Looking after our most valuable sites

SSSIs and Natura sites are the country's very best wildlife and geological sites. They include some of our most spectacular and beautiful habitats - the wind-swept and wild west coast mountains, grasslands and pastures in the east, flower-rich meadows and machair, wetlands teeming with waders and waterfowl, majestic rivers and lochs, remote heather moorlands and our northern peatlands which form the most extensive tracts of blanket bog in the world.

Wildlife and geological features are under pressure from development, pollution, climate change and unsustainable land management. All SSSIs and Natura sites are important as they support plants and animals that find it more difficult to survive or are rare in the wider countryside. Protecting and managing these sites is a shared responsibility, and an investment for the benefit of future generations

The unique and varied habitats of SSSIs and Natura sites have developed over hundreds or even thousands of years often through management practices associated with grazing and forestry, and many need active management to maintain their conservation interest. Scottish Natural Heritage works with over 10,000 owners and land managers, who work very hard to conserve these important sites.

Effective management is essential to conserve the special wildlife and geological features of these sites. Examples of the types of management needed include

• grazing animals at particular times of year
• controlled muirburn
• controlling water levels
• clearing scrub

The Rural Priorities scheme is now the main mechanisms for funding management of SSSIs and Natura sites, in place of Natural Care schemes and individual SNH agreements.