The current UK status and distribution of EC Habitats Directive interest features

Following the submission of the UKs 2nd report under Article 17 of the Habitats Directive in 2008 we have been able to update our information on the current status and distribution of interest features listed under the

For each habitat and species for which the UK has submitted SACs, a map of the current UK distribution is presented together with an indication of whether or not it is present in each of the four countries in the UK and an estimate of the size of the total UK extent/population. All of this information has been gleaned from the Article 17 Report. The current UK distribution maps for each feature can be compared with the distribution of Special Areas for Conservation hosting the feature.

This information replaces the information recorded in the following JNCC publication:

Jackson, D.L. & McLeod, C.R. (Editors), (2000), Handbook on the UK status of EC Habitats Directive interest features: provisional data on the UK distribution and extent of Annex I habitats and the UK distribution and population size of Annex II species, Revised 2002, JNCC Report 312, 180 pages, ISSN 0963 8091

This publication was until September 2008 available as a set of interactive web pages. The information on these pages have now been removed and replaced by an archive copy of JNCC report 312. This is presented in the form of a fully interactive spreadsheet and a supporting explanatory PDF.

As stated above, the information originally presented in JNCC report 312 has now been updated (September 2008) mainly by extracting information (principally distribution maps and UK population/extent figures) from the UK’s report under Article 17 of the Habitats and Species Directive. The replacement web pages should no longer be referred to as JNCC report 312, though they can be used for similar purposes – ie to see a map of the current UK distribution of each interest feature and to compare the UK distribution maps to the distribution of the SACs hosting each feature. The revised UK distribution maps (2008) often differ from the Report 312 (2002) maps. In some case this represents “real world change” but in many cases it reflects new data sources or new interpretations of existing data sources. Many of these changes are discussed in some detail in the habitat/species accounts submitted as part of our Report under Article 17 of the Habitats Directive.