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The Wash and North Norfolk Coast

Property names are listed in the language in which they have been submitted by the State Party.

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Europe and North America)
Date of Submission: 21/06/1999
Criteria: (x)
Category: Natural
Submitted by: Dep. For Culture, Media and Sport
Coordinates: Long. 00°13'93" E / Lat. 52°56'17" N Norfolk England
Ref.: 1336

Description

The Wash and North Norfolk Coast is an area of international nature conservation importance comprising an area of some 70,000 hectares. It is designated a Ramsar site under the Convention on Wellands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat (Ramsar Convention). It is also a Special Protection Area under the Council Directive on the Conversation of Wild Birds (79/*os/EEC), and is a candidate Special Area of Conservation under the Council Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and Wild Fauna and Flora (92/43/EEC). Parts of the North Norfolk coast are also a Biosphere Reserve designated under the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB). The North Norfolk coast is also recognised for its landscape importance being designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and as a Heritage Coast. It also has high archaeological potential, with recent evidence of surviving waterlogged timber from the Bronze Age. The Site is representative of the UK's most important and characteristic natural feature, that is inter-tidal sands and muds, shingle, sand dunes, lagoons and salt marshes. The Wash estuary with its sand, mud flats and salt marsh is a very complex and highly productive ecosystem. The North Norfolk coast is one of the finest coastlines in the British Isles and is one of the few examples of a barrier coast in Europe. At Blakeney the shingle spit is of considerable physiographic interest and forms the foundations for extensive ridges of sand dunes. Scolt Head is a barrier island with sand dunes, shingle and contains a succession of salt marshes. Holkham contains one of the largest salt marshes in England. Scolt Head and Blakeney Point were the locations for the now classical studies of coastal accretion and plant succession. They also have important education and research value including long term monitoring, and are the sites of nationally important populations of rare or local coastal plants. The Site is also of international importance for breeding bird populations of wildfowl and waders, particularly redshank and terns. The breeding colony of sandwich terns at Scolt Head and Blakeney Point is of international significance comprising 12% of the European breeding population. There are also important colonies of common terns with up to 1,000 pairs breeding on the Site. Among the many species of brceding birds are marsh harrier, bearded tits, bittern, avocet, little tern, oyster catcher, ringed plover, skylark and reed bunting. The geographical position of the Site and its wide range of habitat, make it especially valuable for the support of migratory birds at vulnerable stages in their life cycle. Over 200,000 waders winter at the Site, including oyster catcher, grey plover, knot, sanderling, dunlin, bar-tailed godwit, curlew, redshank and turnstone; and over 200,000 wildfowl including internationally important number of dark-bellied brent geese, pink footed geese, pintails, shelduck and widgeon, and nationally important populations of goldeneye, gadwall, garganey and white-fronted geese. The Site also hosts a substantial populations of breeding common seal and is considered one of the best areas in the UK for the species. Boundaries The outer part of the proposed Site comprises Gibraltar Point National Nature Reserve (NNR) and, to the east, the North Norfolk coast, including Scolt Head NNR, Holkham NNR, Blakeney NNR and Holme Dunes NNR. All of the Site is notified as being a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. The inner part is the Wash, identified as an area to a seaward line running from Gibraltar Point to just north of Hunstanton, which is also notified as an SSSI and includes land that is declared as a National Nature Reserve.