Extent and condition of Protected Areas

Figure 1. Extent of UK nationally and internationally important protected areas: (a) on land and (b) at sea, 1950 to 2024

Figure 2. Cumulative proportion of Areas of Special Scientific Interest (Northern Ireland) and Sites of Special Scientific Interest Scotland, (Wales (from 2022) and England(from 2024)) in ‘favourable’ or ‘unfavourable-recovering’ condition, 2005 to 2024.

Figure 3. Cumulative proportion of Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) in ‘favourable’ or ‘unfavourable-recovering’ condition, 2005 to 2024.

Figure 4. Cumulative proportion of Special Protection Areas (SPA) in ‘favourable’ or ‘unfavourable-recovering’ condition, 2005 to 2024.

Relevance

Designation and management of protected areas are key mechanisms for taking action to reverse the loss of biodiversity. These protected areas cover many of the most valuable sites for biodiversity in the UK with associated legal mechanisms for safeguarding habitats and species. Wider landscape designations have a number of purposes, including conservation and public enjoyment.

In a densely populated country like the UK, where the landscape and habitats have been modified by centuries of use, protected areas often need to be actively managed to ensure the species and habitats they contain persist into the future. The condition indicator is a measure of the outcomes of management action and conservation policy on protected areas.

International/domestic reporting

The UK Biodiversity Indicators have been reviewed in response to the latest goals and targets agreed under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The indicators are being adapted, with some new indicators being developed, to better align them with the monitoring framework for the GBF. The suite of biodiversity indicators is therefore expected to change ready for forthcoming UK national reports to CBD in 2026 and 2029.

The intention is for this indicator to be modified to better align it with the requirements of the GBF monitoring framework, specifically to align with headline indicator 3.1 Coverage of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, relevant to Goal A and Target 3.

Web links for further information

• Common Standards Monitoring Programme
• Resource hub
• Broad information on Surveillance and Monitoring
• Natural England Condition information
• NatureScot Protected areas
• Natural Resources Wales Protected areas of land and sea
• Natural Resources Wales Protected sites baseline assessment
• Natural Resources Wales Indicative feature condition assessments for European marine sites
• DAERA Protected areas
• The National Association for Areas of Outstanding Beauty,Introduction and links
• National Parks, Introduction and links
• NatureScot, Introduction and links
• Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Marine Conservation Zones Site Information
• Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Marine Protected Areas Site Information
• Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Ramsar Convention Site Information

Methodology

This indicator is comprised of three measures:

a. Total extent of protected areas: on-land.

b. Total extent of protected areas: at-sea.

c. Condition of Areas / Sites of Special Scientific Interest.

Measures (a) and (b) are calculated using a computer program written by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) which uses a number of site designation files as input, and calculates a set of non-overlapping polygons for that entire set of designations for each year. This has allowed the basis of the indicator to be expanded over time (including more site types), and allows comparisons to be made between inclusion and exclusion of wider landscape designations (National Parks, AONBs, NSAs: see tables 1 and 2 in the indicator) by running the programme with different input parameters. The programme also splits the areas calculated into terrestrial, inshore (within 12 nautical miles of the coast), and offshore (beyond 12 nautical miles out to the edge of the UK Continental shelf). Inshore and offshore extent are combined in measure (b).

The total areas of the terrestrial and marine regions are calculated in SQL Server 2008, using the following datasets:

(a). Boundaries (regions):

• Mean High Water (MHW) feature from the Ordnance Survey MasterMap dataset.
• Open Data Northern Ireland outline. MHW and Republic of Ireland boundary.
• Inshore (12 nautical miles) applied as a buffer to the terrestrial boundary.
• Boundary-Line (OSMM) for the terrestrial country borders within Great Britain.
• A UK Water boundary dataset used in the ‘country’ cutting data. Data supplied by JNCC Marine Team. Contains exclusive economic zone, continental shelf and Northern Ireland meridian polygons.
• An area for Northern Ireland Offshore.

(b). Protected Areas (sites):

• SAC datasets downloaded from each of the four SNCB websites.
• UK collation of offshore SACs, administered by JNCC.
• SPA datasets downloaded from each of the four SNCB websites.
• Ramsar datasets downloaded from each of the four SNCB websites.
• SSSI/ASSI datasets downloaded from each of the four SNCB websites.
• NNRs, downloaded from each of the four SNCB websites.
• National Parks: The two Scottish site boundaries were downloaded from the Scottish Government website, the English National Parks boundary data downloaded from Natural England website and the Welsh National Parks data from Natural Resources Wales website.
• AONBs, downloaded from the Natural England, Natural Resources Wales and Department of Environment Northern Ireland websites.
• NSAs, downloaded from the Scottish Government website.
• MCZs data collated by JNCC for submission to the European Environment Agency nationally designated protected areas inventory (CDDA).
• Nature Conservation MPAs, downloaded from NatureScot website. Up to December 2020.

Many protected areas in the UK cover the same physical parcels of land, but for different reasons; as a result the designation types can overlap. For example, it is possible for an individual site to be designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Special Area of Conservation (SAC), Special Protection Area (SPA), Ramsar site and National Nature Reserve (NNR), and could also be part of a National Park, an AONB (Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty) or National Scenic Area (NSA). A computer program is run which checks through all the site boundaries and their designated dates, compares them with all other sites and removes overlapping areas which were designated later, until only sites (or parts thereof) which do not overlap with any other sites which were designated before remain. These non-overlapping site boundaries are then intersected with the region boundaries; all site boundaries designated before or during each year which intersect each region are selected and summed.

This creates a total protected area figure for each region, for each year, where each protected site contributes only once to the total area figure.

Measure (c) Condition of Areas / Sites of Special Scientific Interest is calculated from country level Common Standard Monitoring data for A/SSSIs. A/SSSI sites can be designated for biological features (species or habitats), or geological features (e.g. fossils, or particular rock types / formations), or may have a mix of both biological and geological features. As this is a set of biodiversity indicators, measure (c) is intended to focus on the biological features, and therefore should be weighted by the sites designated for those features (i.e. biological or mixed sites).

A report on the CSM programme was published by JNCC in 2006 based on data to the end of March 2005. Since then the countries of the UK have continued to evaluate the effectiveness of site management, but have customised their approach to national circumstances. In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland assessments are undertaken on a feature by feature basis. Up to 2023, England assessments were undertaken on management units – the parcels of land into which sites are split but have now moved to feature assessments.

Constraints:

• The UK indicator needs to be based on country level assessments of the condition of protected areas and the features on them.
• From 2023, data from England has changed from area based assessments to feature assessments. For consistency, historical data, based on area assessments, has not been included in this indicator.
• Wales do not have figures for SSSIs prior to 2022.

Assumptions:

• All necessary quality assurance has been done by countries.
• Combination of area data and feature number data (as percentages) does not lead to a significant bias in the results.
• There is no mathematical reason why percentages can’t be combined.
• Data for the countries should be combined in proportion to the resource in each country.

Calculation (for each year)

Step 1. Data on the area of biological and mixed biological/geological A/SSSI sites are sourced.

Step 2. Extent data for SACs and SPAs are calculated using the same program as that used for the extent measures, but just for one site type. This allows calculation of the proportion of the site networks in each country.

Step 3. Data on the percentage of each site type in favourable condition or in unfavourable recovering condition are provided by each country.

Step 4. The proportion of the site network in favourable or unfavourable-recovering condition is multiplied by the area of that site network in a country to create an area equivalent (i.e. the area favourable or area recovering for a country for each of A/SSSI, SAC or SPA).

Step 5. The area calculated in step 4 is divided by the total area of the site type, to create a weighted proportion of the site type for the UK from that country.

Step 6. The percentage for each country is summed to provide a composite figure for the UK for a site type.

Background

Extent

The extent of protected areas in Figure 1 is the combined (net) area of:

• nationally designated National Nature Reserves (NNR), Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in England, Scotland and Wales, and Areas of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in Northern Ireland;
• Marine Conservation Zones (MCZ) in English, Welsh and Northern Irish waters, and Nature Conservation Marine Protected Areas (NCMPA) in Scottish waters;
• internationally designated Special Protection Areas (SPA) and Special Areas of Conservation (SAC, including candidate Special Areas of Conservation and Sites of Community Importance), and sites designated under the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar); and
• wider landscape designations: Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) (England, Wales and Northern Ireland), National Scenic Areas (NSA) (Scotland), and National Parks (England, Scotland and Wales).

There is considerable geographic overlap between these designations: for example, many sites are designated as A/SSSI, SAC and SPA. Almost all Ramsar sites are underpinned by the A/SSSI designation, and most Ramsar sites are also SPAs. The calculation method used identifies non-overlapping areas or ‘polygons’, and thus ensures that each protected area contributes only once to the total area. Coastal sites are split at mean high water (mean high water spring for Scotland), and contribute to both the on-land and at-sea lines in Figure 1 as appropriate. The ‘Total’ line on Figure 1 is the net area of all of the protected areas (shown in Figure 5).

Figure 5. Map of UK terrestrial and marine protected areas, as at 31 March 2024

Condition

A/SSSIs are designated with the aim of conserving specific biological or geological features. A monitoring programme was initiated in 1998 to evaluate the outcomes of management action and conservation policy. Under this programme, the condition of these features is assessed on a rolling cycle against agreed standards. The indicator (Figure 2) identifies the proportion of these features – by feature or by area – that are in a desired state (favourable) or have appropriate management but are yet to have regained their favourable status (unfavourable-recovering). The underpinning legislation for A/SSSIs extends to low water, so the condition part of the indicator is mainly based on terrestrial features.

The UK-wide Common Standards Monitoring programme is undertaken by the statutory nature conservation bodies to assess the effectiveness of management action aimed at maintaining or restoring the features for which protected areas have been designated. The data presented for this indicator are for the biological (species and habitats) features only; the monitoring of condition of features is also undertaken for geological features. Conservation objective(s) (sometimes called performance indicators) will have been set for each feature or site. The monitoring tests whether these objectives have been met.

Sites may have one or more interest features on them and each of these is assessed separately. Conservation objectives (or performance indicators) are developed by identifying the key attributes which make up or support the feature (e.g. extent, quality, supporting processes), and setting targets for them. Each attribute is then measured and compared against the target value set. If all the targets are met, the feature is in favourable condition. Human activities which are likely to be affecting the site adversely, and the conservation measures taken to maintain or restore the site, are also recorded. Sampling and assessment methods may vary between countries.

Sites or features which have yet to be assessed are excluded from the indicator; effectively this means the indicator is based on terrestrial and coastal features.

The first collation of results (to March 2005) was published by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee in 2006. The cut-off date is 31 March each year unless otherwise stated. The condition graph is cumulative and includes assessments from a number of years. As new assessments are completed they replace the previous ones; so the graph is a snapshot of the condition of the site network at that point in time. Both unfavourable-recovering and favourable assessments are shown in the graph, as it will take many years to reverse previous declines in species populations, or to restore the ecological functioning of habitats.

Assessment of the condition indicator is based on the sum of favourable and unfavourable-recovering condition. The background section includes information for SACs and SPAs. More detailed information is available on individual country websites (see web links).

Development plan

Since our previous publication we have adapted the language and visualisations used in this indicator. We are keen to hear from our users about these changes, as well as our published development plan, please email us.