Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2007/January 2008 | Page 62

life

COUNTRYSIDE, WILDLIFE & FARMING
Corn bunting by Denis Brigh

Thinking Big
Our wildlife habitats are under increased
pressure, so the Trust has responded with
a new approach to land management.

I

n the past, environmental
and in February launched A
conservation has tended to focus on
Living Landscape for the South East; an
the protection of special areas such as ecological network approach to rebuilding
Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs)
biodiversity for the 21st century. It
and wildlife reserves, trying to maintain
capitalises on the Living Landscapes
the best of what we have. While this
concept launched nationally by the
site-based approach is still an important
Wildlife Trusts at the House of Commons
aspect of conservation, the increasing
in November last year, fine-tuning the
pressures that our wildlife habitats face
model and creating a map of a South
from development and climate change
East ecological network ranging from
mean that it is no longer sufficient if we
the Thames Basin Heaths to the Isle
are to maintain a healthy and functioning
of Wight and Solent Maritime areas.
natural environment in the long term.
The Hampshire and Isle of Wight
The answer lies in managing land on a
Wildlife Trust wants to encourage
grand scale. Smaller sites are often at the
all those involved with our natural
limits of viability from both an economic
environment to think bigger and to focus
and an ecological perspective, whereas
on the longer term. We are starting the
larger, interconnected areas allow natural
process now so that we stand some chance
processes to act to maintain species and
of halting biodiversity loss as climate
habitats with less need for intervention.
change progresses and development
Landscape-scale conservation gives us
the opportunity
Red Squirrel by Darin Smith
to restore the
ecological
functions that
underpin the
success of
vulnerable habitats
and species.
Recognising that
nature cannot,
and indeed should
not, exist in a box,
the Wildlife Trusts
in the South
East employed
some ‘out of the
box’ thinking

62

takes its toll. The Living Landscapes
report aims to influence regional and
local planning authorities alongside
local and national government to make
our vision for a South East ecological
network a reality, embedding it today
into the planning process for tomorrow.
Putting a vision of an ecological
network for the South East into practice
is going to require a great deal of
hard work and a considerable amount
of funding. Government must be
encouraged to tailor funding schemes,
such as those associated with forestry
and agrienvironment policies. Incentives
such as Planning Gain Supplement
should be used to promote habitat
restoration. Local authority programmes
such as Local Area Agreements should
embrace landscape-scale restoration
and target a proportion of their social
and economic spending to achieve
this, recognising that health, welfare
and the economy all benefit from
a thriving natural environment.
The environment has become a real and
competitive political issue so there could
not be a better time to drive forward the
Trust’s aspiration for a Living Landscape.
Download your copy of
the national report at:
www.hwt.org.uk/files/livinglandscapenational.pdf and the South East
report by logging on to: www.hwt.
org.uk/files/selivinglandscape.pdf

Island Life - www.isleofwight.net