Article 6 Appropriate Assessment in Ireland

According to the NPWS some 12% of the land area of the State has been designated under the Natura 2000 network, these are sites designated as SPAs and SACs under the Birds and Habitats Directives. These sites are provided with a high level of protection, designated as sites of European Importance for the conservation of habitats, other flora and fauna, and birds.

The Habitats Directive addresses the likelihood that various plans and projects, alone and in combination with other plans and projects, may lead to the destruction or deterioration of these sites and the wildlife and habitats that they host. These potential impacts are not always immediately apparent. It is possible for a plan or project to have an adverse effect on a Natura 2000 site some distance away; for instance abstraction of water upstream from a site may damage the ecology of a designated site downstream. Proposals within (or with potential to incur adverse effects upon) Natura 2000 sites must be subject to an Appropriate Assessment.

Following Articles 6.3 and 6.4 of the Habitats Directive, an Appropriate Assessment follows a series of steps and stages that need to be observed in establishing whether a plan or project can be implemented without damaging a Natura 2000 site. The significance of impacts is first assessed during a screening exercise, the conclusions of which will either identify the potential for further significant impacts or a statement that no significant impacts are likely to occur. The identification and assessment of potential impacts and their significance requires the services of professional ecological consultants or competent environmental authorities.

A complete Appropriate Assessment will also require mitigation and avoidance of impacts, with cognisance of provisions in the Directive for circumstances in which there are no alternatives and there are imperative reasons of overriding public interest requiring a plan or project to proceed.

ECOFACT is fully qualified to carry out Appropriate Assessments, commencing at the Screening stage through to completion if necessary. Our strong experience as a professional ecological consultancy is complimented by an extensive project history in carrying out these assessments for both statutory bodies and private enterprises where proposed developments had potential to affect Natura 2000 sites in freshwater, terrestrial and marine environments.