Chapter 1. 5

amongst other things,

“New directions in natural heritage conservation acknowledge conflicting relationships between societies and their environments, and seek to respond to impending global crises due to overconsumption of resources, climate change, and biodiversity extinction.

Mallarach (2021) asserts that methodological changes include,

“ ...advancing more holistic, natural-cultural approaches; recognising the role of governance in successful management strategies; integrating scientific and traditional knowledge in valuation processes and promoting rights-based approaches.

This new understanding presents an alternative perspective and approach to Western models of conservation that separate people and nature. For instance, unlike the historical western concepts of conservation that refer to ‘ecosystem services’ and ‘nature-based solutions’ , indigenous or local people and communities see their relationship with nature as reciprocal rather than linear. Biocultural heritage territories arise from indigenous and community traditions of landscape management (Krystyna 2020).

Human life depends on biodiversity, however biodiversity is being lost on our planet at an unprecedented rate. In 2021 world leaders gathered to agree new post-2020 targets to address biodiversity loss in the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Consequently, the argument of supporting biocultural heritage conservation is ever more pressing due to climate change and highlighting the advantages of it are very important.

The IIED (2020) recognises many important factors for biocultural heritage conservation, strengthening interconnections between cultural and natural heritage in policy and practice, fostering, “ ...integrated, cross-sectoral, and collaborative work between different government departments, institutions, and actors. ” It defines, implements and monitors combined policies and practices for sustainable development and promotes interdisciplinary research to further understand the nature-culture dynamics, showing interlinkages.

Chapter 2

A detailed case study of Goonhilly Downs and its approaches to biocultural heritage conservation

The idea of biocultural heritage conservation is essential to support climate change and communities into the future. Within Cornwall there are many areas of biocultural heritage interest that are important areas to preserve for future generations. Goonhilly Downs is an area situated in the Lizard Peninsula that sits on top of an underlying Serpentine geology. Goonhilly Downs is a National Nature Reserve owned and managed by Natural England and run by Natural Lizard, it is a Site of Special Scientific Interest dating back to medieval times (Natural England 2021).

Sites of Special Scientific Interest were first established in 1949 and Goonhilly Downs is known to have been one by 1968.

Figure 3: Goonhilly Downs National Nature Reserve Entrance Map

Figure 4: Map of The Lizard Peninsula outlining Goonhilly National Nature Reserve

Agricultural improvement of old pasture and heathland was a growing awareness in the late 1970s of the vulnerability of the environment. The Nature Conservancy Council established 100 acres of Nature Reserves on The Lizard Peninsula from 1976, later becoming The Lizard

National Nature Reserve. Run by Natural Lizard, managed by Natural England. They are,

“ ...the government’s adviser for the natural environment in England. We help to protect and restore our natural world. ” Natural Lizard aims reflect those of Natural England which include: increasing biodiversity, carbon capture and public engagement.

Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station located on the edge of the Downs has more than 30 antennas and dishes in use. Antenna One, the first dish at Goonhilly, commonly known as Arthur, played a crucial role in historical events such as the Olympic Games, Muhammad Ali fights, 1985's Live Aid concert and the Apollo 11 Moon landing.

Figure 5: Goonhilly Earth Station. (Photo: Data Centre Dynamics Ltd)

Historical artefacts remain on the Downs, including a standing stone from the 10th Century. Several bronze-age smallholdings seemingly abandoned in the late 1800s. The South Wheal Treasure engine house ruin; a failed copper mine from the 1820s. Moreover, the ruins of RAF Dry Tree, an early warning station for detecting enemy aircraft during the Second World War.

Goonhilly Downs is “Designated as a protected Site of Special Scientific Interest for its rare and diverse plant and animal species, Goonhilly is a unique ancient landscape where the deep past intersects with deep space” (Goonhilly Village Green 2021). At the heart of Goonhilly Downs is the Dry Tree Menhir, otherwise known as the standing stone which marks the convergence of five of the parish boundaries within the area. Although Goonhilly itself has no central village,

“This special place, never truly inhabited by humans, bears witness to millions of years of history; from its rare serpentinite geology, through Bronze age barrows and trackways, subsistence farms and experimental forests to WW2 radar bases and the space age, where the first transatlantic television signals and pictures of the Moon landings were received at Goonhilly Earth Station” (Goonhilly Village Green 2021).

The use of an interview as an additional form of primary research carried out with The Natural Lizard, in which they discussed their aims moving forward. These included: to increase carbon capture as part of their work, through planting trees, highlighting the role of scrub land and how the soil has a significant role in increasing carbon capture. They engage in initiatives such as allowing animals to graze in woodlands but at a reduced intensity.

Figure 6: Grazing ponies on Goonhilly Downs Nature Reserve (Photo: Jake Riding)

The Natural Lizard increases public engagement through community awareness and involvement through various different strategies developed (The Lizard England 2021). Some of the challenges that they face in managing Goonhilly Downs include managing the size of the area against the number of staff that they are able to employ meaning they contract work out regularly with a lack of skills or equipment to complete jobs themselves as well as keeping on top of the infrastructure condition, relying on reports from landowners and local residents. It really is a community effort and this is an approach that should be taken in biocultural heritage conservation. Some of their plans to improve the efficiency of their work includes developing new ways to work effectively with landowners and organisations like the National Trust, Wildlife Trust and Trelowarren Estate so that they can look at managing the entire peninsula as one extensive nature reserve and increase connectivity through collaborative working practices (The Natural Lizard 2021).

Human engagement is not negated by the damage caused at Goonhilly Downs, The Natural Lizard supported this by saying,

“We’re at an advantage here in that we are quite a long way from larger urban areas so the majority of people visiting the NNR later on or earlier in the day are local residents, birders etc out walking. We have very little anti-social behaviour on the NNR compared to sites I’ve worked at in the past nearer much more densely populated areas.

Managing human activity in sites of biocultural heritage conservation does have its challenges but these can often be offset by the positive impact that education and awareness from those areas have on people that lead to long term engagement in conservation and especially to local communities in preserving and supporting the conservation of the area.

Closure of Goonhilly Earth Station to the public has eased pressure on that particular area of the nature reserve which highlights a problem with managing nature reserves and this is that the areas nearest an ‘attraction’ or easily accessible car park get ‘hammered’ with too many visitors for a small area to deal with. With regards to attracting visitors, The Natural Lizard attracts people to the nature reserve through an active social media presence to increase awareness about how much they do and raise their profile as they manage more land nationally than the National Trust does at 2000 hectares.

In recent decades there have been paradigm shifts in approaches to tackling conservation. One such paradigm shift is community-based conservation which is a movement that developed from the 1980s in a response to the negative impact that ‘top-down’ government led approaches were having on local communities. Knowledge that the communities could help to conserve the landscape using their own skills and experience, coupled with their values and needs was an emerging approach that disregarded the traditional idea that nature was separate from culture. Many community led approaches began in developing countries and indigenous cultures such as Africa where there was an understanding that the survival of communities was dependent on the conservation of the local environment (Gezon 1997). Community-based conservation is the concept that development of the community and conservation of the land and natural landscape that they inhabit can be simultaneously achieved; both of the interests can be served. This knowledge is a useful tool in developing new innovative strategies to support conservation in the future (Brooks et al 2012).

However, community development objectives are controversial because they are not necessarily consistent with conservation objectives in a given case and this is why they often present an ideal (Kellert et al 2000; Barret et al 2001 cited in Brooks et al 2012). Although in recent years, investment and greater efforts in community-based conservation have been increasingly improved. Other criticisms have been based around the failure of conservation in the community but failing have been due to implementation and management and recent efforts have been more successful through the efforts to streamline the once mixed objectives of community and conservation (Brooks et al 2012).

Nonetheless community-based approaches and approaches that are people-oriented are in part a reaction to the previous failures of traditional conservation. They are increasingly seen as a key to the success of conservation. The main premise on the emphasis of community as part of