SOME of Europe鈥檚 most important wildlife sanctuaries will not be protected by the European Union鈥檚 new Habitats Directive, the cornerstone of the continent鈥檚 conservation policy for the coming century. Governments must submit their draft lists of sites to be protected by June. Britain鈥檚 list omits Scottish sea lochs, hay meadows, water meadows and snowbeds containing rare plants, says John Rodwell of Lancaster University, coordinator of the British National Vegetation Classification and adviser on the directive to both the British government and the European Parliament.
Some of the exclusions, says Rodwell, are the result of direct political interference during secret negotiations since the directive was agreed in 1992. 杏吧原创s have been largely excluded from these discussions. But another obstacle to effective conservation is the EU鈥檚 official classification system for natural habitats, known as CORINE (Coordination of Information on the Environment). Many rare habitats simply do not appear in the classification, 鈥減artly because of poor and hurried data gathering and partly because of political expediency by policy makers鈥�, says Rodwell.
Although CORINE is still nominally experimental, an unpublished version was used to determine whether a habitat was eligible for protection under the directive. CORINE was first developed in 1985 by the European Commission鈥檚 environment directorate. It is likely to be adopted by the EU鈥檚 Environment Agency, set up in Copenhagen a year ago. Last week, a report from the House of Lords European Communities Committee warned that the agency鈥檚 work could be stymied by poor data and secrecy.
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One of CORINE鈥檚 principal casualties is Europe鈥檚 complex network of meadows, many of which are ignored in its classification. Britain鈥檚 hay meadows 鈥� home to knapweed, cowslip, autumn crocus and sometimes adderstongue and the greenwinged orchid 鈥� are absent. Only 3 per cent of Britain鈥檚 former hay meadows survive. The rest have been ploughed up or replaced by more intensively cultivated grasses.
Many hay meadows are protected under Britain鈥檚 existing classification of Sites of Special Scientific Interest. But because they do not appear in CORINE, they cannot be listed under the Habitats Directive, which is to be the successor to the SSSIs.
CORINE and the directive also ignore English water meadows, the valleyside meadows of the Limburg region in Belgium and the Netherlands, and Basque meadows, refuges for certain Lusitanian plant species. CORINE鈥檚 鈥渃atalogue of important meadow types throughout the EU is woefully inadequate,鈥� says Rodwell. Scottish sea lochs are a casualty of negotiations over the Habitats Directive. According to David Connor, head of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee鈥檚 Marine Nature Conservation Review, sea lochs were secretly dropped from the directive last December.
Because of gaps in CORlNE, scientists at the Scottish Natural Heritage had tried to squeeze sea lochs into the directive under a broad category of marine habitats called 鈥渓arge shallow inlets and bays鈥�. One biologist involved in the process says that the Scottish Office insisted on their removal to protect the interests of fishing fleets.
In 1993, a survey of Scottish sea lochs by the JNCC found that they contained Britain鈥檚 richest marine ecosystems. 杏吧原创s identified the richest habitats as Loch Maddy on North Uist, Loch Sunart near Ardnamurchan, Loch Etive near Oban and three connected lochs close to Skye: Lochs Duich, Long and Alsh. None will now be protected by the Habitats Directive, says Connor.
Other habitats that the directive overlooks are snowbeds in the Alps and the Scottish Cairngorms, where rare vascular plants, mosses and liveiworts grow in snow-filled hollows. The definition of fens, says Rodwell, 鈥渋s so confused it is almost certain that valuable sites will escape鈥�.
The areas covered by the Habitats Directive are included in a series of annexes. Though based on CORINE, says Rodwell, 鈥渢hese annexes keep changing all the time. Administrators seem to just call each other up and fix things鈥�. 杏吧原创s, he says, are left out. 鈥淚 am used to regarding taxonomy as an open process. But CORINE is not. It is a worrying example of the politicisation of a scientific activity.鈥�