East of England Biodiversity Forum

LOCAL BAPS

Underpinning the
Regional Plan are a wide variety of LBAPs. To view links to LBAPs click here >

Securing habitats for our future

A challenging task
The East of England is especially vulnerable to the likely effects of climate change:
• rising sea levels threatening more than just the coast
• growing incidence of seasonal flooding and inundation
• increasing risks of water shortage

These climate driven problems, coupled to unprecedented growth in housing stock and its need for attendant infrastructure and consequent pressures on water resources, means that, along with farming, many habitats will be vulnerable to these changes.

Thus the Forum has considered it vital that an overall plan covering all of the regional habitats is prepared:

Saving biodiversity

Click here to see the online brochure showing what the Forum's partners have achieved to date and what they hopes to do by 2015. Note: this is a large file and will take time to download to some computers

To download a copy of the online brochure as a PDF, click here To download the PowerPoint version of this on-line brochure ‘click’ here. In total this is a large 26Mb file, please note that downloading could take some time. Should you experience any difficulties please contact Catherine Weightman who can supply the complete PPT on a disc.		Accompanying this brochure is a multi-purpose A4 leaflet. To download a copy of it as a PDF, click here. Or as a Word document, to which you can add your own logo, meeting details etc, click here.

The East of England National Character areas

Targets
As the 2008 Delivery Plan already makes plain, the Forum is pursuing a comprehensive raft of objectives across the East of England to enable it to restore and improve existing habitats, and/or expand or create new habitats. To this end a set of targets had previously been developed to carry activity through to 2010.

New targets
The Forum is now committed to pursuing a new set of East of England targets for activity through to 2015. This thumbnail illustrates the main Habitat Targets table:

The rows in this table distinguish between the 11 discrete priority habitats (this list has been expanded - to compare it with the previous list click here and two grouped priority habitats. Each of these habitat rows divides into two component actions, viz. restore/improve (columns '1' and '2') and expand/create (columns '3' and '4'). The targets for each of these component actions are specified in columns '1' and '3'. While their respective cumulative achievements are outlined in columns '2' and '4'.

In the light of historic achievements to date, this table's achievement columns also utilises the 'traffic light' colour coding system in order to provide an indication of the restore/improve achievements to date ('2') and the likelihood of achieving the 2015 extend/create targets ('4').

It should be observed that, having attained a 'green' status, the totals secured noted in the tables below show that conservation activists' achievements have not been regarded as an excuse for stopping or slackening effort to secure as much habitat as possible.

For the majority of the habitats these revised targets have now been agreed as follows:

To download and/or print this 'wallchart' PDF of the table click here

Target Table Notes:

i. The figures above represent the gross habitat restored or created 'counted' at the point at which the key capital works has been completed. It is appreciated that it may take many years for that habitat to come into positive ecological condition.

ii. These figures represent the best estimates available from data provided by members of the Forum. It is appreciated that it is not possible collate comprehensive data on all habitats, but these figures indicate the achievements up to July 2010.

iii. It is appreciated that existing habitat may be lost or its condition impaired by external factors (such as sea level rise).

Where do we go from here?
It is hoped these targets will be used by:

County-level decision-makers
Local authorities (LAs)
Environmental organisations
Land owners/managers
Community groups

...in an effort to:

• influence East of England strategies
• encourage county councils/LAs to link biodiversity planning to community strategies
• guide environmental organisations and landowners

Regular reviews
These targets will continue to be regularly reviewed by the Forum and, from time to time, progress reports will be issued.

Habitat Targeting Project History

Developing habitat plans
In response to Rio and to counter a range of pressures Habitat Action Plans (HAP) were first formulated in 1996. During 2003 the Forum undertook a project to consider the Region's Natural Areas. Originally seven priority target habitats were identified. In 2006 a revised set of UK habitat action plan targets were then published.

These targets were followed up in 2007 by the UK List of Priority Species and Habitats, and in that same year Natural England produced a provisional set of targets for each of the then Government Regions and undertook a full consultation exercise during 2008 (for a copy click here). In the wake of this, signposting proposals were assembled in 2009.

In the course of setting the new targets in 2009 the original ('old') breakdown of seven habitats was refined and the list enlarged ('new') thus:

Table 1:

'Old' priority habitats 1996 - 2010	'New' priority habitats 1996 - 2015
1. Lowland grass and heath	Lowland meadow Lowland calcareous grassland Lowland heath and acid grassland Coastal flood plain and grazing marsh
2. Freshwater	Lakes Connecting habitats - rivers Connecting habitats - ponds
3. Hedges	Connecting habitats - hedges
4. Semi-natural woodland	Native woodland Wood pasture and parkland
5. Coastal	Coastal habitats
6. Reedbeds and fens	Fen Reedbed
7. Arable field margins	Connecting habitats - arable field margins
	Marine
	'Open mosaic' - brownfield

Habitat Key definitions

Create:
Increase area of the habitat beyond its current extent. This includes the creation of lost habitat in areas where it formerly occurred. Wherever possible, habitat expansion should aim to link or extend existing areas of that particular habitat type.

Restore:
Restoration of those area of a habitat that are deemed degraded in quality to return them to good condition, through positive management and/r cessation of damaging processes.