Site Condition Monitoring
Site Condition Monitoring is Scottish Natural Heritage's programme for monitoring the condition of nature conservation features of special interest on designated sites in Scotland. These features of special interest are known as 'natural features' and may be habitats (eg. woodland, marine reef, freshwater loch), species populations (eg. otter, dotterel, marsh fritillary butterfly) or geological formations (eg. cave, fossil bed, volcanic exposures) .
The purpose of Site Condition Monitoring is to determine the condition of the designated natural feature within a site. This is to establish whether the natural feature is likely to maintain itself in the medium to longer term under the current management regime and wider environmental or other influences. There are in excess of 5400 individual natural features of special interest hosted on designated sites which are monitored on a rolling programme through Site Condition Monitoring.
Favourable condition targets
Scottish Government targets for habitats and species in protected areas