The Sid Valley & South West England Has A Plethora of Protected Conservation Sites. But Where Are They & What Do They All Mean For Biodiversity. This Post Is About Those Protected Sites.
The maps below are our attempt to map the important land based and marine protected sites in the area. It’s embryonic at present but will slowly grow over time. The location and extent of sites are taken from official data supplied by government, QUANGO and other sources, e.g. Environment Agency. In each case to date they have been provided as shapefiles and we have used QGIS to display them.
Missing from the outset has been our local, smaller protected areas as we have started with those areas that are protected under international and national legislation, e.g. RAMSAR, SSSI etc. In time we intend to add local sites but first need to identify their exact location and size from the landowners (often councils but some are in private ownership).
Please note that we have added all sites to some maps and that the various types of recognised sites often overlap and the maps are unable to show multiple designations.
Maps with single, specific designations are available by request.
In most cases the designated protection is colour coded on the maps with a colour schematic to the left hand side.
The first map shows much of the southwest with multiple designations including Special Areas of Conservation (SAC), Special Sites of Scientific Interest (SSSI), Special Protection Areas (SPA), Local NMAture Reserves (LNR), RAMSAR, and National Nature Reserves (NNR).
The next map is of East Devon and Dartmoor and includes the same designations as above.
The map below shows a more local view and still includes all the designations above.
Now the mapping focuses even closer on the Sid and Otter valleys. The SPA areas have now been removed with a tighter focus on SSSIs that, in some cases, overlap other designations.
The next map is a slightly wider view but only includes LNR and NNR reserves. Some oil these were previously hidden under the SSSi designation, e.g. in the Exe estuary.
Finally the focus is much more local with all designations included. Clearly there is a lot of local protection. However, there is still a need for more and better protection.
In future maps we intend to add the names of the protected sites. I’m addition we have now expanded the maps to include AONB and other designations.
Please tell us what sites and designations you’d like added and we will do our best to include them in future updates.
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