§ Ms. WalleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the sites in the United Kingdom which meet the criteria for designation as special protection areas for the medicinal leech, Hirudo medicinalis, under the draft Fauna, Flora and Habitats directive; and if he will list the provisions which already exist for the protection of this species and its habitat.
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyThe Nature Conservancy Council has notified as sites of special scientific interest under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 eight sites at which the medicinal leech has been recorded since 1960. These are:
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- Dungeness
- New Forest
- Moccas park
- Walland marsh
Other sites may be designated in due course.
- Bookham (Surrey)
- Cors Goch
- Ardmore, Kildalton and Callumkill woodlands
- Clais Dhearg
The medicinal leech as a species was afforded full protection in Great Britain from March 1988 by its inclusion in schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, as amended by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (Variation of Schedules) Order 1988. International trade in the medicinal leech is regulated by inclusion in appendix 2 of the convention on international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora.
It would be premature to speculate on what criteria for habitat and species protection might eventually be included in an agreed EC directive on habitat protection.