Using Systematic Conservation Planning to consider climate change

Climate change does and will increasingly impact protected sites for biodiversity. The changing distribution and abundance of species and the timing of ecological events are resulting in changes to the structure and function of communities. Our protected site network and future Protected Site Strategies need to take this increasing dynamism into account. Natural England has implemented a SSSI Future Reforms (SSSIFR) project to investigate whether the statutory framework for Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) supports the natural world's increasing dynamism as it responds to climate change, or if the legal framework needs to evolve to better protect habitats and species during rapid ecological change. Natural England's Action Plan for 2022/23 commits to investing in the reform of some of our statutory duties, including the way that we designate SSSIs. To support adaptation, a key SSSIFR aim is to understand how SSSIs fit within and contribute to resilient, functioning landscapes and the Nature Recovery Network (NRN). This is supported by Defra's 25 Year Environment Plan which highlights six key objectives, one being that 'we will achieve a growing and resilient network of land, water and sea that is richer in plants and wildlife' (Defra 2018). 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.

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