UK List of Priority Species and Habitats

After two years of work involving in excess of 500 people, the Governments of all four UK administrations have now adopted the recommendations of experts and published the UK list of priority species and habitats in August 2007. This list, a result of the most comprehensive analysis ever undertaken in the UK, contains 1150 species and 65 habitats that have been listed as priorities for conservation action under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (UK BAP).

In early 2008, a list of categorised priority conservation actions for these species was published and submitted to the country groups for use in planning country implementation for the UK BAP. Some of this categorised information was used at a UK level in December 2008. A workshop was held to identify the immediate research and one-off survey needs, read the report here.

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

Natural History Museum
Birds
Fish (excluding purely marine species
Fungi (including lichens)
Herptiles (amphibians and reptiles)
Marine species
Non-vascular plants
Terrestrial invertebrates
Terrestrial Mammals
Vascular plants
 
Habitats
 
Search for a Priority Species:
   
 
© Joint Nature Conservation Committee 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007