Sunday, January 28, 2007

Protected areas - SCIs, SACs, SPAs, SSSIs, Ramsar sites, Natura 2000

Designation of protected areas in Ireland:

  • SCIs - Each EU Member state, including Ireland, is required under the Habitats Directive to prepare and propose a national list of sites to be evaluated for inclusion in a European network of Sites of Community Importance (SCIs).
  • SACs - The SCIs are then designated by Member States as Special Areas of Conservation (SACs)
  • SPAs - these are Special Protection Areas classified under the EC Birds Directive
  • Natura 2000 - together, SACs and Spas form an ecological network of protected areas known as the Natura 2000 network.
  • Ramsar sites - internationally important wetland areas as designated under the Ramsar Convention.
  • SSSIs - Sites of Special Scientific Interest are a nationally important conservation designation that may be applied to SCIs, SACs, SPAs, Natura 2000 or any other site that gives them extra protection. SSSIs are a foundation for nature conservation legislation upon which many other legal conservation designations including Ramsar Sites, SPAs, SACs and nature reserves are based.
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The island of ireland

Once upon a time, and for 15000 years, ice a mile high blanketed Ireland. When the lingering Ice Age finally released and the Irish ice departed it left a landscape scoured. Across land bridges linking Ireland, Britain and mainland Europe plants and animals arrived to colonise the new lowlands, mountains and valleys. The world’s ice continued to melt, the sea levels to rise, and some 8000 years ago Ireland became the island we now know, accounting for just 0.01% of the world's total land area and the most westerly point of Europe.

Though at Alaskan latitudes, the country's climate is tempered, due partly to the neighbouring waters of the Gulf Stream and partly the prevailing southwesterlies that veering and backing make landfall on our sodden coast. These offerings from the Atlantic mean it is never too hot, never too cold. But without doubt it is wet. Rain lingers year round, never far away, though is most frequent in winter, the western counties and, inevitably, on the day of your parade.