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Consultation begins on Sanday conservation proposal
25/02/1999
Consultation on a proposal to make Sanday in Orkney a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) for common seals under the EC Habitats Directive was announced today by Scottish Environment Minister Lord Sewel.
Lord Sewel said:
"The government is fully committed to protecting our most valuable wildlife sites. Sanday is an exceptionally important site for conservation of the common seal.
"We are also committed to working with local people to ensure the protection of wildlife, and that is why I have asked SNH to consult all the affected interests on Sanday before finalising their proposals for the site."
BACKGROUND
1. The consultation begins today and ends on May 26. Consultation on the site as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) is running concurrently.
2. The Council Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and Wild Fauna and Flora (92/432/EEC) requires Member States to designate certain sites as Special Areas of Conservation (SACs). From these national lists, the Member States and the Commission will agree the sites that will become designated SACs. The Habitats Directive was transposed into GB law by the Conservation (Natural Habitats &c) Regulations 1994.
3. The habitat types and species which require site designation are listed in Annexes I and II of the Directive. Annex III gives criteria for the selection of sites. Some 75 habitat types and 47 species are proposed for site designation in the UK.
4. A consultation exercise on the first list of possible SACs began in March 1995. This was followed by further consultations in October 1997, March 1998, two in June 1998, December 1998 and January 1999.
5. From the list of sites consulted on in the various exercises ten tranches of candidate SACs comprising 332 sites in the UK (127 in Scotland) have already been forwarded to the European Commission.
6. Explanatory notes, which set out in detail the rationale for the selection of possible UK SACs, were published in JNCC Report No 270 in 1997.
News Release: 0423/99
25 February 1999