Special Areas of Conservation with Marine Components: UK Boundaries and Features

Joint Nature Conservation Committee collates boundary, site, and feature information for Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) with marine components across UK inshore and offshore waters. The dataset includes a shapefile with site boundaries and attributes like site code, name, status, country, and CP2 region, plus a spreadsheet detailing protected features. This archived version may not capture the most recent boundary updates from Country Nature Conservation Bodies.

Use Cases

• Mapping marine protected area boundaries based on site polygons.
• Analyzing the distribution of protected habitats and species using feature information.
• Assessing site status and regulatory information for compliance and reporting.
• Cross-referencing site codes and names with other Natura 2000 network datasets.

Strengths

• Collated by the authoritative national body (Joint Nature Conservation Committee) on behalf of Country Nature Conservation Bodies.
• Covers both inshore and offshore sites across the entire UK.
• Provides both geospatial (shapefile) and tabular (spreadsheet) data formats.

Limitations

• Dataset is archived; the most recent version is hosted elsewhere, indicating potential obsolescence.
• Subtle boundary updates made by Country Nature Conservation Bodies may not be captured.
• Key metadata (row count, size, license, author) is missing from all provided sources.

Provenance

Source

Joint Nature Conservation Committee

Collection Method

Collated from Country Nature Conservation Bodies.

Freshness

Last updated metadata indicates 2026-04-30, but the dataset is archived.

Geography

UK waters (inshore and offshore)