Habitats Directive (sub-)sites

This stock contains the demarcations of the Habitats Directive Areas (SBZ-H) as approved by the Flemish Government on 4 May 2001, confirmed on 24 May 2002 and published in the Belgian Official Journal on 17 August 2002. On 15 February 2008, the Flemish Government also proposed the water zone of the Iron and Scheldt estuary to the Commission as additional sites of Community importance. Following a public investigation, the Flemish Government decided on 15 January 2013 (published in the Belgian Official Gazette on 04 February 2013) to definitively establish the demarcation of the subarea 11 ‘Boterakker’ of the special protection zone BE2200037 ‘Exerservations of the Limburgse Maas met Vijverbroek’ as a special protection area under the Habitats Directive. For the final designation of the Habitats Directive areas, the Flemish authorities opted to adopt a separate designation decision for each site, including the conservation objectives for this site (S-IHD). The purpose of the Habitats Directive or the European Directive 92/43/EEC is to preserve biodiversity in the Member States and aims at the conservation and restoration of the natural habitats and of the wild fauna and flora included therein. The most important measure is the designation of Special Protection Areas. This stock replaces the previously distributed stock with the delimitations of the Habitats Directive areas and contains additional demarcations compared to the delimitations of the Habitats Directive areas on the basis of the Flemish Government Decree of 24/05/2002. This dataset is unlocked in two ways: —The Habitats Directive areas, in which areas consisting of multiple polygons are regarded as one element. This result is obtained by performing a dissolve operation on the original dataset. —The Habitats Directive sub-areas, with separate polygons per sub-area.