By Jamie Robins, Buglife Programmes Manager
A recent report from Wild Justice made headlines when it revealed that the Government’s environmental advisor Natural England has stopped designating Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Despite proclamations about addressing the nature crisis, there hasn’t been a single new SSSI designated in England since 2023.
While SSSIs are often called ‘the backbone of our protected sites network’, do they actually serve the needs of the creatures without backbones – the invertebrates – that Buglife is dedicated to protecting? Designation as a SSSI does grant sites considerable protection from threats such as development, despite the current growth vs nature agenda, and can be a useful lever to ensure that important wildlife sites are better managed by their owners. But most of our extensive network of 4,000 SSSIs in England are designated for their habitats, birds, flora or geology. While some do include invertebrates in reasons for selection, we frequently find that SSSIs important for invertebrates fail to recognise this interest in their formal designation. This can present risks when management priorities are geared towards other wildlife and the needs of invertebrates aren’t considered. But even more concerning is that many SSSI quality sites for invertebrates have simply fallen through the cracks, and remain undesignated and vulnerable. We know this from our Important Invertebrate Area mapping, where we map the most important areas for invertebrates in Britain, and regularly find crucial areas that are currently unprotected and their value otherwise unrecognised.
Buglife has spearheaded a number of high-profile campaigns in recent years to see these sites, which have slipped through the cracks rightly designated as SSSIs, to give them the protection that they urgently require. Our work with campaign partners to Save Swanscombe Marshes from the looming threat of the London Resort theme park, included a call for SSSI designation to Natural England in 2021. Thankfully, later that year, Natural England announced the notification of the Swanscombe Peninsula SSSI- one of the last that they have notified. This designation was a hammer blow to the proposed theme park, with the developers subsequently withdrawing their plans, disbanding and the long hanging threat to a national important wildlife site disappeared.
But is SSSI designation always the solution? The Wild Justice report highlighted two other cases where Buglife has called on Natural England to designate sites urgently but our calls have not been heeded. Buglife led calls to designate an area of brownfield habitat known as the A1 Ashfield in Thurrock that Natural England had confirmed it was considering for SSSI designation, as it was “the most important area for invertebrates across the North Thames area”. However, before the important first steps towards designation could be taken, a planning application was approved for Tilbury 3, an expansion of the Port of Tilbury. This was driven by previous losses of SSSI quality habitat to port expansion and the designation of the wider area as the ‘Thames Freeport’- designed to prioritise economic development above all else.
But would SSSI designation have affected the outcome of Tilbury 3? A similar story is currently playing out on the South Coast with plans for Solent Gateway 2 that would see an expansion of the existing port in the Solent Freeport area. In this instance, the land affected is already designated as the Dibden Bay SSSI, which was the subject of a significant campaign culminating in 2004 when port expansion was refused. However, the new proposals, with the Freeport designation and Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project route, raise the serious prospect that over 100 hectares of SSSI will be lost this time around. So if existing SSSIs aren’t always protected, what hope is there even if more are designated? Back in 2004, the Secretary of State refused the application, prompted by Natural England’s predecessor, English Nature, taking a hard line and objecting to the proposals. Would we see the same resistance now?
The other case study highlighted by Wild Justice was the Middlewick Ranges in Colchester. Here, Buglife has been working with incredible local campaigners and partners to call for its designation to fend off the threat of the Ministry of Defence owned site being sold off for housing. While there may be other approaches to protect it from development other than SSSI designation, it has also become clear that the site is currently not being managed for its considerable interest that is undoubtedly of SSSI quality. SSSI status would give Natural England the ability to make sure it is managed as it should be, but without it, the landowner can continue to manage the site’s valuable acid grassland as it pleases, with nature far down the list of priorities. This shows how SSSI designation could make a huge difference for invertebrates, making them better managed, where it is needed the most.
While we can’t designate our way out of the current nature crisis, SSSIs remain a key part of the strategy to support nature recovery and steps should be taken urgently to identify gaps in the network. Organisations like Buglife will continue to campaign for individual sites that we think should be at the front of the queue for designation. But piecemeal notifications aren’t enough. Investment is needed in this vital exercise to secure our best wildlife sites, done at scale and systematically, and crucially at pace. Buglife has mapped out a network of nationally and internationally important sites for invertebrate conservation – Important Invertebrate Areas. This provides a valuable foundation to inform the future designation of SSSIs in England for invertebrates. We call on Natural England to restart the pipeline for designating SSSIs and to produce a timeline to ensure a rapid decision on the designation of all existing sites; and to begin a process of reviewing the network of SSSIs based on evidence including Important Invertebrate Areas.
So is a SSSI designation worth the paper it is written on? In summary, in the vast majority of cases they provide important protection to species and their habitats from harmful activities including development proposals and land use changes. But it’s important that we have the right protection in the right place, and that the sites are managed appropriately to maintain their interest features. Examples such as at Swanscombe Peninsula and Lodge Hill show that SSSI protection is essential to protect important assemblages of invertebrates. That’s why we need to make sure that important invertebrates are added to the citations for existing SSSIs where they occur, and new SSSIs are designated to protect important invertebrate sites that currently lack protection.
Without this urgent action, it isn’t clear how any meaningful delivery of 30by30 ambitions can be achieved. The Wild Justice report has come at just the right time and we hope it prompts much needed action from Natural England.