UK habitats

A priority habitat is one identified as most in need of conservation under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan, covering broad kinds of land and water such as woodland, grassland, heathland, wetland and coast. The UK BAP priority habitats list, held by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), sets out each of these habitat types with a description of what it is and why it was included.

Woodland ranges from ancient semi-natural stands to newer plantations; grassland covers everything from lowland meadows to upland pasture; heathland is the open, shrub-dominated ground found on acid or sandy soils; wetland takes in fen, bog, reedbed and floodplain; coast covers habitats such as saltmarsh, sand dune and shingle. Each of these is a broad grouping, and the boundaries between them are drawn by the classification system used to map them.

Mapping habitats consistently

The UK Habitat Classification (UKHab) is the system used across the UK to classify and map habitats to a common standard, so that a stretch of grassland recorded in one county can be compared with one recorded in another. Surveyors, planners and statutory bodies use it to describe what is on the ground in consistent terms, which is what allows habitat maps from different sources to be read alongside each other.