UK Designated Sites

Every protected nature site, in one place.

Ramsar sites, Special Areas of Conservation, Special Protection Areas, Sites of Special Scientific Interest and Local Nature Reserves are published by different bodies on different websites. This brings them together: what each designation means, how the law protects it, and a map of every site with links to the official citation and MAGIC.

How the designations fit together

Sites are protected at three levels. The same piece of land often carries several designations at once; most Ramsar sites, SACs and SPAs on land are also notified as SSSIs, which is what gives them their underlying legal protection.

Legal protection at a glance

A summary for England. Open any designation for the full explanation and links to the legislation.

About this draft

Coverage: England. Boundaries and site records load live from Natural England's open data services, so they are always current. Scotland (NatureScot), Wales (Natural Resources Wales) and Northern Ireland (DAERA, where SSSIs are called ASSIs) publish their own datasets and are not yet included.

Boundaries are indicative and simplified for fast display; always check the official source before relying on a boundary. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. © Natural England. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right.

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