Policy

Rethinking Nature Conservation in the UK – Starting in Dorset!

By Paul Edgar - Senior Ecologist - Projects

Since the creation of ARC’s predecessor, the Herpetological Conservation Trust, in 1989, wildlife conservation in the UK has seen regular changes, often driven by shifts in Government policy. Conservation is now changing again, not least because of Brexit, and ARC is busy planning how best to respond, both to new threats and to new opportunities. It will pay to be ready since the coming years are likely to see major transformations in legal protection (changes are already being proposed), planning policy, SSSI management, agri-environment schemes and monitoring. There will also clearly be a shift in emphasis away from the intensive management of individual sites and species to conservation on a landscape scale (at least in some areas). These efforts will aim to re-create and re-connect more wildlife habitat and introduce more natural and costeffective processes such as grazing to maintain it. As with all the other potential changes ahead this could have positive and negative connotations for amphibians and reptiles.

The subject of habitat management could fill several Hop Gossips, but one area that many herp enthusiasts would like to see urgently improved – and soon - is the damage too often caused to amphibian and reptile populations. It is somewhat ironic that habitat management for conservation purposes can be a significant threat to widespread species such as the adder, particularly on smaller sites, and even adversely affects species such as the sand lizard and smooth snake. This is especially so when it is often the same management techniques, perhaps practiced less intensively in the past, and/or the natural processes that they mimic, that have meant that many of these same populations and their habitats existed in the first place. To guide both conservation policy and action, and reduce possible adverse consequences of management, ARC has long championed the need to be clear about the desired conservation outcomes and make sure the needs of species are given due regard. The concept of “Favourable Conservation Status” (FCS), enshrined in the Convention on Migratory Species (Bonn Convention) and the EU’s Habitats Directive, provides a tool that helps us define and describe what we are trying to achieve in conservation for key habitats and species and, importantly, why.

Despite the need to do so, there has been insufficient attention given by Government to defining such objectives, and consequently we have insufficient information on the current status of many species, and even less understanding of what this “favourable status” would look like for them. However, we have recently seen more enthusiasm in Government and its agencies, and in particular Natural England, for defining FCS for key habitats and species, and for seeing how this can be used to underpin a variety of conservation actions and applications. It is important in the context of the United Kingdom leaving the EU, to see this mechanism having a greater relevance that was framed within the European legislation. Indeed, we see this concept is now being considered more broadly than for European Protected Species alone, so it is likely that “FCS statements” for widespread species, like the common toad and adder, will be officially recognised in the future.

This is good news as an FCS statement can articulate where a species should occur, how much habitat of a certain type and condition they need and even how many there should be for their populations to be considered “favourable” so that they remain viable into the future. When clearly defined, these aspirations can then help to inform all other work areas, from habitat management and agri-environment schemes to development mitigation and re-introduction programmes and to take forward some new key policy areas being proposed by Government. Monitoring will be vital to this process as it provides the data needed both to develop FCS statements and strategies in the first place and to improve and guide them in the future. This potential for ensuring that amphibians and reptiles are at last considered in all aspects of conservation policy and practice is clearly one of the opportunities mentioned above.

Adders and sand lizards can benefit from “FCS” on smaller sites © Chris Dresh (ARC)

This concept, though, will become more powerful if we can use it to take into account the needs of multiple habitats and species together and to see how it can be applied at different scales from the national down to the local/ site level. Being able to do this will be one of the next big challenges for the conservation sector.

Since this is a complex subject, pilot projects will be needed to explore ideas and methods before any changes are rolled out nationally. ARC (along with Bat Conservation Trust, Buglife, Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Butterfly Conservation, Plantlife and the RSPB) is part of a partnership called ReThink Nature, a group of seven conservation organisation with a focus on conserving species. We have approached Natural England and with them and the National Trust are exploring how we might test this concept at a landscape level on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset – building on existing work that we and the partner organisations are already involved with, including the Dorset’s Heathland Heart project (which is part of the Back from the Brink programme supported by a significant grant for the National Lottery Heritage Fund), the new Purbeck Heaths National Nature Reserve in Dorset (https://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/rewilding-projects/purbeck-heaths) and Natural England’s Favourable Conservation Status project.

The aim of the project will be to trial the production of local FCS statements for key species before collaboratively working out joint aspirations and targets to ensure that they can all be effectively conserved and monitored on a much larger scale than previously attempted. Initially, ARC is putting forward the sand lizard and the adder as key herp species for the pilot project, but more will be added in due course.

So how does this help us conserve species more effectively? When designing site management programmes it is often simplest to focus on the processes of management itself – i.e. since many heathland species depend on the natural activities of large herbivores, the re-introduction of grazing provides a valuable tool for habitat managers. However, through agreeing measurable conservation objectives for different species, and especially for the more grazing sensitive species, like reptiles, it becomes possible to consider how the management regimes contribute towards these multiple conservation objectives.

Reptile populations have already been adversely affected on a number of individual sites where grazing has been introduced. The pilot study will look at how we can set different favourable levels at a landscape level and how this can be used to help direct and adapt management to cater for the needs of different species. We see this as particularly important in an area where most of the UK’s sand lizards and smooth snakes occur! Promoting the use of grazing animals, even pigs, while ensuring that FCS for reptile species is maintained, will be one of the key tests of the Purbeck NNR pilot project.