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Conservation Review 2005 email -
Hampshire Heathland -
Thames
Basin Heaths - What
is the future for our shorebirds?
Agri-environment funding -
New National Parks -
Avian influenza (bird flu)
In contrast to many other countries the
word conservation in Britain means more than just maintaining the
status quo. Here it includes intervention and the active manipulation
of the environment. This Conservation Review summarises some of the
different approaches and legislation which have been applied to protect
bird species and habitat in Hampshire during 2005 and beyond.
Perhaps on a more personal level, don’t
forget that putting out food for our garden birds is a practical act of
bird conservation. I’m encouraged in my garden by the thriving groups
of House Sparrows and Greenfinches that have survived through the winter
from regular visits to our bird feeder.
Hampshire
Heathland
The Hampshire Heathland Project is led by Hampshire
County Council and is currently funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund
under English Nature’s national ‘Tomorrow’s Heathland Heritage’
programme. The project was awarded £1.5 million in 2001 in order to
undertake heathland restoration work on 68 sites across the county.
The end of the project in 2006 will see the restoration
of over 1000 hectares of heathland by the removal of scrub, secondary
woodland and bracken. Conservation grazing to a further 500 hectares of
heathland will also have been introduced. This management work will
help to reverse the decline of the quality and quantity of Hampshire’s
heathlands which have suffered greatly from a lack of suitable
management in recent history.
Much of the work is focused upon sites that have been
designated under the European ‘Birds Directive’, and will aid the
breeding success of species that rely on heathlands including the
Dartford Warbler, Nightjar and Woodlark. With the end of the project,
maintenance of the restored areas will continue to be the responsibility
of the site owners but, in the interim, new ways to help ensure the
future of these rare and special places are being investigated.
A full report of the Hampshire Heathland Project will be
included in the 2005 Hampshire Bird Report.
Thames
Basin Heaths
The Thames Basin Heaths Special
Protection Area (SPA) was formally classified in March 2005. The SPA
includes 13 heathland sites in north-east Hampshire, Surrey and
Berkshire and held
28% of
Britain's population of Dartford Warblers, 10% of
Woodlarks, and 8% of Nightjars when it was proposed in 2000. Under
European and UK law, planned housing and other developments which could
significantly damage the SPA, for example through increased levels of
recreational disturbance, must be subject to an assessment of their
effect on the bird populations of the SPA.
With the high demand for new housing in
the Thames Basin region, English Nature, with support from the
Countryside Agency, the Government Office for the South East, and the
South East England Development Agency have proposed a strategy to
protect the SPA. Their Delivery Plan is aimed at establishing planning
procedures to mitigate against potential disturbance where new
developments are close to the SPA boundary. Proposed developments in
close proximity to the SPA would not be given planning permission. The
Plan is currently being assessed by Local Authorities.
An interesting news item related to the
above concerns George Wimpey, one of Britain’s biggest builders. It is
proposing to build new homes on a site close to heathland in Berkshire.
In an attempt to get the housing development approved by the local
council it is offering to ban cats from the apartments. I’m not sure
that Wimpey’s intentions are totally altruistic!
What is the future for
our shorebirds?
The Hampshire coast supports significant
numbers of the world population of several species of shorebirds, both
in winter and on passage. In fact the Solent's shorebirds, especially
the waders, are our only wildlife of really world class proportions.
Making sure they have a continuing future with us will be tricky. The
coast is a place of change – both planned and unplanned – and how we
respond to the challenge of keeping sites for these species will be a
true test of our commitment to conservation. With the right data, which
is where HOS can help, and imagination from government and others it
should be possible for our grandchildren to continue to see thousands of
waders in the Solent.
Agri-environment funding
The most significant change for many
years in agri-environment funding took place in August 2005 with the
introduction of Environmental Stewardship schemes. Two new schemes are
available to landowners - the Entry Level Stewardship Scheme and the
Higher Level Stewardship Scheme. I do not propose to describe these
schemes in detail but instead refer the reader to the paper
‘Agricultural Change and Hampshire Birds’ by Glynne Evans in the 2004
Hampshire Bird Report. Early intelligence suggests that, while the
majority of Hampshire farmers and landowners will be participating in
the Entry Level Stewardship Scheme, support for the Higher Level Scheme
is less enthusiastic. It is too soon to determine how Hampshire
compares to the rest of the UK but the overall picture for bird
conservation is likely to be positive.
With the projected decline in
agricultural subsidies for food production and pressure to lower
international trade barriers the abandonment of marginal farmland has
accelerated. This has provided an opportunity for private reserves to
be set up by nature charities in close proximity to existing reserves.
Their view is that larger uncultivated tracts will generate greater
biodiversity than more widely scattered plots of land. This new
development of transforming cultivated land into nature reserves has
been slow to take off due to the relatively high price of farmland but
the upward trend is expected to increase, especially over the south of
England.
New National
Parks
The New Forest became Britain's smallest national park in
2005 and is the first new national park for nearly 50 years and the
first ever in the South East of England.
The South Downs National Park inquiry formally closed
during March 2005 and the report is expected to be published soon.
The prospect of two new National Parks in
the UK, partly within Hampshire, may have initially seemed attractive to
many conservationists. However the level of protection offered by a
National Park to wildlife is considerably less than that offered by
National Nature Reserves, Sites of Special Scientific Interest, and
Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation. Furthermore, the area of
both parks is likely to be considerably smaller than many would have
liked.
The New Forest contains the largest
extent of lowland heath in Britain, covering some 15,000 hectares
(37,000 acres). This represents nearly a quarter of all heathland in
the UK. Not only are the Forest heaths highly significant for wildlife,
but they are also of immense cultural importance in terms of their
social history and system of traditional land use rights. Various types
of heath are represented here, including extensive areas of wet heath
and mire as well as some of the best stands of mature gorse anywhere in
the country. Fragmentation remains a major issue in heathland
conservation with most surviving heath a shrunken remnant of its former
self.
Avian influenza (bird flu)
Since the autumn of 2005 all national
newspapers have contained stories with varying degrees of accuracy on
the possible impact of avian influenza to the UK human population. It
was reported that bird migration from the Far East of Asia would bring
the H5N1 virus to these shores. Some tabloids even suggested that a
massive cull of domestic and wild birds was necessary to prevent the
spread of the virus.
Setting aside the hype and
scare-mongering, avian influenza H5N1 is spreading. The disease has now
been detected in several countries in the Black Sea area of eastern
Europe but the ways in which it is spreading remain unclear.
Despite the recent confirmed death of a Whooper Swan to H5N1 in Scotland, the risk
to the public with the virus in its current form is very low.
Birdwatchers and the public in general have been asked to report any
suspicious die-offs of wild birds to the government helpline.
For a balanced assessment on the
facts regarding avian influenza refer to the RSPB (www.rspb.org)
and BTO (www.bto.org)
web sites.
Acknowledgements
My thanks to Alex Cruickshank and Bob Chapman. For more
details on the work of the Hampshire Heathland Project see
www.hants.gov.uk/biodiversity/heathland.
To
participate in the Solent wader count send your records to
robertc@hwt.org.uk.
Please send your views on
conservation issues which you see as important to
and I will try
to follow up as many as I can.
Colin Young - Conservation Liaison Officer
Hampshire Heathland -
Thames
Basin Heaths - What
is the future for our shorebirds? -
Agri-environment funding -
New National Parks -
Avian influenza (bird flu)
Species Action Plans (SAPs)
are available on the
HBIC
website
1999 Conservation Review
(34kb)
2000 Conservation Review
(91kb)
2001 Conservation Review
(40kb)
2002 Conservation Review
(35kb)
2003 Conservation Review
(29kb)
2004 Conservation Review
(90kb)
2006 Conservation
Review
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