Biological SSSIs may be selected for various reasons, governed by published SSSI Selection Guidelines.

Of these SSSIs 79 % are deemed by English Nature to be being positively managed.

Geological SSSIs fall into two types, having different conservation priorities:

Almost all GCR sites ( but no other sites ) are subsequently notified as geological SSSIs, except some that coincide with designated biological SSSI management units.

Most SSSIs are privately owned and occupied, and through discussions and management agreements CCW attempts to ensure that the wildlife value of sites is retained and enhanced.

Natural England, which is responsible for choosing SSSIs, tries to ensure that the management and use of the area is sustainable.

In England, the designating body for SSSIs, Natural England, selects biological SSSIs from within Natural Areas which are areas with particular landscape and ecological characteristics, or on a county basis.

Geological SSSIs are selected by a different mechanism to biological SSSIs, with a minimalistic system selecting one site for each geological feature in Great Britain.

* Countryside Council for Wales website with online directory of all Welsh SSSIs.

* Natural England website with online searchable directory of all English SSSIs

* Scottish Natural Heritage website with online directory of all Scottish SSSIs.

2000-The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 strengthened protection of SSSIs ; by increased English Nature's enforcement power ( allowed to combat neglect, prevent damaging activity, make public bodies responsible for conservation and enhancement of SSSIs ) and increasing penalties for damage to a maximum of £ 20, 000 per offence ( along with court power to order restoration if damage occurs ).

2009-The Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 allowed the creation of marine conservation zones and with the consent of the secretary of state, the creation of SSSIs below mean low water mark.

The site is contiguous with the Brean Down, Berrow Dunes and Blue Anchor to Lilstock Coast SSSIs.

The estuary as a whole was designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest ( SSSI ) in 1990 with the amalgamation of five previously separate SSSIs: Duddon Sands, Sandscale Haws, North Walney, Hodbarrow Lagoon and Haverigg Haws.

This complex process took some ten years to complete for the several thousand SSSIs.

For example, the Broadland SPA in eastern England is a conglomeration of some 28 SSSIs.

It includes four SSSIs, formerly known as Cheddar Gorge SSSI, August Hole / Longwood Swallet SSSI, GB Cavern Charterhouse SSSI and Charterhouse on-Mendip SSSI.

* SSSI Locator Tool website article to find SSSIs nearest to an entered postcode.

* SSSI Citation Search website article to find SSSIs based on contents of the citation-useful for locating species.

North Queensferry is bounded by two sites of special scientific interest ( SSSIs ), one being the shoreline of the Firth of Forth, an SSSI for its entire extent on both north and south shores, and the other the Carlingnose Point Nature Reserve.

Four small SSSIs at Harbour Cove, Rock Dunes, Trebetherick Point and Pentire Peninsula are on the estuary, while the River Camel Valley and Tributaries SSSI covers much of the Camel Valley between Egloshayle and Blisland, and then extends in several further sections of varying size right up to its source.

A further 800 areas have special designation and a further 100 are Sites of Special Scientific Interest ( SSSIs ).

The protected areas in Scotland account for 20 % of the total area, SSSIs alone 13 %.

SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature / geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon them, including National Nature Reserves, Ramsar Sites, Special Protection Areas, and Special Areas of Conservation.

The same unique ecology and geomorphology has let to a number of designations of SSSIs along the strait including Glannau Porthaethwy, the ivy-oak-ash woodland on the southern shore ( Coedydd Afon Menai ) and Lavan Sands ( Traeth Lafan ).

The scheme, which was supported by the South East England Regional Assembly and by the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott was opposed by English Nature who highlighted the damage to a number of Sites of Special Scientific Interest ( SSSIs ), including the High Weald area of outstanding natural beauty.

There are a further 81 SSSIs, which cover 66 % or more of the land surfaces of Fair Isle, Papa Stour, Fetlar, Noss and Foula.

There are over 750 km² of Sites of Special Scientific Interest ( SSSIs ) in the area, as well as National Nature Reserves at Caerlaverock and in Cumbria.

Sites notified for their biological interest are known as Biological SSSIs, and those notified for geological or physiographic interest are Geological SSSIs.

SSSIs are also covered under the Water Resources Act 1991 and related legislation.

SSSIs are not necessarily open to the public, nor are they necessarily owned by a conservation organisation or by the British government — in fact, their access and ownership are no different from the rest of the countryside.

Local planning authorities are required to have policies in their development plans which protect SSSIs.

The owners and occupiers of SSSIs are required to consult the appropriate conservation body if they want to carry out ( or permit ) activities on the land.

In Great Britain, SPAs ( and SACs ) designated on land or in the intertidal area are normally also notified as Sites of Special Scientific Interest ( SSSIs ), and in Northern Ireland as Areas of Special Scientific Interest ( ASSIs ).

Twelve Sites of Special Scientific Interest ( SSSIs ) that include wetland habitats are located within the Mole catchment area and the stretch of river through Leatherhead has been designated a Local Nature Reserve.

There are ongoing debates between the authority and farmers over the biological monitoring of SSSIs, showing the need for a controlled regime of grazing and burning ; farmers claim that these regimes are not practical or effective in the long term.

At the time of the passing of the Wildlife and Countryside Act in 1981 many SSSIs were already in existence, having been notified over the previous decades under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949.

Conservation of biological SSSIs usually involves continuation of the natural and artificial processes which resulted in their development and survival — for example, the continued traditional grazing of heathland or chalk grassland.

SSSIs were originally set up by the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949, but the current legal framework for SSSIs is provided by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, amended in 1985 and further substantially amended in 2000 ( by the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 ), in Scotland by the Nature Conservation ( Scotland ) Act 2004 and in Northern Ireland by the Nature Conservation and Amenity Lands ( Northern Ireland ) Order 1985.

The effect was, for example to allow control of legal trail biking on SSSIs ( where damaging to the interest ), but not illegal trail biking.

* Nature Conservancy Council ( 1989 ) Guidelines for selection of biological SSSIs ISBN 0-86139-544-1

Legally responsible for Sites of Special Scientific Interest ( SSSIs ) and enforce law when necessary.