Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
includes assemblages of metal-tolerant lower plants on mine waste, even if
higher plants are absent. EUNIS Habitat Classification coded 'Heavy-metal
grassland' E1.B2a, and Natura 2000 coded as 34.221 with 92/43/CEE I non-
priority protection. EUNIS, the European Environment Agency Biodiversity
Database, lists per country the Netherlands 1, Belgium 6, Germany 35, Italy 3,
France 3, Spain 1 and the UK 23 sites, with 'calaminarian grasslands of the
order Violetalia calaminariae' under Code
6130
.
In Germany, five Federal States designate legally protected biotopes under
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30 of the Federal Nature Conservation Act. In the State of Nordrhein Westfalen
(NRW), which hosts important metallophytes sites, calaminarian grasslands are
protected as a 'Protected Area' following
}
30 Bundesnaturschutzgesetz and as
}
62 Landschaftsgesetz NRW, Nature Reserve (NSG) and/or Protected Landscape
Elements (LB). There is also the 'Naturschutz-Rahmenkonzeption Galmeifluren
NRW' (Pardey et al.
1999
) ('Concept for conservation of heavy-metal vegetation'),
which is an important instrument for efforts to conserve metalliferous vegeta-
tion types. In the Netherlands, the remaining tertiary metal vegetation was
protected as a nature reserve in 1954, the first site in the world where an
industrially contaminated site was protected by law. In Belgium, with its
extensive metallophyte sites in the Walloon region, most are cited in CORINE
(Inventaire des sites d'importance majeure pour la conservation de la nature
dans la Communaut´ europ´enne), in ISIWAL (Inventaire des Sites Wallons d'un
tr
`
s grand int
´
r
ˆ
t biologique) and in SGIB (Sites de Grand Int
´
r
ˆ
t Biologique).
Most species of heavy-metal vegetation in Germany, the Netherlands and
Belgium are listed on the National Red Lists and are protected by the National
Species Protection Acts. In all three countries, many sites are also being included
in the Natura 2000-network, and additionally in the Netherlands a 5-year
national research programme and restoration plan is currently being imple-
mented for the conservation of metallophyte vegetation (Van de Riet et al.
2005
).
Often conflicting with the legal protection of metallophyte species are National
Soil Protection Acts and Environmental Hygiene Acts, which require 'remedia-
tionmeasures' for heavily contaminated soils, and thus their habitat destruction.
Further, NGOs have for decades been demanding that the pollution of the
environment be reduced, similarly supporting metallophyte habitat destruction.
Metallophyte communities are not only ecological interesting entities, they
also amount to a cultural-historical account, an archaeological record. The
restoration and conservation of historic metal-mining sites can be seen as
a practical measure within the spirit of the European Conference on the
Conservation of Archaeological Heritage (European Convention on the Protec-
tion of the Archaeological Heritage; Valleta, 16I 1992). Most governmental
bodies distinguish between 'natural' occurrences (primary sites) and man-made
(secondary) sites, like mining spoil heaps; the more natural are given priority.
Because of their rarity and ecological status, primary sites are important
