Hi Gill,
I've not been through all the stuff on the UK BAP web site to see what's been put on the web but the Priorities Species and Habitats Review Working Group accepted the Pond Conservation submission and although the term ‘ponds’ was kept as a generic term for the priority habitat, what it means is described on p131 of Annex 5 of the Species and Habitats Review Report 2007.
http://www.ukbap.org.uk/library/BRIG...Annexes4-6.pdf
This states the criteria for ponds a priority habitat as:
UK BAP priority habitat Ponds are defined as permanent and seasonal standing water bodies up to 2ha in extent which meet one or more of the following criteria:
• Habitats of international importance. Ponds that meet criteria under Annex I of the Habitats Directive.
• Species of high conservation importance. Ponds supporting Red Data Book species, UK BAP species, species fully protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act Schedule 5 and 8, Habitats Directive Annex II species, a Nationally Scarce wetland plant species, or three Nationally Scarce aquatic invertebrate species.
• Exceptional assemblages of key biotic groups: Ponds supporting exceptional populations or numbers of key species. Based on (i) criteria specified in guidelines for the selection of biological SSSIs (currently amphibians and dragonflies only), and (ii) exceptionally rich sites for plants or invertebrates (i.e. supporting ≥30 wetland plant species or ≥50 aquatic macroinvertebrate species).
• Ponds of high ecological quality: Ponds classified in the top PSYM category (“high”) for ecological quality (i.e. having a PSYM score ≥75%). [PSYM (the Predictive SYstem for Multimetrics) is a method for assessing the biological quality of still waters in England and Wales; plant species and / or invertebrate families are surveyed using a standard method; the PSYM model makes predictions for the site based on environmental data and using a minimally impaired pond dataset; comparison of the prediction and observed data gives a % score for ponds quality]
• Other important ponds: Individual ponds or groups of ponds with a limited geographic distribution recognised as important because of their age, rarity of type or landscape context e.g. pingos, duneslack ponds, machair ponds.
Hope that helps,
Cheers, Chris