Call for evidence on protected nature sites laws

Views sought to feed into a review of protected nature sites laws in Northern Ireland.

The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) has launched a call for evidence views to inform a review of protected nature sites laws in England and Northern Ireland.

Protected sites are important for recovering nature and helping the United Kingdom meet its domestic and international environmental commitments. For example, the new global biodiversity target to effectively conserve and manage 30 per cent of land and sea. However, recent decades have seen little progress in expanding the protected site network on land and freshwater or improving its condition.

The OEP aims to review this area of law in detail to get to the root of how it is being implemented, its effectiveness and, if appropriate, to recommend improvements. The aim is to establish the extent to which these relevant laws are working well and achieving their objectives, and the areas where improvements are needed.

Find out more about the call for evidence (PDF, 184K) and submit your views by email to protected.sites@theoep.org.uk.

First published 22 March 2023