Habitats

Habitats Action Plans (UK HAPs)

The UK Biodiversity Steering Group published Biodiversity: The UK Steering Group Report Volumes 1 & 2 in 1995.

Volume 1, Meeting the Rio Challenge, contained indicative costs for the delivery of action plans to conserve priority habitats and species. The criteria used to select these priority habitats included international obligations, rarity, high rates of decline, and critical roles in supporting mobile or key species.

Volume 2, Action Plans, contained a series of habitat action plans as well as habitat statements. Since then, a further six volumes of habitat action plans have been published. Habitat Action Plans for 45 priority habitats have been published to date. Click here to view UK Habitat Action Plans.

Some 40 priority habitats have so far been identified for Northern Ireland. This includes 37 of the UK list, with a few of them being very well represented, e.g. fens and raised bogs. For others, they are less important in overall UK terms as they comprise only a small proportion of the total UK resource. Nevertheless when viewed in a local context, their significance may be greater.