Directive habitats

The directive 92/43/CEE concerning the conservation of the natural habitats as well as Species S of Fauna (biology) and wild Flore, more generally called directing Habitats Fauna Flora (or directing Habitats) is a measure taken by the European Union in order to promote the protection and the management of natural spaces and the species of fauna and flora with financial asset which its Member States comprise, in the respect of the economic, social and cultural requirements.

It is based for that on a coherent network of protected ecological sites, the network Natura 2000. It was written within the framework of the fourth programme of Community action as regards environment of the European Union (1987-1992), whose it constitutes the principal participation in the Convention on biological diversity, adopted at the time of the Sommet of the Earth of Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and ratified by the France in 1996.

Contents of the Directive

The directive aims to maintain or restore the biodiversity of the European Union. For that it aims to count, protect and manage the sites Community interest present on the territory of the Union. A site is known as " of interest communautaire" when it takes part in the safeguarding of one or more habitats of Community interest and one or more species of fauna and Community flora of interest (see the following paragraphs for a description of such habitats and species), and/or significantly contributes to maintain a Biodiversité high in the biogeographic area considered.

The sites of Community interest are gathered within the network Natura 2000, which comprises two types of sites:

  • the Special Zones of Conservation ( ZSC ), defined by the present directive;
  • the Protection zones Special , ( ZPS ) defined by the Directive 79/409/CEE known as Directive Birds .

Once a ZSC is defined, the Member States must prevent, by contractual measurements, lawful or administrative adapted, the deterioration of the natural habitats and habitats of the species present on these sites. Every six years, each Member State must transmit to the European commission a report/ratio on the course of the application of the directive, and in particular to the measures of management applied to the sites.

Any project not envisaged in the management and the protection of the site must be the subject of an evaluation of its impact on the conservation of the site. If it proves that the project can have a sufficiently important impact, it is cancelled, except exceptional exemption for imperative reasons of interest public (health and public safety, economic and social benefit vital, or indirect environmental benefit).

Appendix I

Note: The contents of the appendices being brought to change according to the evolution of the state of conservation of the habitats and the species, like according to the general state of the scientific knowledge, the directive envisage a flexibility in the update of the contents of the appendices.

It lists the natural habitats or semi-natural Community interest, i.e. remarkable sites which:

  • is in danger of disappearance in their surface of natural distribution;
  • presents a surface of distribution reduced because of their intrinsic regression or characteristics;
  • shows remarkable characteristics.

Among these habitats, the directive distinguishes some from them known as priority because of their very alarming state of conservation. The effort of conservation and protection on behalf of the Member States must be particularly intense in favor of these habitats.

On the 222 natural habitats of Community interest listed by this appendix, France gathers 172 of them, from which 43 have priority.

Appendix II

It lists the species of fauna and Community flora of interest, i.e. the species which are is:
  • in danger of extinction;
  • vulnerable, for the species which are not yet in danger but which can become it in the near future if the pressures which they undergo do not decrease;
  • rare, when they introduce populations of small size and are not yet in danger or vulnerable, which can become it;
  • endemic, when they are characteristic of a particular restricted geographical area, and strictly localized at this zone, because of specificity of their habitat.

As for the habitats ( cf . preceding paragraph), one distinguishes the priority species, i.e. those whose state of conservation is alarming and for which a particular strain must be committed.

France lays out on its territory of 83 animal species (including 8 priority like the Brown bear, the Phoque monk, the Esturgeon, etc) and 57 plant species out of the 632 species listed with this appendix.

Appendix III

This appendix describes the criteria which into account the Member States at the time of the inventory of the sites of Community interest must take that they transmit to the European commission (for part 1), as well as the criteria which the Commission must evaluate in order to determine the Community importance of the sites transmitted by the Member States.

Appendix IV

For the species of fauna and flora of this appendix, the Member States must take all the necessary measures with a strict protection of the known as species, and in particular prohibit their destruction, the disturbance of the animal species during the periods of reproduction, of dependence or migration, the deterioration of their habitats.

These protection measures are often ensured by the lists of protected spaces at the level national or regional (such as for example in France with the law of protection of nature of July 10th, 1976).

Appendix V

This appendix counts the species of animal and vegetable whose protection is less constraining for the Member States. The latter must only make sure that the taking away carried out do not harm a satisfying level of conservation, for example by the regulation of the access to certain sites, the limitation in the time of harvests, the installation of a system of authorization of taking away, the regulation of the sale or the purchase, etc

For the plants, it is for example the case of the Sphaigne S, these foams of which good number of species are at the origin of the formation of the Tourbière S.

Appendix VI

And finally, in the case of species of the appendix V which are very the same ones taken, the Member States must make sure that is not carried out using the methods and/or vehicles enumerated in this appendix (except exceptional exemption in the event of health hazard, of danger to public safety, to prevent damage with the cultures, plantations, fisheries, breedings, etc).

The application of the directive through the Union

Coming in complement from the directive 79/402/CEE (known as directive birds) of April 2nd, 1979, the first proposal for a Directive de for the protection of the habitats and of fauna and flora savages was presented by the Commission to the Council in August 1988. The negotiations which took place were long and difficult, in particular because of mistrust of many Member States following the difficulties of application of the directive birds.

Four years were necessary in order to write the directive habitats. The difficulty of the exercise, in particular the drafting of the appendices whose the range depended on the obligations of the Member States, was at the origin of important modifications made to the first version. The text was definitively adopted only by the Council " Agriculture" of May 21st, 1992.

In the beginning, the list of the proposals for sites of Community interest of each Member State was to be provided at the end of three years only after the application of the directive, that is to say in 1995, and the European commission was to have adopted the Community list of the sites in 1998 (article 4 of the directive)… In the facts, from the delay accumulated by many States (of which France, to see) the European commission below very quickly re-examined its ambitions on the long run. From now on the objective is to supplement the network Natura 2000 from here 2010.

France

After having started to install tools of reflection on the transposition of the directive Habitats in France, like the national committee of follow-up Natura 2000, the designation of the sites of the future network Natura 2000 started to cause debate. Many partners only little or were consulted, or too tardily, and the general blur as for the methods of management of natural spaces to be applied to the future sites, led the presidents of the organizations representing the main part of the managers of the rural world to adopt on April 10th, 1996 a Joint Declaration denouncing the methods employed for the establishment of the lists of sites.

This situation led the Prime Minister Alain Juppe, on proposal of the minister of environment Corinne Lepage, to freeze the procedure of transposition in July 1996. The Minister for ecology was then charged to prepare a document of interpretation of the directive, in collaboration with the European commission. This reflection made it possible to lead to the French tactic for the transposition of the directive, which rests on the following principles:

  • participation of all the local actors, at all the stages of the " vie" of a site: designation, proposals for a management, implemented of management;
  • realization of a document of objective (DOCOB) single for each site (see paragraph DOCOB article on Natura 2000);
  • the reaffirmation owing to the fact that the sites Natura 2000 are not natural sanctuaries, but that the economic imperatives, cultural and social are integrated into the reflection;
  • to prefer the contract with the constraint: the contractualisation is definitely preferable with the regulation.

After one long period of administrative and legal disorder because of a disagreement between all the actors, the French State presented to April 30th, 2006 (source of the French ministry of ecology and sustainable development):

  • 1307 sites of Community interests suggested (pre-ZSC), is 4.887.272 ha;
  • 367 special protection zones (ZPS) representing 4.477.962 ha.
On the whole, the network Natura 2000 French currently covers a surface of 6.496.917 ha (except seamen circles), that is to say 11,83% of the metropolitan territory.

France thus transmitted to the European commission more than 400 files in 18 months, under the impulse of the Ministers for ecology and sustainable development Mr. Serge Lepelletier then Mrs. Nelly Olin, which made a point of making up for accumulated lost time. This considerable effort makes it possible France to present, at April 30th, 2006, a coherent network taking into consideration stake of safeguard of the biodiversity of its territory, as it was firmly committed there near the European commission.

See too

External bonds

  • official Page of the directive and its appendices, Manual Internet site of the European Union
  • of interpretation of the habitats of the European Union
  • Updated of the handbook of interpretation of the habitats of the Union ('' in english '') of Europe of the 25
Parliamentary reports of the French Senate

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