After two years of work involving in excess of 500 people, the proposed UK List
of Priority Species and Habitats was presented in a UK BAP website report in
June 2007. The Priorities Species and Habitats Review Working Group and the
Priorities Review Group recommended that this list was formally adopted. The
Governments of all four UK administrations have now adopted the recommendations
of experts and published the UK list of priority species and habitats. The new
UK BAP list is an important reference source, bringing all the scientific
information on UK BAP species and habitats together in one place.
This list, a result of the most comprehensive analysis ever undertaken in the
UK, contains 1149 species and 65 habitats that have been listed as priorities
for conservation action under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (UK BAP).
The next steps in this process are to refine the priority actions through a
consultation period extending until February 2008 and to discuss at
BRIG essential tasks such as working with the countries and NGOs to
implement action, assign responsibilities, and advise on how best to coordinate
work on these lists.
To see what is on the UK List of Priority Species and Habitats online, click on
one of the links below. Species are grouped roughly according by working groups
not taxonomically. Some supporting information is also provided in the form of
spreadsheets. These files are appropriately labelled and can be found at the
bottom of the page.
The taxonomy that is employed within the UK List of Priority Species is being
compiled and managed in collaboration with the Natural History Museum, London.
Current scientific names and commonly used synonyms derive from the Nameserver
facility of the National Biodiversity Network Species Dictionary (http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nbn/),
which is managed by the Natural History Museum. This provides a controlled
taxonomy that follows the advice of leading UK experts. It also ensures that
the naming used is compatible with other resources such as the NBN Gateway (http://www.searchnbn.net/).
The taxonomic information will be periodically updated so that it remains both
current and accurate. In the future, a full hierarchical classification for
each species will also be presented. Please send any taxonomic enquiries to
speciesdictionary@nhm.ac.uk
Search for a Priority Species: