Using Systematic Conservation Planning to consider climate change

The aim of this project is to test the SCP approach on the terrestrial SSSI designation programme at a national scale. Also to consider potential use of the SCP approach as applied to SSSI designation for prioritisation of future locally-based Protected Site Strategies which address a variety of pressures on Protected Sites (link to NE blogpost). The SSSI designation programme is concerned with land identified for inclusion in the terrestrial SSSI designation programme by Natural England for inclusion in the SSSI series, based on its opinion that the land may be of 'special interest' by reason of its wildlife (habitats and species) geology, and/or geomorphology.

This project will explore SCP's utility to assess how well the current SSSI series, and the currently proposed and potential future SSSI designations support the series ecological coherence and adaptation to climate change through strategic prioritisation, based on 1 a-e (the criteria for ensuring climate change resilience of protected sites, pages 20-21) and current and future climate projections. The current SSSI designation programme includes proposals for coastal, alkaline fen, woodland & parkland, lowland grassland and heathland habitats, plus bird, bat, vascular plant and waxcap fungi species.