Natural Areas in the South West Region helping to set the regional agenda for nature Introduction egional strategies and policy The conservation of nature is a key local and national priorities for nature documents are being drawn test of policy in all three facets of into the Regional decision-making R up by the newly-created sustainable development, the social, framework. It contains information of Regional organisations. These are the economic and the environmental. direct relevance to the development required to encompass the protection While its role in the environment is of Regional Planning Guidance and and management of the environment self evident, it also has social Single Programming Documents to by applying the principles of implications through the spiritual, support the delivery of European sustainable development. cultural and recreational value of Union Structural Funding, people’s experience of the natural regeneration funding and other This document has been produced world; and economic implications economic and social programmes. by English Nature, the Government through the provision of exploitable body that promotes the conservation resources and the attractiveness to The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries of wildlife and natural features investors of high quality and Food, the Environment Agency, throughout England. It is for use by environments. the country forestry organisations, the Regional Development Agency, local authorities and statutory and the Government Regional Office If we are serious about achieving other agencies involved in land use and the Regional Chambers, when sustainable development, then and land management issues will also making Regional policy. We hope understanding the priorities for the find it relevant and, we hope, of value. that it will provide a starting point conservation of the biodiversity and for discussion with our network of Earth heritage resource of the Region We envisage that this document can Regional Lead Teams, who can is therefore essential. This report is a therefore be used at a number of key provide valuable support, and links first step towards that understanding, points within the Regional strategy- into wider partnerships. and provides the basis for integrating making and planning process. Chesil Beach, Dorset. Peter Wakely/English Nature South West Region Introduction 3 Natural Areas as a Regional framework for nature English Nature has divided England into a series of Natural Areas. Their boundaries are based on the distribution of wildlife and natural features and the land use patterns and human history of each area. They do not follow administrative boundaries but relate instead to variations in the character of the landscape. They reflect our cultural heritage and are central to English Nature’s organisational strategy Beyond 2000. We worked with the Countryside Commission (soon to become the Countryside Agency) to identify a joint approach to the characterisation of the countryside into locally distinctive units called character areas. Where the wildlife and natural features are similar between adjacent character areas we have merged them into one Natural Area - so, a Natural Area may contain sevaral character areas that are considered to be different landscape types. Natural Areas offer a more effective framework for the planning and achievement of nature conservation objectives than do administrative boundaries. Although they are not formal Avon Gorge NNR, Bristol. Peter Wakely/English Nature designations they are now recognised in Government Planning Policy Guidance Relevant Government Planning Policy Guidance (PPG) (PPG) and other statutory advice. PPG 7: The Countryside: environmental quality and economic and Within this framework, we have, with social development our key partners in the Region, PPG 9: Nature Conservation identified the chief threats to, and PPG 11: Regional Planning Guidance opportunities for, nature conservation. PPG 12: Development Plans and Regional Planning Guidance Together, we have defined a range of (presently under review) issues, and set associated objectives PPG 13: Transport that we believe provide a starting point for Regional action to protect and Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions Policy Guidance: Policy manage our biodiversity and geological appraisal and the environment (DETR, 1998). assets. These objectives are set out in the sections which follow. South West Region Introduction 4 Regional boundary 61 Dean Plateau 56 Severn 63 Thames and Wye Valley and Avon and Avon Vales Vales y ar u st E 85 Somerset n 55 Cotswolds Levels and er ev Moors S 79 Berkshire & 88 Vale of Taunton 16 and Quantock 1 Marlborough Fringes 115 Bridgwater Downs Bay 84 Mendip 86 Hills 87 Exmoor and 80 South 62 Bristol, the Quantocks 87 Wessex Avon Valleys Downs and Ridges 86 83 Wessex Vales 114 Land’s End to 93 The Culm Minehead 90 Devon 89 Blackdowns Redlands 81 Dorset 92 Dartmoor Heaths 94 Bodmin Moor 82 111 Lyme Bay 109 Solent and Poole Bay 96 West 91 South 110 South Penwith Devon Dorset Coast 95 Cornishand Granites Killas 82 Isles of 113 Isles of Portland and Scilly 86 Mid Somerset Hills Purbeck 97 The 112 Start Point to Lizard Land’s End Natural Areas covered in the South West Region report Objectives for The Region contains a diversity of Dartmoor and Exmoor, the wet landscapes which support a grasslands of Somerset, the varied sustainable characteristic and remarkable wet heath of the Culm Measures in development and combination of wildlife and Devon and the rolling chalk nature conservation in geological heritage. The Cotswolds downlands of Wiltshire. and the chalklands of Wiltshire and the South West Region Dorset are dominated by the large The distribution of wildlife and the scale, open spaces of pastoral texture of the landscape are the The South West is a region of farming. Densely wooded ancient product of complex interactions. dramatic, and often sharp contrasts. countryside is found in the Forest of The basic physical qualities of the Whilst agriculture is the dominant Dean and Cranborne Chase, whilst rock, soil and climate have set the land use and underpins the rural the Mendips is an area of discrete scene, but the detail has been, and economy, large urban populations and varied hills and escarpments. will continue to be, shaped through are concentrated around the Elsewhere there are intimate patterns human activity which is driven by business and industry of the major of small fields, hamlets and winding economic, social, and environmental sea ports, primarily Bristol and lanes, rugged coasts and upland forces. Plymouth. The countryside and moorland. There is an outstanding natural beauty, in particular the diversity of habitats and species that Our ability to exploit the environment coast (which is proportionately the are very rare, and of very high quality, for economic gain is beginning to longest of any Region) and the of which the Region can be justifiably jeopardise our present and future National Parks, is the mainstay of a proud. Prime examples include the well-being. Since our decisions can significant tourism industry. heathland of Dorset, the uplands of have far-reaching effects on present South West Region Introduction 5 and future generations, we need to Its importance is reflected in the look at how we can act to maintain issues and objectives that are and improve both our local and listed at the start of each section. global environments. There is no doubt that work at the Regional level The intensification of agriculture, and can be a powerful force in steering associated decline in traditional land local agendas for environmental management, combined with the action, whilst providing strong links huge growth of the major towns and to national and international cities, has resulted in the reclamation programmes. and loss of much of the lowland semi- natural habitat of value to wildlife in Sustainable development requires the South West Region. The semi- integration, rather than balance or natural habitats that remain are often trade off. Decision makers need to small and isolated and are adversely build environmental and social criteria affected by agricultural practices and into the heart of their policies and pressure from development, including programmes - and ensure that they the use of pesticides and fertilisers, are given the same weight as run-off of pollutants from industrial economic considerations at the Devil’s Chimney, Gloucestershire. and housing estates, and the lowering beginning of the process. Ruth Briggs/English Nature of water tables through drainage and This is what is meant by integration, the quality of towns or cities is abstraction. and contrasts with the more familiar maintained or improved. The situation, where proposals are drawn challenge will be to determine which The populations of birds, mammals up against economic criteria alone patterns and locations of development and plants which rely on the and are only weighed against their prove most sustainable. agricultural systems themselves have environmental impact when they are also plummeted. Major priorities about to be implemented. Conserving and enhancing nature can therefore include: the sensitive be compatible with development and, management of existing habitats; The basic means for many of the whilst the built environment has fewer increasing the area of existing habitats Regional level structures and designated sites, Local Nature and re-establishing the links between organisations to act will be through