DESIGNATED SITES 

The Countryside Section manages directly 175 hectares (432 acres) of land. This is divided into twelve chief sites across the Island, and includes land designated as Special Area of Conservation, Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Local Nature Reserves and Country Parks (some of these are coincident). To find out if land is protected under any of these designations please refer to the Unitary Development Plan.

Sites with statutory protection and SINCs are given particular priority and building relationships with landowners is an important part of this work. Despite protection, much is still reliant upon the goodwill of farmers and landowners. Particular assistance is offered to the Wight Nature Fund who lease land from the Council and manage several sites with the help of countryside staff.

There is one National Nature Reserve on the Island at Newtown, owned and managed almost entirely by the National Trust. The Isle of Wight Council has a historic involvement with this reserve going back over 20 years. There are seven Local Nature Reserves of which six are managed directly by the Countryside Section. These are Afton Marsh; Rew Down; Sibden Hill & Batts Copse; Dodnor Creek; and Shide Chalk Pit. Alverstone Marsh LNR is leased to the Wight Nature Fund by the Council.

Many of the sites are in private ownership, but large areas of SSSI are owned and managed by the National Trust, and others owned by a variety of conservation bodies including the Woodland Trust and Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust. The Countryside Section of the Isle of Wight Council manages six SSSIs directly, and is involved in the management of several others. A further 10% of the Island’s area has been designated as Sites of Interest for Nature Conservation (SINCs), following surveys and research by the Countryside Section.

Many of the SSSIs on the Isle of Wight are of such importance that they have been internationally recognised for their wildlife importance. Several of these are managed by the Council, Rew Down, Dodnor Creek and Nansen Hill are all included within sites of European importance (Rew Down - SAC; Nansen Hill - SAC; Dodnor Creek - Ramsar Site) and are afforded higher levels of protection than SSSIs. The Estuaries project  is also concerned with promoting the sustainable management of the European sites within the Medina and Yar estuaries.