1.4 Life Project

Figure 1. Life supported marine SACs around the UKTo manage specific habitats and species effectively there needs to be clear understanding of their distribution, their biology and ecology and their sensitivity to change. From such a foundation, realistic guidance on management and monitoring can be derived and applied.

One initiative now underway to help implement the Habitats Directive is the UK Marine SACs LIFE Project, involving a four year partnership (1996-2001) between:

  • English Nature,
  • Scottish Natural Heritage,
  • Countryside Council for Wales,
  • Environment and Heritage Service, Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland,
  • Joint Nature Conservation Committee, and Scottish Association of Marine Science.

The overall goal of the Project is to establish management schemes for 12 of the candidate marine SAC sites. Cardigan Bay cSAC is one of these 12 sites and has received support for site specific projects supporting the development of the site’s management scheme. These include:

  • Publications, literature and public events
  • Collation of bottlenose dolphin information
  • Comparative trials of monitoring methodologies
  • Research into potential dolphin prey and PCB pollution

Two key generic components of the Life Project have been to:

1.    Assess the interactions that can take place between human activities and the Annex I and II interest features,

2.    Assess the dynamics and sensitivity characteristics of Annex I and II interest features.