Habitats Directive
Obligations of protection of species
- System of strict protection (Articles 12 – 15)
Article 13:
1. Member States shall take the requisite measures to establish a system of strict protection for the plant species listed in Annex IV (b), prohibiting:
- (a) the deliberate picking, collecting, cutting, uprooting or destruction of such plants in their natural range in the wild;
- (b) the keeping, transport and sale or exchange and offering for sale or exchange of specimens of such species taken in the wild, except for those taken legally before this Directive is implemented.
2. The prohibitions referred to in paragraph 1 (a) and (b) shall apply to all stages of the biological cycle of the plants to which this Article applies.
Article 13 establishes a protection scheme for the plant species listed in Annex IV of the directive. More precisely, it forbids the deliberate picking, collecting, cutting, uprooting or destruction of such plants in their natural range in the wild and the keeping or trading of protected species.