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Habitats Directive

The Habitats Directive is intended to help maintain biodiversity in the Member States across Europe by defining a common framework for the conservation of wild plants and animals and habitats of community interest.

The Directive establishes a European ecological network known as 'Natura 2000'. The network comprises special areas of conservation (SACs), which are designated by Member States in accordance with the provisions of the Directive, and special protection areas (SPAs) classified according to Directive 79/409/EEC on the conservation of wild birds.

Member States must take all necessary measures to guarantee the conservation of habitats in special areas of conservation, and to avoid their deterioration. Any plan or project that is likely to have an effect on a Natura 2000 site, either individually or in combination with other plans or projects, shall be subject to appropriate assessment of its implications for the site in view of the site’s conservation objectives. The appropriate assessment should take into account the conservation objectives of the designated site, local environmental conditions and a range of factors, including the:

• magnitude of exceedance in relation to the emissions from the proposal
• likely ecological effect as a direct result of the exceedance
• relative contributions from other sources (both in-terms of regulated and non-regulated sources)
• extent to which the site’s integrity is achieved in the future, with regards to licence conditions and proposed upgrade plans for the installation.

Implementation of the Habitats Directive in the UK has been affected principally through the Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994. These regulations give SEPA the duty to ensure that the integrity of SACs and SPAs are protected from significant damage arising from activities controlled by SEPA. We can’t issue permits if the integrity of such an area would be affected, or if we are not able to determine that it would not be affected.

SEPA is developing and validating different modelling and biomonitoring techniques to assess the impact of atmospheric deposition on sensitive habitats. This work is undertaken in several research projects in cooperation with the Scotland and Northern Ireland Forum For Environmental Research (SNIFFER), the Environment Agency, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and other stakeholders.