EPA - Ireland's Environment 2016 - An Assessment

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57 Chapter 4: Nature
Responses
Natura 2000 Network
Habitats and species are legally protected by a
network set up under nature directives.
Implementation of the EU Habitats and Birds Directives
has resulted in the creation of a comprehensive network
of sites for habitat and species protection, the Natura
2000 network. Details of Ireland’s protected sites can be
found on the NPWS website.5 Steps required to legally
protect Ireland’s terrestrial network of SACs under the
Habitats Directive and Special Protection Areas (SPAs)
under the Birds Directive are largely complete. Of the
154 SPAs in Ireland, 140 are protected by a Statutory
Instrument. Six new marine SACs were submitted by the
Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (DAHG)
to the European Commission in 2014, bringing the total
to 430. A final formal designation of SACs is under way,
although legal protection is already in place. In April 2016,
the European Commission called on Ireland to step up its
efforts to designate SACs and to establish conservation
objectives and measures for all of them.6 Progress
towards marine SPA designation has been slow, but will
be based on data produced following baseline ecological
surveys in offshore areas carried out by the Department
of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources in
collaboration with the DAHG in 2015‑2016.
Prioritised Action Framework for
Natura 2000
Appropriate management regimes should be the
driver for protecting our Natura sites and protected
species.
The Prioritised Action Framework for Natura 2000 (PAF) 7
was approved by Government in 2014 and submitted
to the EU. This framework identifies a range of actions
needed to help improve the status of Ireland’s habitats and
wildlife, including conservation management strategies,
more focused agri-environment schemes and habitat
restoration.
Action 15.2 of the National Biodiversity Plan includes
a commitment to “prepare and implement site-specific
conservation objectives, management advice and/or
plans on Natura 2000 sites, Nature Reserves and National
Parks”. Detailed site-specific conservation objectives, which
define the most favourable conservation condition for the
particular habitats and species on a site by site basis, have
been published for 129 SACs and 37 SPAs (as of July 2016).
5
6
7
Brown Bog SAC (002346) –
Site-specific Conservation Objectives
Brown Bog SAC is located 5 km north-west of
Longford town. The site comprises a raised bog that
includes areas of high bog and cutover bog. The site is
designated as an SAC under the Habitats Directive for
the following habitats that occur there: Active Raised
Bog, Degraded Raised Bog and Rhynchosporion
Vegetation (which occurs on wet peat on pool edges
and in hollows).
A site-specific conservation objective aims to define
favourable conservation condition for a particular
habitat or species at that site. The maintenance of
habitats and species within sites at favourable condition
will contribute to the maintenance of favourable
conservation status of those habitats and species at a
national level. Conservation objectives for habitats and
species are defined using attributes and targets that are
based on parameters as set out in the Habitats Directive
for defining favourable conservation status.
Targets have been set for attributes for each of
the three habitats listed for Brown Bog according
to the best information available. For example, for
Active Raised Bog, a target to ‘Restore the area
of active raised bog to 13.2 ha, subject to natural
processes’ has been set (NPWS, 2016). The Active
Raised Bog habitat in this SAC has 17 attributes that
define favourable conservation condition. Separate
conservation objectives have not been set for
Degraded Raised Bog and Rhynchosporion Vegetation
as they are inherently linked to Active Raised Bog.