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Briefing Note: Effectiveness of UK Protected Areas 2024

Abstract

This study compared patterns of occurrence, species richness and average trends between sites with protected areas (PAs) and those without.

Data were used from a range of volunteer-gathered datasets spanning the UK, including biological records data for 5,254 species of invertebrates, bryophytes and lichens.

The study found that:

  • Sites with protected areas support a larger number of species than sites without protected areas.
  • The effect of protected areas on ecological rates appeared to be quite variable, with rates affected (or not) to different degrees between the groups, but areas with protected areas were generally more likely to be colonised, suggesting they may act as ‘landing pads’, for groups like pollinators, or refuges for more cold-adapted bird species.
  • For some groups, there is evidence that protected areas support more abundant populations, have higher fecundity and support movement.
  • There only appeared to be a positive effect of protected areas on population trends for butterflies (in SSSIs and SACs) and birds.

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Resource type Publication

Topic category Environment

Reference date 2024·12·04

Citation
Robinson, R. and Isaac, N. 2024. Briefing note: Effectiveness of UK Protected Areas. JNCC, Peterborough, ISBN 978-1-86107-644-1.

Lineage
This work was supported by the Terrestrial Surveillance Development and Analysis Partnership, comprised of the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, British Trust for Ornithology, and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.

Responsible organisation
Communications, JNCC pointOfContact

Limitations on public access No limitations

Use constraints Available under the Open Government Licence 3.0

Metadata date 2024·12·05

Metadata point of contact
Communications, JNCC

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