The Habitats Directive
The Habitats Directive (European Union Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora) is the main nature conservation policy tool at EU level. It protects over 1,000 animal and plant species and more than 200 habitat-types.
The Habitats Directive is an umbrella for the Natura 2000, an ecological network of protected areas across the EU that include Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and Special Protection Areas (SPAs) here in the UK, implemented through the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981.
The Directive is the means by which the EU implements The Bern Convention (Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats), which is a pan-European legal instrument for nature conservation that even extends to some States of Africa.
The main aim of the Directive is to promote biodiversity by requiring EU countries to preserve or restore natural habitats and wild species, placing particular importance on endangered habitats and endangered vulnerable species.
Criticism
Criticism has come in the past from the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF). In a document dating from 2000 the WWF listed many points of contention specific to the publication date, including a more structural one:
“The lack of corridors or stepping stones between sites is particularly lacking to support wide ranging species”.
– (WWF European Shadow List, 2000)
However the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) claims on its website that:
“Much of our work in England is based on the legally binding EU directives which implement international conventions… we, along with many other countries, have made specific commitments to conserve and protect wildlife.”
All of the UKs wild birds, plus some animal and plant species, are protected by the Habitats Directive. EU-wide continuity in environmental law is especially necessary for migratory species such as birds. However a global umbrella for such species would be better as lack of protection or persecution in just one country can negate the efforts of a dozen others to conserve a species.
CITES
CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), is another framework agreement that any of the 175 signatories may hang national laws upon. Its global aim is to ensure continuity in laws regarding the cross-border trade in specimens of wild animals and plants that does not threaten their survival.
The convention lends varying degrees of protection to over 30,000 species of animals and plants, whether they are traded alive or as more esoteric products such as tiger bone wine.
Some biologists claim that quiet, continuous habitat loss and fragmentation has become of more concern to the long-term survival of species than the endangerment of individual flagship species, and that the convention does not tackle this. Nor does it challenge the market for illegal products or provide funding to combat it.
London-based NGO Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) specialises in tracking the illegal trade in CITES species. They have witnessed many global CITES successes, such as with poached elephant ivory, hardwoods from illegal logging and other campaigns. Laws have changed in the UK, across the EU and worldwide stemming directly from NGO lobbying centred on the CITES framework, helping to save many species and habitats. However there is no money on the ground for enforcement. Regarding their own tiger campaign EIA state;
“Despite 25 years of international prohibition, trade in tiger body parts between certain CITES parties continues into the new millennium, signifying one of the most resounding failures of CITES. Tiger skins, bones, organs and derivatives are traded throughout the world including China, Japan, UK and USA.”
(www.eia-international.org)
Seaspout 
Posted on August 28, 2011
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