EU Nature Protection Legislation – Focus on Site Protection

Once the Commission has made the selection of SCIs (Article 4 (3)), during the final phase Member States are obliged to designate the sites of Community importance as an SAC under national law. The legal regime protecting these sites (i.e. Article 6, see below) comes into force once the Commission has made the selection of SCIs, so before the actual designation by the Member States as an SAC, but after the submission of the proposals by the Member States.

In order to provide the necessary legal clarity, the SAC designation act must, in addition to providing the name and location of the site, be clear and legally transparent concerning:

• 1. The purpose of the designation (i.e. contribution to enabling the natural habitat types and the species present on the site to be maintained or, where appropriate, restored at a favourable conservation status)
• 2. Species and habitats types for which the SAC is designated (for instance, by listing - either in the act itself or in a separate legally binding document - all the species of Annex II and habitat types of Annex I significantly present in each site)
• 3. SAC boundaries (by including a map or maps - either in the act itself or in a separate statutory, administrative and/or contractual act with binding force - showing the precise boundary of the site(s). The map should be in accordance with the relevant national/regional cartographic systems and at a suitable scale to allow all interested and affected parties to be able to determine the spatial location of the site in relation to land holdings).