2nd UK Report on Implementation of the Habitats Directive

Every six years, Member States of the European Union are required (by Article 17 of the Directive) to report on implementation of the Habitats Directive. The second Habitats Directive report focuses on a first assessment of conservation status of all habitats and species of Community interest. The reporting format set by the European Commission requires a separate analysis for each species and each habitat in each biogeographic region which that country covers.

The report for the UK covers both metropolitan UK (Atlantic biogeographic region) and Gibraltar (Mediterranean biogeographical region). The Atlantic part was completed by JNCC in consultation with species and habitats specialists in the country conservation agencies. The Mediterranean part was completed by the Gibraltar Ornithology and Natural History Society under contract to the Government of Gibraltar.  

The UK report covers 167 habitats and species in the Atlantic biogeographic region, and 14 in the Mediterranean biogeographic region.  This is the first time assessments of conservation status of the habitats and species on the annexes of the Directive have been undertaken. The conservation status assessment process is complex. Each assessment has four parts, which are brought together using a format agreed at a European level, to form the overall assessment. The conservation status assessments use information from both protected sites and the wider countryside and are, therefore, more than an assessment of protected site condition.