WWF criticises nature sites list

Almost a quarter of Europe's important wildlife sites will not be protected under proposals put forward by European governments. The number proposed by the Irish Government is also too limited, according to the conservation organisation, Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF).

It has proposed 1500 extra sites requiring protection in 14 EU countries, more than a sixth of which are located in Ireland.

EU nature conservation law - in the form of the Habitats Directive - obliges member-states to propose sites for protection to ensure the survival of Europe's most threatened species and habitats. But according to research by WWF, member-states are not nominating enough sites to guarantee the survival of species such as the brown bear, the lynx, wolf, otter, harbour porpoise and the loggerhead turtle.

The conservation organisation is urging the European Commission and member-states to add the sites proposed by WWF to the official list of sites to be protected under the Habitats Directive.

"European governments should not be allowed to exclude almost one in four of Europe's important wildlife sites from protection under the Habitats Directive," said Ms Sandra Jen, WWF's European bio-diversity policy officer. "It would be a tragedy if species like the brown bear, the Iberian lynx and the harbour porpoise became extinct in Europe because member-states failed to protect enough sites when they had the chance."

Four out of five important wildlife sites in Ireland have been excluded from the Government's official list of sites for protection, she noted, compared with over half in the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands and Portugal.

The extra 259 sites for Ireland have been jointly proposed with the Irish Peatland Conservation Council, An Taisce, Birdwatch Ireland, Irish Wildlife Trust, and Coastwatch Ireland, following consultation with many experts and groups nationally.

Sites proposed by WWF, but excluded so far from the official list to be protected under the Habitats Directive, include the proposed rowing and canoeing centre for the 2004 Olympic Games in Schinias, Greece, the Kaiser Mountains in Austria, the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales and the Massif de Sesques et de Lossau in the French Pyrenees. In addition, many sites proposed by member-states were too small, it claimed.

In Ireland, extra sites needing protection include zones important for the survival of the bottlenose dolphin, otter, marsh fritillary, freshwater crayfish and lesser horseshoe bat, as well as habitats such as boglands (including raised bogs), woodlands and limestone landscapes.

WWF's proposed sites represent "only those necessary to save 19 species and 25 habitats from the more than 600 listed in the Habitats Directive". Member-states and the European Commission have completed a series of meetings to choose the sites to be protected, and another series is due to start in September. The list may be finalised in 2001.