7,450
hectares of habitat mapped
Conservation Management Plans for 7 Special Areas of Conservation
Northern Ireland is home to iconic and important nature and wildlife of both national and international importance. Some key areas for nature conservation have been designated as Special Areas of Conservation (SAC). Unfortunately, many SACs are not in good health.
We have developed Conservation Management Plans for seven of these SACs which map out the measures required for addressing pressures and threats affecting the features for which these sites have been designated.
Key details
Project name
Conservation Management Plans for 7 Special Areas of Conservation
Client
Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA)
Location
Northern Ireland
Services provided:
- Habitat mapping
- Ecology
- Pressure and impacts assessment
- Conservation management plans
Challenge
Unfortunately, many SACs are not in good health. To help bring the SACs back into good condition, we need to establish key measures to address the pressures and threats that are having significant effects on the important habitats and species for which these sites are designated.
The key objective of this project is to secure the long-term health and survival of our most important biodiversity sites, their habitats and species as well as the wider benefits that they deliver such as clean water and carbon storage.
The key challenge for this project was the scale of the SACs which included five SAC rivers and two lake SACs, including Upper Lough Erne, with a combined area of 7,450 hectares. When considering these aquatic SACs, the catchment-based approach is necessary given that pressures outside of the SAC within the wider landscape, in addition to those within the SAC, can also impact on the important features of the SAC, such as Atlantic Salmon, freshwater pearl mussel and the river and lake habitats themselves via indirect pathways.
The nature and wide range of land-use and sectorial threats across these diverse catchments, the number of landowners affected, and the large number of qualifying features, all contributed to the complexities of this project.
Solution
We developed Conservation Management Plans on behalf of DAERA based on their standard approach:
Feature/Habitat Mapping Review
Given the scale of the SACs under this project e.g., Upper Lough Erne, we developed an innovative approach to the preparation of the habitat mapping, using a combination of existing information, earth observation data acquired as part of the project, including high resolution aerial photography, LiDAR, oblique aerial imagery, and field surveys. Each site was then divided into management units based on key habitat features and significant pressures present to allow for focused implementation of measures.
Pressures and Threats Review
We undertook an exercise to identify pressures and threats that had the potential to impact on the conservation objectives of each site. Due to the scale of the SACs, the characterisation of the pressures and threats was undertaken using high resolution aerial photography and oblique photography captured as part of the project and supplemented by field surveys of habitats, e.g., woodlands and high-quality grasslands. The pressures and threats where then included in a project database and Geographic Information System (GIS) for all 7 SAC sites which can be queried to establish key issues impacting on the condition of the SAC features.
Conservation Management Plans
We then developed Conservation Management Plans, including a programme of measures specific to each management unit within the SAC. The plans will provide an action plan to improve the conservation status of these SACs and their qualifying features.
Project statistics
10,000 +
individual pressures and threats identified across the 7 SACS
7
Conservation Management Plans produced
