Written evidence from Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC): Supplementary Evidence (PAE0028)

Committee staff sent a follow up question to the JNCC stemming from their initial and subsequent submissions to the Committee’s protected areas inquiry (PAE0021) and (PAE0026). The question from Committee staff is set out in bold, the JNCC’s response is in normal text.

Could you clarify something, with the following data: When excluding landscape scale site types, the land coverage in England is 6.5% I can see from the JNCC website (https://jncc.gov.uk/our-work/ukbi-c1-protected-areas/) that this number refers to SSSIs/MCZs/NNRs/Ramsar/SAC and SPA site designations but the committee wanted to know if the 6.5% considers the condition/favourability of the site? I.e. does this figure cover all of the sites listed above regardless of condition/favourability etc. or does it only include sites in a favourable condition for example. Does it include part destroyed or destroyed sites?

The figure of 6.5% for protected area coverage in England excluding “landscape scale site types” is based on extent only.  It does not take into account the proportion that is in favourable/unfavourable condition.  See table C1ii in the following webpage - UKBI - C1. Protected areas | JNCC - Adviser to Government on Nature Conservation