Why are activities and management considered?

During fieldwork, factors that may be having a negative or positive effect on the natural features of the site are noted, such as: current management practice on site, human influences unrelated to the site itself (e.g. air pollution) and natural factors (e.g. erosion). Recognising the potential impacts of these factors may help to understand why individual natural features may be in an unfavourable condition. They can be used in discussions with land managers if changes in management might be required.

Any grant-aided management measures, such as Agri-environment schemes, Forestry Grants Schemes or Scottish Natural Heritage Management Agreements that are in place on the site are also assessed to determine whether they are having the desired positive effect on the natural features. Where there are negative effects, these can be identified and addressed by reprioritising nature conservation effort or resources. It also allows the sharing of good management practice between managers of sites with similar natural features.

If you are interested in learning more of activities and management on designated sites which are influencing natural feature condition, If you would like more information on SCM and the Condition target, click here for a detailed report 'Condition of Designated Sites'  .  This focuses on individual feature types (eg. birds, woodland, geology) and influences on them. For reasons of ease of download, this is a lower resolution, compressed file which has compromised the quality of some of the images.  A higher resolution version of this report can be accessed by visiting our Condition of Designated Sites web page.