We cannot risk the long term survival of UK birds

October 2016

Today, the UK’s Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) has published the first phase of a review of the UK network of Special Protection Areas (SPAs) - special sites which are designated and protected under the European Birds Directive. SPAs, together with Special Areas for Conservation (SACs)- sites protected under the sister Habitats Directive- have been fundamental to protecting our most important habitats and species and have long formed the cornerstone of the UK’s attempts to protect and restore biodiversity.

This review - believed to be the world’s first review of an entire national protected area network against an explicit baseline - has been prepared by a Scientific Working Group convened by UK Government to provide advice on the protection of the most important sites for birds in the UK. The report’s contributors include representatives of the RSPB, the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) and Scottish Environment Link.

The report highlights welcome progress in the designation of SPAs since the last review, published in 2001, with the addition of sites on land and coast from the Belfast Lough in Northern Ireland and the Thames Basin Heaths in England to the Cairngorm Massif in Scotland and Puffin Island in Wales, and from the 151 individual species/season assessments undertaken, concludes that the existing suite of SPA is sufficient to contribute to the effective conservation of 64 species, from golden eagles and corncrakes to breeding gannets and stone curlews.

However, it also highlights how much remains to be done for the SPA network to be complete for all species:

• There are seven species for which SPAs are required but for which no sites have yet been protected (including spoonbill and Montagu’s harrier);
  
  
• The current suite of SPAs is considered insufficient for 87 species including bitterns, curlews, nightjars and pochards;
  
  
• A review of SPA provision at sea is required for at least 49 species from puffin and shag to Balearic shearwater and velvet scoter;
  
  
• The boundaries of existing sites for 17 species need to be reviewed to ensure they provide for the needs of the species they protect (for example to include both feeding areas and breeding/roosting sites);
  
  
• Reviews of management of existing SPA for 15 species, including Bewick’s swans, are required because of declines in their population within these critical sites;
  
  
• The review highlights the critical need to continue support for national surveillance programmes (e.g. the Wetland Bird Survey (‘WeBS’) run by the British Trust for Ornithology and funded by JNCC, the RSPB and the BTO and the Goose & Swan Monitoring Programme, run by WWT and funded by WWT, JNCC and SNH), and the need to address significant data gaps for some groups of species.