How is SCM carried out?

The monitoring framework used for Site Condition Monitoring was developed and produced by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), with assistance from the Countryside Council for Wales, Natural England, the Environment and Heritage Service in Northern Ireland, and Scottish Natural Heritage.

The JNCC Common Standards Monitoring Guidance   provides a common approach to the monitoring of natural features across designated sites in the whole of the United Kingdom.  Although there are separate chapters within the Guidance for different habitat, species and geological types, the approach to monitoring each is broadly similar. 

For each natural feature a set of 'attributes' is identified. These are indicators of a healthy habitat, species population, or intact geological feature.  For example, the attributes for woodland monitoring include the presence of a range of ages and diversity of tree species, the presence of tree regeneration, and the absence of adverse effects from non-native species such as Rhododendron ponticum.

For an individual natural feature, site-specific targets are set against which the condition of the feature can be judged.  Fieldwork is then undertaken to measure the situation on the ground against those targets, to help determine whether the natural feature is in favourable or unfavourable condition.