The Wildlife and Countryside Act UK, 1981


• Home• Basic Facts• Mosses• Liverworts• Habitats• Conservation• Recording and Mapping• Booklist• Photos(Frames)•
The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 is the principal legislation in the UK governing the protection of wildlife and wildlife habitats. It underpins much of the work of the Countryside Council for Wales and the corresponding governmental nature conservation agencies in England and Scotland. The Act was supplemented in 1994 by the "Conservation (Natural Habitats) Regulations" which implement European legislation relating to nature conservation (the so-called "Habitats Directive).

The Act seeks to protects plants, including bryophytes, in three main ways:

  1. It is an offence for an unauthorised person to intentionally "uproot" any wild plant. (This includes bryophytes, even though strictly they do not have roots - only rhizoids).
  2. Bryophytes and other plants which are listed on Schedule 8 of the Act are given are given additional protection - they may not be picked, uprooted or destroyed by anyone, except under special licence. (Accidental damage which is the result of an otherwise lawful activity, and which could not reasonably have been avoided, is excluded.)
  3. Bryophytes may be included within a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), either as part of the "notified interest" of the site, or incidentally. Owners and occupiers of SSSI are issued with list of operations which might potentially damage the notified interest. Before carrying out any such operations they must consult with the Countryside Council for Wales.

Guidelines have been produced to aid the selection of SSSI, and in the case of bryophytes these include a system whereby species within certain categories are given a numerical score (for example, Red Data Book species score 100). If the total score for a group of species is above 200, the site may be a candidate for SSSI status.

This page was created by Alan Hale. Please email your comments or queries.