Special Protection Areas for birds
Special Protection Areas (SPAs) are protected sites classified under the Birds Directive, which came into force in April 1979. They are classified for rare and vulnerable birds listed in the directive and for regularly occurring migratory species.
In the UK, 268 SPAs have been classified covering over 2.5 million hectares. This represents around 1.3% of UK marine and 6.5% of UK terrestrial area. A full list of SPAs can be found on the JNCC website.
The Birds Directive provides no formal criteria for selecting SPAs, so the JNCC, on behalf of the statutory nature conservation agencies and government, published SPA Selection Guidelines for use in the UK.
Review of SPA network
Over time, it is possible that the most suitable areas for important bird species will change and the UK SPA network has therefore been subject to regular reviews, most recently in 2001. The UK is currently scoping a further review which will focus on the terrestrial SPA network. The review is split into three phases and will focus on the terrestrial and coastal areas of the UK. The first phase, which is expected to conclude in autumn 2011, is considering and developing further guidelines and principles to assist in the application of the UK SPA selection guidelines.
Read the Terms of Reference for the review (PDF 85 KB).
To learn more about SPAs, how they are classified and how they may affect you, visit the Natural England website.
Wallasea Wetlands Creation Project
Wallasea Wetlands Creation Project is a habitat creation project, owned and managed by Defra, on Wallasea Island, adjoining the Crouch and Roach Estuaries, Essex. In 1997 the House of Lords, after receiving an opinion from the European Court of Justice, decreed an area of marine wetlands, mudflats and saltmarsh of international importance for birds, which had been left out of a SPA to allow for port development at Sheerness and Felixstowe, should be replaced. Wallasea Island was subsequently selected as a suitable site, with a view to create 115 hectares of intertidal habitat via Managed Realignment, a process of creating new counter walls some distance behind an existing sea wall which is then breached, to allow the tide back onto its old flood plain. The breach of the old sea wall took place in July 2006, and RSPB have managed the site on the ground, on behalf of Defra, since April 2007. Jacobs Consulting are contracted to monitor the development of the habitat and its use by waterfowl. The department aims to classify the site as an SPA within 10 years of the breach of the sea wall, so by 2016.
- Wallasea Wetlands e Newsletter – May 2011 (pdf, 450 KB)
RSPB have since acquired a further portion of Wallasea Island for a similar scheme – the Wallasea Wild Coast Project