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A Toolkit for Developing a Catchment-Scale Conservation

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A Toolkit for Developing a Catchment-Scale Conservation A toolkit for developing catchment-scale conservation strategy for White-clawed crayfish A toolkit for developing catchment-scale conservation strategy for White- clawed crayfish Version 2 October 2011 Reference this document as: Peay S., Kindemba V., Attwood F. and Christmas M. (2011). A toolkit for developing catchment-scale conservation strategy for White-clawed crayfish. Version 1 October 2011 Buglife – The Invertebrate Conservation Trust, Peterborough. ISBN 978-1-908657-00-8 Available to download from the crayfish website www.crayfish.org.uk Document history Consultation draft issued January 2011 Final Version 1 issued October 2011 White-clawed crayfish Signal crayfish Acknowledgements: This guidance has been produced with funding from the Environment Agency. The project has been developed following a crayfish conservation workshop held by the Environment Agency in July 2009 at Malham Tarn Field Centre, North Yorkshire. Assistance with graphics in the guidance was provided by Paul Bryden. Photographs are by Stephanie Peay. Thanks go to all those who have kindly provided comments on earlier drafts, including Margaret Palmer and Suzannah Dangerfield, Buglife; Pete Sibley, Environment Agency; Julia Stansfield, Environment Agency; Mike Howe, Countryside Council for Wales, David Heaver, Natural England, Joanne Backshall, Eden Rivers Trust; Abigail Stancliffe-Vaughn, University of East Anglia, Paul Bradley, PBA Applied Ecology. Contents 1. Introduction 1 1.1 How to use this guidance on conservation strategy for White-clawed crayfish ......................... 1 2. Considerations before starting a catchment strategy 3 2.1 Policy and regulations in the countries of the UK ...................................................................... 3 2.2 Status of crayfish in the River Basin Districts ............................................................................. 4 2.3 Policy and planning at country to catchment scale .................................................................... 5 2.4 Combine work and resources with others ................................................................................. 7 3. Collating information to underpin a conservation strategy and action plans 8 3.1 Coordinating data management ................................................................................................. 8 3.2 Priorities for surveys and monitoring .......................................................................................... 9 4. Identifying actions and formulating a strategy 11 4.1 Tools for action plans at catchment scale ................................................................................. 11 4.2 Crayfish risk assessment and developing an action plan at catchment scale ............................ 12 4.3 Additional notes on the Flowcharts on developing crayfish strategy ....................................... 21 4.4 Additional notes on ark site strategy and contingency planning .............................................. 28 4.5 Protection and management – combining the actions in a catchment ..................................... 32 4.6 Developing strategy - from catchments to River Basin Districts ............................................... 38 5 Developing knowledge and communications 39 5.1 Research – information for future best practice guidance ........................................................ 39 5.2 Involving people in crayfish conservation ................................................................................. 40 References 43 Appendix 1 How conservation strategy for White-clawed crayfish has developed in the UK 45 A1.1 The development of White-clawed crayfish conservation ...................................................... 45 A1.2 England White-clawed crayfish strategy 2010 to 2015 ........................................................... 46 Appendix 2: England Biodiversity Strategy 2010 to 2015 Atlantic Stream or White-Clawed Crayfish – Austropotamobius pallipes 48 Appendix 3: Summary 51 Appendix 4: Time-scale of development of a new population of White-clawed crayfish 52 Table 1: Measures related to conservation of White-clawed crayfish at a range of geographic scales 2 Box 1 Summary of differences in regulations for crayfish in the countries of the UK ........................... 3 Table 2: Status of crayfish in River Basin Districts (2010 approximate summary)................................. 5 Table 3 Priority of response to a new alert about non-native crayfish in a catchment ....................... 11 Box 2 Conservation Action Plan for White-clawed crayfish – ten questions to answer ...................... 12 Box 3 Instructions for using the flowcharts......................................................................................... 13 Figure 4.1 Schematic of contingency planning for biosecurity of White-clawed crayfish ................... 31 Table 4: Developing strategy on crayfish based on status of crayfish in the catchment – summary recommendations ............................................................................................................................... 33 Appendix Figure 1 Keeping of Live Fish (England and Wales) Act 1996 areas where keeping of crayfish is exempt from the requirement for a licence, shown in green. ......................................................... 46 Appendix table 4.1: Potential year classes of White-clawed crayfish after introduction to an ark site ............................................................................................................................................................ 52 1. Introduction The White-clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes) is the only native species of freshwater crayfish in the British Isles. It is under threat and decreasing in range. The White-clawed crayfish is a European protected species under the Habitats Directive and threatened throughout its range. It was classified as Endangered in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (Füreder et al., 2010). In England and Wales the main threats are the invasion of catchments by populations of non-native crayfish, mainly the Signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus) and crayfish plague (Aphanomyces astaci), a disease which is lethal to White-clawed crayfish and is carried by most populations of Signal crayfish and other species of North American crayfish. Pollution and other reductions of habitat quality are also threats in many areas, causing reductions in abundance and extent of White- clawed crayfish. Without action for conservation, White-clawed crayfish will continue to be lost from sites and whole catchments. Regulation and conservation strategy has been developed previously at national scale (see Appendix 1 for further information on the historic development of strategy and regulation). This document gives guidance on developing conservation strategy for White-clawed crayfish at a catchment scale. Many of the issues raised will also be relevant in areas that are dealing with the risks and impacts of invasive non-native crayfish. Indeed, non-native crayfish are now so widespread that it is not possible to consider White-clawed crayfish conservation without also addressing the issues of non- native crayfish and crayfish plague, and the regulations, policies and plans associated with them. 1.1 How to use this guidance on conservation strategy for White-clawed crayfish Conservation strategy for White-clawed crayfish was first set out in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan for White-clawed Crayfish (see Appendix 1) and has recently been developed further in the England Biodiversity Strategy 2010-2015 for White-clawed crayfish, produced by the Environment Agency (Appendix 2) (the England strategy). This guidance provides supplementary information to that given in the England strategy, to help those involved in managing freshwater environments to link the national objectives into local action. This guidance and other supporting documents can be obtained from the UK crayfish website (www.crayfish.org.uk). It has been developed principally for England, but much of the approach would be applicable in the other countries of the UK and possibly in other European countries too. The guidance is for use mainly at catchment scale, but includes some issues that may need to be considered in a region or River Basin District; these could include the issue of wild harvest of crayfish, the coordination of the work of different agencies and possibly some aspects of public awareness-raising. In this case ‘catchment’ is taken to extend from the watershed to the tidal limits. It may be convenient to subdivide large catchments into smaller units for detailed action plans, but any action plans for individual sub-catchments or administrative areas should always consider the potential for invasion of non-native crayfish or spread of crayfish plague from other parts of the catchment and should not, in any case, be considered in isolation. The guidance does not set out specific actions for individual catchments, but gives general recommendations on issues to consider and how priorities for action could be determined. Table 1 gives examples of the regulation, policy 1 and guidance relating to crayfish at different geographic scale and gives examples of actions at each scale to show how this guidance fits in the context of crayfish regulation and strategy in the UK. Table 1: Measures related to conservation of White-clawed crayfish at a range of geographic scales Scale Regulation, policy, guidance Examples
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