According to article 6 of the habitat directive, the individual member states are obligated to ensure that the habitat types and species for which special protection areas (SAP’s and SAC’s) were designated are being preserved and restored. The instruments to do this, conservation measures, can freely be adopted by every member state. Before the conservation measures can be described, conservation objectives and targets have to be determined. This project will further develop the conservation objectives for special protection sites (EU Bird directive 79/409/EEG and Habitat directive 92/43/EEG) in the Seaport of Antwerp reported by Van Hove, Nijssen & Meire (2004). We will also develop a scientific basis for the spatial implementation for the conservation objectives and conservation measures.