Black Hill SSSI, part of our Dunster estate in Somerset
One of Longhorn cattle from the Cranbourne Park SSSI on our Windsor Great Park
The hairy mallow plant, confined to only four native sites in the UK, including Cleeve Hill SSSI
Case Study
Sites of Special Scientific Interest
There are over 4,000 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) in England, accounting for around 7% of the country's land. An SSSI is a term given to an area in the UK which is protected for conservation.
On our rural estates we have 7,694 hectares of land designated as SSSIs. These are divided into 146 units across 46 SSSIs. On our marine estates, we have over 160,000 hectares of land designated as SSSIs, comprising 1,474 SSSI units.
SSSIs are the country's very best wildlife and geological sites. They include some of our most spectacular and beautiful habitats - large wetlands teeming with waders and waterfowl, winding chalk rivers, gorse and heather-clad heathlands, flower-rich meadows, windswept shingle beaches and remote uplands moorland and peat bog.
On the rural estate we share our management responsibilities with our tenants. Where land is tenanted we encourage tenants to work with Natural England’s local conservation officer and to enter into a management agreement that will improve and maintain the condition of the SSSI in a favourable condition. Where the management rests solely with The Crown Estate, we and our agents meet regularly with conservation officers to ensure we monitor the condition of the SSSIs and take appropriate action where possible.
For some years now The Crown Estate has been represented on the Major Landowners Group, which is chaired by DEFRA and is tasked with bringing 95% of SSSIs under the ownership of major landowners into favourable or improving status by 2010. In May 2008 94.6% of The Crown Estate’s rural SSSIs and 91.1% of our marine SSSIs were in favourable or improving condition, and we are on schedule to achieve the 95% target.
