Sites of Biological Importance (SBI), also known as LWS, in Greater Manchester

• Published by: Greater Manchester Ecology Unit
• Last updated: 04 July 2025
• Topic: Environment
• Licence: Open Government Licence

Summary

UPDATED JULY 2025 Greater Manchester Ecology Unit (GMEU) operates the SBI register for, and on behalf of, the ten Local Authorities that comprise Greater Manchester. This dataset contains all current SBI boundaries (based upon the 2022 review season), including the name of each site and its defining features. SBIs are Greater Manchester's equivalent to Local Wildlife Sites (LWS).

SBIs are non-statutory areas of substantive nature conservation importance within the county of Greater Manchester. The SBI system is designed to establish and highlight to planners, landowners and site managers where areas of high biodiversity interest occur so that appropriate decisions on planning applications, land use and land management can be made.

Full SBI citations, including site descriptions, statistics and grading information can be purchased from GMLRC if required.

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Data links

Link to the data	Format	File added	Data preview
Site Names, Grades and Significant Features Spreadsheet	XLSX	12 April 2024	Not available
Interactive Google Map	WEB MAP	12 April 2024	Not available
GIS Data Download Zip	ZIP	10 November 2020	Not available

Supporting documents

Link to the document	Format	Date added
Selection Guidelines	PDF	04 July 2025

Contact

Enquiries

Paul Barrington

Freedom of Information (FOI) requests

Paul Barrington Freedom of information requests for this dataset

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