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UNITED KINGDOM · WALES · HABITATS · WOODLAND

Ancient Woodland (Wales)

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What this layer shows

Ancient Woodland Inventory for Wales: land believed continuously wooded since 1600. Not a statutory designation, but irreplaceable habitat: Welsh planning policy expects loss to be avoided rather than mitigated.

Publisher and licence

Natural Resources Wales · OGL v3.0

© Natural Resources Wales, OGL v3.0

Official guidance ↗

Where the data comes from

WFS · datamap.gov.wales

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Facts shown for each feature

Category · Area (ha)

In these presets

Essentials

What is protected here: the statutory designations, across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, plus ancient woodland. This is what the map opens with, and what Default puts back. It is a starting point, not a limit: every other layer is one tap away in the list below.

Desk study

The statutory designations an ecologist checks first: SSSI, SAC, SPA, Ramsar, National and Local Nature Reserves across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, plus ancient woodland and priority habitat. This is the opening move of a Preliminary Ecological Appraisal, what is protected on or near the site. Statutory sites are commonly scoped to 10 km and habitat inventories to 2 km, guidance sets no fixed distances, so set the radius to suit the project.

Woodland

Everything wooded: the Ancient Woodland Inventory and its revision, deciduous woodland, traditional orchards, wood pasture and parkland, and the National Forest Inventory. Ancient woodland is irreplaceable habitat under the NPPF, so its boundary, and whether the revised inventory moved it, is usually the first thing a client needs to know.

Forestry

The checks behind a felling licence or a woodland creation application: ancient woodland and its revision, the National Forest Inventory, the live felling licence register, EWCO low-sensitivity land, the 1891–1914 historic woodland maps, wood pasture, deciduous priority habitat, and the statutory designations that constrain felling and planting: SSSI, SAC, SPA and Ramsar.

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