Protected Areas – What are the features of Protected Areas, and how are they monitored?
Northern Ireland’s Protected Areas, or Designated Sites, represent the very best of our natural landscapes, seascapes, biodiversity and geodiversity. They form the cornerstone of nature conservation by supporting plants, animals, habitats and Earth science (geological) features that are rare, unique or representative.
These Designated Sites are recognised, managed and protected through legislation which aims to achieve long term conservation of nature and associated ecosystem services. Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and Special Protection Areas (SPAs) have been given the highest level of protection through the Conservation (Natural Habitats, etc) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995 (as amended) for their internationally recognised importance for nature conservation. Almost all are underpinned by a more expansive network of Area’s of Special Scientific Interest (ASSIs) which are protected under The Environment Order (Northern Ireland) 2002 (as amended). Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs) also protect nationally important marine areas under the Marine Act (Northern Ireland) 2013.
DAERA has an ongoing monitoring programme of the features of interest of the Designated Sites across Northern Ireland. The features of interest are what sites are selected for designation for. They include many types of Earth science features, habitats and species.
Habitat feature examples | Species feature examples | Earth science feature examples |
|---|---|---|
Blanket bog | Otter | Pleistocene |
Oakwood | Common seal | Karst |
I Intertidal mudflats and sandflats | Invertebrate assemblage | Mineralogy |
Lowland meadow | Mute swan | Jurassic stratigraphy |
The features are interlinked. For example, an important invertebrate assemblage wouldn’t be able to thrive without the appropriate supporting habitat, and habitat distribution is influenced by geodiversity. Many of our sites have complex multi feature interest.
DAERA monitors the features to build up a site wide informed picture of how our most important natural areas are faring across Northern Ireland; to monitor responses to site specific and wider environmental influences or pressures; and to inform appropriate management.
The monitoring of all features follows a methodological approach known as Common Standards Monitoring (Common Standards Monitoring guidance | JNCC - Adviser to Government on Nature Conservation (jncc.gov.uk)) which is the UK wide agreed approach. The process involves an assessment of the condition of the features of interest, sometimes referred to as Condition Assessment. Each feature of interest must be identified, monitored, assessed and reported upon separately. Condition Assessment concludes with a statement describing whether the feature being reported upon is in favourable or unfavourable condition, as well as optional appropriate trend qualifying sub-categories, which can be determined as required.
Conservation Objectives for each site contain details of the attributes (measurable targets) for each interest feature within the site. The Condition Assessment determines the condition status of each interest feature when compared against relevant feature attributes.