Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) are strictly protected
sites designated under the EC Habitats Directive. Article 3 of the
Habitats Directive requires the establishment of a European network
of important high-quality conservation sites that will make a
significant contribution to conserving the 189 habitat types and
788 species identified in Annexes I and II of the Directive (as
amended). The listed habitat types and species are those
considered to be most in need of conservation at a European level
(excluding birds). Of the Annex I habitat types, 78 are believed to
occur in the UK. Of the Annex II species, 43 are native to, and
normally resident in, the UK.
Details of the process of SAC selection and
designation are available on JNCC's SAC selection
pages. Also provided is a full list of sites within
the UK or each country within the UK (England, Northern Ireland,
Scotland, Wales), with links to site descriptions including
details of qualifying features for designated SACs, SCIs or
candidate SACs, and summary information for possible SACs.
Downloadable data available includes a summary spreadsheet, GIS
boundary data and copies of site documentation for designated
sites.
UK SAC/SCI sites summary
Special Areas of Conservation/Sites of Community
Importance in the UK as at November 2012
There are a total 649 designated SACs, SCIs
or cSACs in the United Kingdom (excluding
Gibraltar).
|
|
Special Area
of
|
Sites of
Community
|
Candidate
SACs
|
All submitted
SAC
|
|
|
Conservation
(SAC)1
|
Importance
(SCI)2
|
(cSACs)3
|
(SAC,SCI and
cSAC)
|
|
|
Country
|
No.
|
No.
|
No.
|
No.
|
Area
(ha).
|
|
England
|
230
|
9
|
1
|
240
|
1,068, 414
|
|
England/Scotland
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
112,564
|
|
England/Wales
|
7
|
0
|
0
|
7
|
95,132
|
|
England/Offshore
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
2
|
231,394
|
|
Northern Ireland
|
53
|
2
|
2
|
57
|
85,831
|
|
Scotland
|
236
|
1
|
0
|
237
|
927,220
|
|
Scotland/Offshore
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
2
|
182,231
|
|
Wales
|
85
|
0
|
0
|
85
|
590,864
|
|
UK Offshore Waters
|
0
|
10
|
6
|
16
|
4,707,365
|
|
UK TOTAL
|
614
|
24
|
11
|
649
|
8,001,016
|
|
Gibraltar
|
2
|
|
|
|
5,687
|
(Site area figures have been calculated
using GIS and rounded to the nearest whole hectare. Please note
that site area figures for each country relate to both the
terrestrial and inshore domain).
Explanation of site status:
- Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) are sites
that have been adopted by the European Commission and formally
designated by the government of each country in whose territory the
site lies.
- Sites of Community Importance (SCIs) are sites
that have been adopted by the European Commission but not yet
formally designated by the government of each country.
- Candidate SACs (cSACs) are sites that have
been submitted to the European Commission, but not yet formally
adopted.
Where an extension to a designated SAC or SCI is pending,
different parts of the site can have different statuses - so, for
example part of the site may be SAC, and the remainder cSAC. In
this case the site would only appear once in the table, with the
whole site shown as SAC.