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Protected areas of Scotland

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The various designations overlap considerably with many protected areas being covered by multiple designations with different boundaries.

National environmental designations

National parks

The national parks of Scotland are managed areas of outstanding landscape where some forms of development are restricted to preserve the landscape and natural environment. At present, Scotland has two national parks: Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, created in 2002, and the Cairngorms National Park, created in 2003.

Unlike the national parks of many other countries, the national parks of Scotland are not areas of uninhabited land owned by the state. The majority of the land is in the ownership of private landowners (including conservation bodies such as the National Trust for Scotland), and people continue to live and work in the parks. Although the landscapes often appear "wild" in character, the land is not wilderness, as it has been worked by humans for thousands of years. Like their English and Welsh counterparts the national parks of Scotland are effectively "managed landscapes", and are classified as IUCN Category V Protected Landscapes because of this.

National nature reserves

National nature reserves (NNRs) are areas of land or water designated under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to contain habitats and species of national importance. NNRs can be owned by public, private, community or voluntary organisations but must be managed to conserve their important habitats and species, as well as providing opportunities for the public to enjoy and engage with nature. There are currently 43 NNRs in Scotland, which cover less than 1.5% of the land area of Scotland. Many of these reserves are IUCN Category II (national park) areas, such as Glen Affric, Rùm, Abernethy Forest and The Great Trossachs Forest. There are 19 NNRs with IUCN Category II status in Scotland. There are none with this status in England, Wales or NI. This is mainly due to Scotland’s natural habitats being more intact than in the rest of the UK.

NatureScot is responsible for declaring NNRs in Scotland, having taken advice from the NNR Partnership comprising representatives of the NNR managing and community and land-owning organisations. The majority of NNRs are directly managed by NatureScot; however, some are managed by, or in co-operation with other bodies such as Forestry and Land Scotland, the National Trust for Scotland and RSPB Scotland. Most NNRs in Scotland overlap Sites of Special Scientific Interest; many are also Special Areas of Conservation and/or Special Protection Areas.

National scenic areas

There are 40 national scenic areas (NSAs) in Scotland, covering 13% of the land area of Scotland. The 40 NSAs were originally identified by the Countryside Commission for Scotland in 1978 as areas of "national scenic significance... of unsurpassed attractiveness which must be conserved as part of our national heritage".

Sites of Special Scientific Interest

There are 1,422 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Scotland, in total covering around 10,110 square kilometres (3,900 sq mi), or about 12.6% of the country's total land area. They cover sites that are considered worthy of protection due to their flora, fauna, geology or geomorphology. Sites notified for their flora or fauna are known as Biological SSSIs, whilst those notified for geological or geomorphological interest are Earth Science SSSIs; sites may be notified under both categories. SSSIs are considered to form the basic building block of site-based nature conservation in Great Britain, and most other legal nature/earth science conservation designations, including national nature reserves, Ramsar sites, Special Protection Areas, and Special Areas of Conservation are based upon them. Most SSSIs are in private ownership, and NatureScot works with the owners and managers to ensure the special features are preserved. Each SSSI has a site management statement produced by NatureScot which describes these features and details the actions and restrictions required to conserve them.

The SSSI designation was originally introduced across Great Britain by the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 (the similar Areas of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) operates in Northern Ireland). SSSIs in Scotland now fall under the remit of the Scottish Parliament and Government, and are designated by NatureScot under the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004. The Register of Sites of Special Scientific Interest is held and maintained by the Registers of Scotland.

Marine protected areas

Scotland's network of Marine protected areas (MPAs) consists of more than 230 designated areas, covered by various designations including Special Areas of Conservation, Special Protection Areas and Sites of Special Scientific Interest. In order to strengthen the protection of marine areas seventeen Nature Conservation Marine Protected Areas (NCMPAs) were designated within Scotland's territorial waters (i.e. within 12 nautical miles (22 km)). A further thirteen protected areas are beyond the 12 mile limit and are therefore designated by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee rather than NatureScot.

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