In light of recent things, I felt it worthwhile to gather together in one place as many of the official landscape designations as I could think of which are applicable to the Scottish environment. Almost every day, I have to deal with at least one of these in my professional life. Here we go - Buckle Up!!!:
Ramsar - wetland sites with special importance
SSSI - Sites of Special Scientific Interest
LNR - Local Nature Reserve
NNR - NATIONAL Nature Reserve
SAC - Special Area of Conservation
SPA - Special Protection Area
Natura - Euro habitat thing
NSA - National Scenic Area
SLA - Special Landscape Area
Country Park
Regional Park
National Park
GEO - International Golf Enviro accreditation
SGEG - Scottish Golf Environment Group
There's more, but you get the idea. I haven't even started on biodiversity and geodiversity things, protected species, licensing, ALL the built environment stuff and all the other hoohah. What you'll gather though, is that we have quite the plethora of protective bodies and legislation.
DESPITE all of that, making changes to golf courses which don't contain a protected species or which are not situated in any of those designated areas is pretty much uncontrolled. Go figure.
F