Sites of Special Scientific Interest

One of the best tools that we have to save the remaining wildlife, the geology and the natural areas of the world is obviously by setting some space aside for the purpose. Most countries of the world have some sort of sanctuaries and some, like France, have even got protected areas for the preservation of scenic sites.

Britain has, in addition to the usual nature reserves, a nice concept in their Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). Any place could get notified as a SSSI for its wildlife or geology which could be of any size, like a campus area for example or the gardens of a state castle. Unlike nature reserves, it is accepted that these areas would have other land uses simultaneously. It does not prevent the land owner from carrying on with the usual use the land is being put to, but seeks to ensure the preservation of the habitat and the land features, by a process of ‘reciprocal notification’.

The governmental agency on notifying or selecting a site based on rigorous scientific procedures provides a list of ‘Potentially Damaging Operations’ to the land owner. The land owner could be anybody, from a department to an individual. If the land owner wants to carry out any of those operations on that land, he would have to notify the department responsible for conservation (“Nature Conservancy” or “English Nature” as it is called now). The Nature Conservancy would then give consent, or negotiate some management agreement, which could even be technical inputs or payments for lost profits. If permission is not accorded in four months (which is the negotiation time) the activity can be carried out after this time. This would obviously be damaging then.

At the heart of the matter is the system of ‘enforced consultation’ which embodies the so called ‘voluntary principle’ on which the act is based.

Britain today has more than four thousand SSSIs covering some seven percent of their land area. This is in addition to their protected areas and “Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty”. The former is well over eight percent of the land area and the latter some fifteen percent. Contrast this with our country, which has just four and a half percent of the land earmarked for nature reserves. And Britain has a much higher overall density of people than India. Could we not try out something like SSSIs?

 

[22 July 2008. Published in the Deccan Chronicle]