Key Biodiversity Areas

Mid-Essex Coast (2538)
United Kingdom, Europe

Site overview

KBA status: confirmed
Global KBA criteria: D1a
Year of last assessment: 2007
National site name: Mid-Essex Coast
Central coordinates: Latitude: 51.6722, Longitude: 0.9595
System: marine, terrestrial
Elevation (m): 0 to 6
Area of KBA (km2): 229.38571
Protected area coverage (%): 99.97
KBA classification: Global
Legacy site: Yes

Site details

Site description: A large complex of estuaries and sand-silt flats, including the Blackwater, Crouch, Colne and Dengie Estuaries. Foulness and Maplin Sands is one of the three largest continuous sand-silt flats in Britain. The IBA is important for wintering and passage waders and wildfowl and for breeding terns and is also nationally important for breeding Panurus biarmicus.
Rationale for qualifying as KBA: This site qualifies as a Key Biodiversity Area of international significance that meets the thresholds for at least one criterion described in the Global Standard for the Identification of KBAs.
Delineation rationale: First identified in 1989 as three separate IBAs (River Crouch Marshes; Blackwater, Colne and Dengie; Foulness and Maplin Sands); combined, extended and renamed in 1992 as Mid-Essex Coast; dropped some areas on Foulness and Sandbach Meadows in 2000. SPA boundary used from JNCC; digitised at 1:10,000 scale.

Habitats

Land use: agriculture | fisheries/aquaculture | military | nature conservation and research
IUCN HabitatCoverage %Habitat detail
Marine Neritic48
Grassland5
Marine Intertidal48

Threats

Threat level 1Threat level 2Threat level 3Timing
Natural system modificationsDams & water management/useSmall damsOnly in the future
Residential & commercial developmentHousing & urban areasOnly in the future
Residential & commercial developmentTourism & recreation areasOnly in the future
Natural system modificationsOther ecosystem modificationsOngoing
Climate change & severe weatherHabitat shifting & alterationOngoing