The Wildlife (Amendment) Act, 2000, was enacted on 18 December 2000. This Act will provide, for the first time, a statutory basis for the designation and protection of natural heritage areas, NHAs, which are sites of ecological or geological importance from a national perspective. Provision for appeal has been written into the Act to ensure that landowners' property rights are taken fully into account in the decision making processes.
Under section 16 of the Act, a landowner may object on scientific grounds to a site being designated as an NHA. It seems to me in that context that procedures similar to that currently applying to objections to SAC designations – including local liaison committees and an appeals advisory board – could also appropriate in the case of NHAs.