2. Register of Protected Areas
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2. Register of protected areas Pursuant to Article 6 and Annex IV of the WFD, Figure 2.1 protected areas encompass areas requiring special International nature protection under specifi c Community legislation, protection sites indicat- aimed among other things, at conserving habitats ing wetland habitats and plant and animal species directly depending within Odense River on water. Basin. It is unclear whether this alone encompasses areas designated under the Habitats Directive Wetlands in and Birds Directive, or whether it also encom- Odense River Basin passes areas protected under national legislation Wetlands within inter- (protected areas, reserves, areas encompassed by national protection areas International protection Section 3 of the Protection of Nature Act) and areas, watercourses International protection regional areas (e.g. biological protection areas areas designated in the Regional Plan and the quality objectives set in the Regional Plan for areas pro- tected by Section 3 of the Protection of Nature Act). Areas encompassed by agreements on agri- environmental measures are described because this is one of the measures to ensure compliance with the objectives of the Nitrates Directive in Denmark. These areas can either be considered as international or national/regional protection areas in that fi nancing derives from both the EU and the Danish State. The areas are protected for 5 or 20 years depending on the duration of the agreement. These areas are discussed in the section on national/regional protected habitat types. The present register covers areas within Figure 2.2 Areas encompassed by Odense River Basin encompassed by EU legis- N agri-environmental lation as well as areas encompassed by national agreements in Odense legislation. River Basin as per 1 January 2003. International protected areas The international protected areas encompass EC Habitat Sites and EC Bird Protection Sites. Within Odense River Basin there are seven in- ternational protected areas. These are indicated in Figure 2.1 indicating their boundaries and content of water-dependent habitat types. EC Habitat Sites Within Odense River Basin, seven EC Habitat Sites have been designated specifying the water- dependent habitats and species that the sites were designated to protect (Annex 2.1). No systematic registration of the occurrence of water-depend- ent habitat types is available. EC Bird Protection Sites Within Odense River Basin, three EC Bird Pro- 0 5 10 km tection Sites have been designated specifying the bird species that the sites are designated to pro- tect (Annex 2.2). Odense PRB Odense Pilot River Basin 67 2. Register of protected areas Distribution of protected habitat types 450 National/regional protected habitat types Coastal meadows Many habitat types are protected via the national Figure 2.3 375 Freshwater meadows legislation, including the Protection of Nature Areal distribution Mires of terrestrial, water- Act and the Game Act. These areas are termed 300 dependent protected “national protected habitat types”. habitat types within In addition, Fyn County has drawn up a Re- 225 Odense River Basin. gional Plan pursuant to the Planning Act that 150 specifi es guidelines for administration of various No. of localities of No. legislation. The guidelines accord special consid- 75 eration to the areas that are designated as special protection areas in the Regional Plan and areas 0 assigned a high quality objective in the Nature Quality Plan for the protected habitat types. The 0.5-2 0.1-0.199 0.2-0.499 special protection areas and the protected habitat 0-0.00249 0.01-0.049 0.05-0.099 0.0025-0.0099 types assigned a high quality objective are togeth- er termed “regional protected habitat types”. Protected habitat types within and In addition to the areas designated in the outside international protection areas Regional Plan, there are areas designated as En- 25 Figure 2.4 vironmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs). Within Outside Number and total area these areas, farmers may apply for support for Within of each type of water- 20 agri-environmental measures. dependent protected Areas encompassed by agri-environmental ) 2 habitat type within 15 agreements, which are co-fi nanced by the EU and outside interna- (50%), must be considered as areas that are tional nature protec- encompassed by temporary international and Area (km 10 tion sites in Odense national protection of varying duration (5 or 20 River Basin. 5 years). A very small number of such agreements in the Odense River Basin have been rendered permanent. The majority of the areas will be 0 protected for 5 or 20 years depending on the Coastal Lakes Freshwater Mires meadows meadows duration of the agreement. Areas encompassed by agri-environmental agreements are indicated in Figure 2.2. The agri- Protected habitat types within and environmental agreements pertaining in Odense outside international protection areas 3000 River Basin as of 1 January 2003 encompassed Outside 14.35 km2 of lowland, of which 3.04 km2 is wet Within meadow. 2000 National protected habitat types As mentioned in Section 1.6.1, a survey has been made of the water-dependent natural habitat 1000 types in Odense River Basin that are encom- No. of localities of No. passed by Section 3 of the Protection of Nature Act. The total number and area of these habitat types is indicated in Table 2.1. 0 The size distribution of the three types of Coastal Lakes Freshwater Mires water-dependent terrestrial protected habitat is meadows meadows shown in Figure 2.3. As is apparent from the fi gure, by far the majority of the protected habi- tats are smaller than 0.05 km2. It is also appar- ent, moreover, that coastal meadows differ from mires and freshwater meadows in that a relatively greater proportion of them are large. The location of the water-dependent protected habitat types in Odense River Basin is indicated in Figure 1.6.1. The number and total area of Odense 68 PRB Odense Pilot River Basin 2. Register of protected areas Objective for protected habitat types each type of water-dependent protected habitat 700 within and outside the international protected Coastal meadows Figure 2.5 areas is shown in Figure 2.4. From the fi gure it 600 Freshwater meadows Number and area can be seen that the majority of the coastal mead- Mires of coastal meadows, 500 ows (both number of habitats and total area) are freshwater meadows and mires apportioned located within the international protected areas. 400 according to quality Conversely, less than 10% of the lake, freshwater 300 objective stipulated meadow and mire habitats are located within in the Nature Quality these areas. The international protected areas localities of No. 200 Plan for Odense River contain the largest lakes and mires, though. Basin. 100 In Odense River Basin there are large areas that have been or are in the process of being des- 0 ignated as national protected areas. The largest ABCD of these are: • River Odense fl oodplain (9.11 km2) • Lake Arreskov incl. surroundings (8.27 km2) Objective for protected habitat types • 10 Lake Brændegaard/lake Nørresø incl. sur- Coastal meadows 2 roundings (5.32 km ) Freshwater meadows 8 • Enebærodde Spit with adjoining coastal mead- Mires 2 ) ows and islands (2.45 km ) 2 • Storelung raised bog (0.26 km2) 6 • Urup Dam mire (0.20 km2). Area (km 4 In addition, the following areas are game re- serves: 2 • Odense Fjord (63.08 km2) • Northern part of Lake Arreskov (2.54 km2). 0 ABCD Wetlands re-established under Action Plan on the Aquatic Environment II, which is fi nanced nationally and regionally, are encompassed by Protected habitat Area Table 2.1 Number permanent protection at the national/regional types (km2) Number and area of habitat types in level. The areas are encompassed by agreements Coastal meadows 44 4.80 – recorded in the Land Registry under the Odense River Basin property in question – permanently designat- Lakes 2 623 11.06 protected under the Protection of Nature ing the land as wetland. See also Section 1.6 on Freshwater meadows 885 17.40 Act. wetlands. Mires 976 22.06 Regional protected habitat types Total 4 528 55.32 All terrestrial habitat types encompassed by Section 3 of the Protection of Nature Act are assigned one of the following four quality objec- tives in the Nature Quality Plan, which is part of a low quality objective (C or D). From the area the Regional Plan: point of view, in contrast, the greatest propor- tion of the area is encompassed by high quality A – Areas of international or national impor- objectives (A or B). tance B – Areas of national or regional importance Transitional waters and coastal waters C – Areas of regional importance Article 6 of the WFD stipulates among other D – Areas of regional or local importance. things that coastal areas designated pursuant to the Shellfi sh Waters, Bathing Water, Nitrates, Ur- The distribution of coastal meadows, freshwater ban Waste Water, Habitats and Birds Directives meadows and mires in Odense River Basin ac- have to be registered. cording to these quality objectives is shown in The Shellfi sh Waters Directive (79/923/EEC) Figure 2.5. As is apparent from the fi gure, by has hitherto been administered in Denmark far the majority of localities have been assigned through regional planning, but will now be Odense PRB Odense Pilot River Basin 69 2. Register of protected areas Figure 2.6 formally implemented through the coming leg- Areas within Odense Northern Belt Sea islation on the WFD. Fyn County’s Regional River Basin designated as bathing areas pur- Plan stipulates a general guideline stating that suant to the Bathing areas that are naturally suitable for the purpose Water Directive. Note can be designated as shellfi sh waters.