a well-developed system for identifying important habitats
on land as sites of special scientific interest. The habitats directive
will require greater protection for these SSSIs, which cover around 8 per
cent of the British landmass, including a third of its coastline.
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However, the system of SSSIs only operates above the low-tide mark.
So the government, with advice from bodies such as the JNCC, will have to
identify an entirely new set of important marine sites, covering waters
up to 9 or even 18 kilo-metres from the coast.
Regions presently being discussed include the seas off:
islands such as Lundy and Skomer (Britain鈥檚 only statutory marine nature
reserves), the Scilly Isles, Holy Island and Farne Islands;
chalk headlands such as Flamborough Head in Yorkshire and the Seven
Sisters in Sussex;
the Wash and parts of north Norfolk;
English estuaries such as Blackwater and;
the Cornish and Pembrokeshire cliffs;
Morecambe Bay;
Cardigan Bay, where large dolphin populations may soon be threatened
by new oil exploration;
Cromarty Firth.
Many of these areas are already SSSIs down to the shoreline where, for
legal rather than biological reasons, the designation stops.
In the January issue of the JNCC newsletter Marine Scene, Roger Mitchell,
who is a marine scientist with the committee, reported that a marine task
force had drawn up 鈥榓 map of provisional marine sites of Community importance鈥�.
He wrote: 鈥榃e plan to discuss these preliminary results with other marine
specialists in the UK and other Community countries as soon as appropriate.鈥�
But this discussion has been restricted to marine scientists within the
British statutory nature conservation bodies who drew up the list.
Meanwhile, officials have sought to downgrade the importance of the
map. At English Nature, one of the bodies that makes up the JNCC the head
of the marine project team, Dan Laffoley, said the map was 鈥榦ne of a number
of things for internal consumption鈥�. According to Keith Hiscock of the
JNCC, the map has 鈥榖een blown up out of all proportion. It was for discussion,
something to pin on the wall.鈥�
The habitats directive, which was approved by community environment
ministers last May, requires nations to set aside about 10 per cent of their
land and sea for conservation. Besides nominating important habitats for
protection, governments must also protect sites containing particular named
species. At sea, these include dolphins, otters and common and grey seals.
The British government originally promised to publish a consultation
document on how it would implement the directive by the autumn of last year.
But the Department of the Environment now says publication is likely 鈥榠n
the summer鈥�. It has to provide a list of designated sites by mid-1995.