Chiroptera 11.15

CHIROPTERA

Agreement on the Conservation of Bats in Europe

Each Party shall assign to an appropriate body responsibilities for the provision of advice on bat conservation and management within its territory particularly with regard to bats in buildings.

Amendment to the Agreement on the Conservation of Bats in Europe

(b) ` Bats` means European populations of CHIROPTERA (Rhinolophidae and Vespertilionidae) occurring in Europe and non-European Range States;

` (b) ` Bats` means populations of CHIROPTERA species as listed in Annex 1 to this Agreement occurring in Europe and in their non-European Range States` ;

Bat species occurring in Europe to which this Agreement applies

` (b) ` Bats` means the European population of MICROCHIROPTERA (Molossidae, Rhinolophidae and Vespertilionidae) occuring in Europe and non-European Range States` .

The Meeting of the Parties to the Agreement on the Conservation of Bats in Europe (hereafter ` the Agreement` ),

Convinced that the conclusion of an Agreement for these species would greatly benefit the conservation of bats in Europe;

Each Party shall, as appropriate, promote research programmes relating to the conservation and management of bats.

Each Party shall take appropriate measures to promote the conservation of bats and shall promote public awareness of the importance of bat conservation.

The provisions of this Agreement shall in no way affect the right of Parties to adopt stricter measures concerning the conservation of bats.

Each Party shall, wherever appropriate, consider the potential effects of pesticides on bats, when assessing pesticides for use, and shall endeavour to replace timber treatment chemicals which are highly toxic to bats with safer alternatives.

Each Party shall prohibit the deliberate capture, keeping or killing of bats except under permit from its competent authority.

In addition, each Party shall endeavour to identify and protect important feeding areas for bats from damage or disturbance.

Each Party shall identify those sites within its own area of jurisdiction which are important for the conservation status, including for the shelter and protection, of bats.

When deciding which habitats to protect for general conservation purposes each Party shall give due weight to habitats that are important for bats.

Each Party shall take such additional action as it considers necessary to safeguard populations of bats which it identifies as being subject to threat and shall report under Article VI on the action taken.

agrees: To change the title of the Agreement to: ` The Agreement on the Conservation of Populations of European Bats` ; To extend the last paragraph of the preamble with the words: ` and in their non-European Range States` ;

Any agency or body technically qualified in the conservation and management of bats may be represented by observers at meetings of the Parties unless at least one-third of the Parties present object.

Conscious that the threats facing bats in Europe and non-European Range States are common to both migratory and non-migratory species and that roosts are often shared by migratory and non-migratory species;

However, a Range State or Regional Economic Integration Organisation may, on becoming a Party in accordance with Article X or XI, enter a specific reservation with regard to any particular species of bat.

Recognising the unfavourable conservation status of bats in Europe and non-European Range States and in particular the serious threat to them from habitat degradation, disturbance of roosting sites and certain pesticides;

Broad-nosed bats

CHIROPTERA Bats

Phyttostomatidae New World leaf-nosed bats

Ireland, Cyprus, Malta, and the United Kingdom may, without prejudice to paragraphs 2 and 3, retain their national regulations on quarantine for all carnivores, primates, bats and other animals susceptible to rabies covered by this Directive which cannot be shown to have been born on the holding of origin and kept in captivity since birth, although the retention of those regulations may not jeopardize the abolition of veterinary checks at the frontiers between Member States."

Ireland and the United Kingdom may without prejudice to paragraphs 2 and 3, retain their national regulations on quarantine for all carnivores, primates, bats and other animals susceptible to rabies covered by this Directive which cannot be shown to have been born on the holding of origin and kept in captivity since birth, although the retention of those regulations may not jeopardize the abolition of veterinary checks at the frontiers between Member States.