Ramsar sites and planning: wetlands of international importance

A Ramsar site is a wetland recognised as being of international importance under the Convention on Wetlands, commonly called the Ramsar Convention after the Iranian city where the convention was adopted in 1971. Ramsar sites include estuaries, marshes, peatlands, lakes, reservoirs and other wetlands important for wildlife and the functioning of wetland ecosystems.

For planning in England, the most important recent change is easy to miss: on 21 May 2026 Ramsar sites were brought directly into key parts of the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017. This means their protection is no longer simply a matter of national planning policy being applied as though they were European sites. For relevant plans and projects situated wholly in England, the statutory Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) regime now expressly applies to Ramsar sites.

That change matters for planning applications, later approvals and other authorisations. It also means that older advice and case law dealing with Ramsar sites before May 2026 needs to be read with care.

What does Ramsar designation protect?

The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty concerned with the conservation and wise use of wetlands. Sites are selected because of their international importance under Ramsar criteria, including their wetland types, ecological communities and the species they support.

Many English Ramsar sites overlap with other designations. A wetland may also be a Special Protection Area (SPA), a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and/or a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). The designations are related but not interchangeable: each has its own legal or policy basis and may protect different features.

JNCC maintains the current list of UK Ramsar sites and the Ramsar Information Sheet for each designated site. For a planning proposal, do not stop at locating the boundary. Read the site’s current citation/information, understand the features for which it is important and identify how the proposal could affect those features.

What changed on 21 May 2026?

Historically, Ramsar sites in England were given the same practical level of planning protection as European sites largely through national planning policy. The Habitats Regulations themselves did not generally make a Ramsar site a European site.

That changed through Part 1 of Schedule 5 to the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025. The amendments were brought into force on 21 May 2026. Regulation 63 of the 2017 Habitats Regulations now contains a specific paragraph 63(1A): before deciding to undertake or give consent, permission or another authorisation for a plan or project situated wholly in England which is likely to have a significant effect on a Ramsar site, alone or in combination, and is not directly connected with or necessary to managing that site, the competent authority must make an appropriate assessment of the implications for the Ramsar site in view of its conservation objectives.

The same legislative package also extends the relevant alternatives, imperative-reasons-of-overriding-public-interest and compensatory-measures provisions to Ramsar sites. In other words, for the plans and projects caught by the new provisions, Ramsar protection now has a direct statutory HRA footing rather than relying only on the planning-policy approach.

Does every proposal near a Ramsar site need an appropriate assessment?

No. The legal question is not simply whether a development is within a particular distance. The assessment process first considers whether the proposal is likely to have a significant effect on the Ramsar site, either alone or in combination with other plans or projects.

Where a significant effect can be excluded on the basis of objective information, the proposal does not move to appropriate assessment on that impact pathway. Where it cannot be excluded, appropriate assessment is required. Our dedicated guide to Habitats Regulations Assessment explains screening, appropriate assessment, mitigation, site integrity, in-combination effects and the exceptional derogation route.

There is no universal national Ramsar buffer. The relevant zone of influence depends on the site, its protected features and the impact pathway. Some effects can travel a considerable distance through hydrological catchments, wastewater systems, air pollution or recreational journeys.

Development outside the boundary can still affect a Ramsar site

Wetlands often depend on processes extending beyond a mapped designation. Development outside the Ramsar boundary can therefore be relevant where it changes water quantity or quality, nutrient loading, air quality, disturbance, recreation, supporting habitat or the movement of species.

Examples of potential pathways include:

• phosphate or nitrate entering the same hydrological catchment;
• new housing increasing recreational pressure on sensitive wetland habitat;
• changes to drainage, groundwater or surface-water flows;
• air pollution affecting sensitive habitats;
• disturbance from construction, lighting, noise or access; and
• loss or disturbance of land outside the boundary used by qualifying or Ramsar-interest species.

This is why simply measuring the distance to the red line on a constraints map is not a sufficient ecological assessment.

Nutrient neutrality and Ramsar sites

Ramsar sites have been central to several nutrient-neutrality planning regimes. The Somerset Levels and Moors Ramsar Site is a well-known example where phosphate effects have constrained development in affected river catchments.

Nutrient neutrality is not a national rule applying to every Ramsar site. It arises where scientific evidence shows that additional nutrient loading could prevent the authority from ruling out an adverse effect on a protected site. The evidence, catchment, development types caught and mitigation arrangements are therefore location-specific.

If a local authority or Natural England identifies nutrient effects in your area, the application may need a nutrient budget and secured mitigation before a favourable HRA conclusion can be reached. Do not assume that satisfying Biodiversity Net Gain resolves a nutrient or Ramsar HRA problem: they are separate statutory regimes.

What about permitted development and prior approval?

This part needs care because the May 2026 amendments contain specific wording about general development orders and transitional operation. The safe starting point is that Ramsar effects can no longer be treated as merely a policy issue where the new statutory HRA provisions apply.

However, it would be too broad to say that every right in the existing 2015 GPDO automatically acquired exactly the same Ramsar procedure on 21 May 2026. The amendments to regulation 75 contain particular wording about a general development order made by the Secretary of State on or after the commencement of the new provisions, while regulation 77 and other provisions were also amended. The application of the Habitats Regulations to a particular permitted-development or prior-approval route therefore needs to be checked against the exact statutory route and any relevant transitional provision.

Current local-authority practice can also reflect the new law. Somerset Council, for example, states that the 21 May 2026 changes extended regulation 63 statutory protection to Ramsar sites and that, in its phosphate-affected area, prior-approval applications are now caught and require phosphate mitigation. That is a useful real-world example, but it should not be converted into a universal national rule for every Ramsar site and every GPDO class.

If you are relying on permitted development near or connected to a Ramsar site, identify the exact class, the Habitats Regulations route and the site’s impact pathway before starting work.

Ramsar sites, SPAs and SACs are not the same thing

It is common for the same wetland to carry several international and national designations, but the terminology still matters:

• Ramsar sites are wetlands of international importance designated under the Convention on Wetlands.
• SPAs are classified for important bird populations under the Birds Directive framework and now form part of the UK National Site Network.
• SACs are designated for specified habitats and non-bird species under the Habitats Directive framework and form the other main part of the National Site Network.
• SSSIs are domestic statutory nature-conservation sites protected principally through the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

One site may satisfy several of those descriptions. A proper planning assessment should identify each designation and the features relevant to the proposal.

How do you find out whether land affects a Ramsar site?

The JNCC Ramsar site list is the national source for site information and Ramsar Information Sheets. In England, Ramsar boundaries can also be viewed through DEFRA’s MAGIC mapping system and relevant planning constraint maps.

For development outside the boundary, the local planning authority, Natural England and relevant local evidence may identify zones of influence or catchments in which particular effects must be assessed. That information is often more useful than straight-line distance.

How does national planning policy treat Ramsar sites?

The statutory change does not make national planning policy irrelevant. The August 2026 National Planning Policy Framework continues to protect habitats sites and explains the wider approach to internationally important nature-conservation sites. Planning decisions must also comply with the Habitats Regulations where they apply.

The key practical change is that an authority can no longer approach a Ramsar issue in England purely as a matter of policy weight where regulation 63(1A) is engaged. The statutory appropriate-assessment test now has to be satisfied.

C G Fry: an important case, but read it with the 2026 amendment

C G Fry & Son Limited v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and Somerset Council [2025] UKSC 35 is an important Supreme Court decision about HRA at later stages of a planning permission. It also dealt specifically with the Somerset Levels and Moors Ramsar Site.

The Supreme Court held that regulation 63 could apply at a later implementing stage, such as discharge of conditions, where the decision would authorise the project to proceed. But it also held, on the law then in force, that the policy protection afforded to a Ramsar site could not be used to expand the legal scope of unrelated planning conditions.

That Ramsar part of the judgment describes the pre-21 May 2026 statutory position. Parliament has since amended regulation 63 to refer expressly to Ramsar sites for plans and projects wholly in England. C G Fry remains important, especially on later-stage HRA, but it should not now be cited as though Ramsar sites still sit outside the statutory appropriate-assessment regime in England.

Key legislation and guidance

• Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025, Schedule 5 Part 1 – amendments bringing Ramsar sites into key provisions of the 2017 Habitats Regulations.
• Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 – including regulation 63(1A) as amended.
• JNCC: Ramsar Sites – current UK site list, information sheets and boundary data.
• Planning Practice Guidance: Appropriate assessment – HRA screening, appropriate assessment and derogation.
• Planning Geek: Habitats Regulations Assessment – the assessment process in practical planning terms.

Conservation, Heritage & Protected Sites

Ramsar Sites Page Updated: 20th August 2026