World Heritage Sites are designated to meet the UK's commitments under the World Heritage Convention. The UK's ratification also extends to its Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. These sites are designated for their globally important cultural or natural interest and require appropriate management and protection measures. Natural properties may be terrestrial or marine areas.

The European Diploma is an award established by the Council of Europe under Regulation (65) 6 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe of 6 March 1965 for certain landscapes, reserves and protected national features, and Resolution (73) 4 of 19 January 1973 on the Regulations for the European Diploma (amended and revised by Resolution (88) 39 of 5 December 1988, (89) 12 of 19 June 1989 and (91) 16 of 17 June 1989). By awarding the European Diploma, the Council of Europe recognises that the area is of particular European interest for natural-heritage and that the area is properly protected. The Diploma can be awarded to national parks, nature reserves or natural areas, sites or features. The award is for a five-year period. Annual reports are required for each area, and the renewal of the award at 5 years is only made after independent assessment of the site. The Diploma can be withdrawn at any time if the area comes under threat or suffers serious damage.

This dataset details the SNH Administrative Boundaries. This dataset was digitised using the Ordnance Survey Meridian2 coastline and administrative boundaries data, Ordnance Survey MasterMap line features and the SNH Areas dataset.

Phase 1 surveys (polygons only) have been made available to download from Natural Spaces on 05/07/2017. Caveat for data usage: this is an archived dataset and is no longer updated or maintained. The data is dated - mainly from the 1980’s and 1990’s, it does not comply with the INSPIRE Directive, it is not in the EUNIS classification system and does not assist SNH in reporting on its statutory commitments.The aim of Phase 1 survey is to provide, relatively rapidly, a record of the semi-natural vegetation and wildlife habitat over large areas of countryside. The habitat classification is based broadly on vegetation, augmented by reference to topographic and substrate features, particularly where vegetation is not the dominant component of the habitat. The nature of the vegetation can provide an effective means of classifying and surveying habitats. Ideally a phase 1 survey should be followed up by a phase 2 survey that looks at plant communities more closely, this should be done using the NVC.For access to GIS colour mapping palettes please see http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/page-4258.

Biogenetic reserves act as 'living laboratories' and are representative examples of various types of natural environment in Europe. They can consist of natural or semi-natural habitats and their selection is based on their value for nature conservation and protected status based on four criteria: 'typical', 'unique', 'rare' and/or 'endangered' which can be applied to habitats or species. The protected status must be adequate to ensure the conservation or management of the sites in the long term in accordance with fixed objectives.

Marine Consultation Areas are identified by Scottish Natural Heritage as deserving particular distinction in respect of the quality and sensitivity of the marine environment within them. Their selection encourages coastal communities and management bodies to be aware of marine conservation issues in the area.

Parks are set up by Local Authorities to provide open-air recreation facilities close to towns and cities. All the parks have a rural character and are managed primarily for informal recreation. Some have nature reserve areas and most have a visitor centre and ranger service to encourage and facilitate visitor understanding. Country Park is not a statutory designation. Countryside (Scotland) Act 1967 Section 48 gives local authorities power to assess and review the need for Country Parks in consultation with SNH.

A layer depicting the extents of local deer management units, based either on property boundaries or the extent of areas used as beats for Stalking. Can include plantation and waterbody boundaries. This dataset is also known as Property or Estate boundaries.

Points showing the locations of traffic accidents involving deer (2008-2018)

Merged dataset containing land owned by or leased from SNH.