Marine Natura 2000 Progress Assessment Protection of marine Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (mIBAs), and sites at sea for seabirds

© Pep Arcos

2014- Status update on mIBAs and Natura 2000 for seabirds The UK’s marine area includes the coastlines of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, extending into the North Sea, Irish Sea and English Channel. Its location and geography expose it to transitional Northern waters descending from the Arctic, and warmer waters from southern Europe, making it an important country for marine biodiversity. It has the 3rd largest EEZ in the European Union, and is important for many different breeding seabirds, year-round seabird residents as well as migratory seabirds and sea ducks during the winter. Its most threatened seabird is the Balearic Shearwater (Red List, Critically Endangered), however this species only occasionally visits the UK during its summer migration. Each of the devolved Governments of the UK have designated terrestrial and coastal SPAs for seabirds, and these overlap fairly well (63%) to the existing coastal mIBA network, compiled by BirdLife’s partner in the UK, the RSPB. Despite this, the UK’s progress has been assessed as ‘Poor’, as the SPA network is predominantly limited to terrestrial sites,

with less than 1% of its Marine Area protected for seabirds. Only three SPAs are entirely marine, although Scotland’s Government has designated coastal extension zones for 31 of its SPAs. It has also recently declared 14 new draft SPA sites at sea, including offshore. Each of the other Administrations are currently considering extension areas to coastal SPAs and new marine SPAs, and believe that the network will be further developed by 2016. This puts the UK much further behind many other EU countries in its protection of seabirds (16th place for at sea protection). The RSPB has been involved in the trans-Atlantic seabird tracking project FAME, and this work is likely to produce mIBAs in offshore regions which will need to then be designated as SPAs.

Next steps & priorities: Designation of coastal extensions to SPA colony sites, and identification and designation of sites offshore.

UK

www.birdlife.org

Progress: Poor, Terrestrial/coastal SPA network overlaps quite well with existing mIBA network. Very little marine area protected. More work needed to identify and protect.

Marine protectionNumber of sites

Area (ha)Area

Overlap (ha)

% Overlap

Marine Important Bird and

Biodiversity Areas116 563398

359,819 64%

Coastal & Marine SPAs

110 1,270,009

Map showing overlap of marine Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas and Special Protection Areas (Natura 2000) sites. See larger mapon next page.

UK

Additional info EU Rank

Total Marine Area, Territorial Sea &

Exclusive Economic Zone, (ha)

73721816 3

Area of sea protected by SPAs (ha)

1077235 5

Percentage of marine area (territorial sea & exclusive economic zone) protected by

SPA

1% 16

Nº of seabird species protected in SPAs

48 3

Marine Natura 2000 Progress Assessment Protection of marine Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (mIBAs), and sites at sea for seabirds

© Pep Arcos

Overlap of marine Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas and Special Protection Areas (Natura 2000) sites.

www.birdlife.org

UK

UK

Gibraltar

SPAIN

Map inset

Resources:Seabird Resource Hub: http://www.birdlife.org/europe-and-cen-tral-asia/european-seabird-resource-hub-home

RSPB, http://www.rspb.org.uk/

FAME project, http://www.fameproject.eu/en/ &

http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/projects/details.aspx?id=365020

Marine E-atlas http://maps.birdlife.org/marineIBAs/default.html ;

Seabird Tracking Database, http://www.seabirdtracking.org/

Birdlife International Partners

MAP LEGEND

Marine Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas mIBA

Marine Area, Territorial Sea & Exclusive Economic Zone

Natura 2000, Special Protection Area (SPA)