Number 58 • December 2007 In Practice Bulletin of the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management Ecological Networks and Connectivity Nottingham Conference and Best Practice Awards INFORMATION Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management In Practice No. 58, Dec 2007. ISSN 1754-4882 Editor for this issue: Jason Reeves IEEM aims to raise the profi le of the profession of ecology and environmental management, to establish, maintain and enhance professional standards, and to promote an ethic of In Practice is published quarterly by the Institute of Ecology environmental care within the profession and to clients and and Environmental Management. It is supplied to all members employers of the members. of IEEM and is also available by subscription (£30 per year, UK. Patrons: Prof. David Bellamy £40 overseas). 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In Practice is printed on Revive Silk, a 100% recycled paper (100% post consumer waste). © Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management IEEM is a member of: The Institute is immensely grateful to those organisations below who have made fi nancial contributions or provided substantial ‘help in kind’ to support its activities during 2007 British Ecological Society Countryside Council for Wales EDITORIAL AND CONTENTS Contents Editorial Information 2 et-aside has been in the news this summer following the Editorial and Contents 3 Sannouncement in July by the European Commission of its Environmental Stewardship: From 4 - 8 proposal to reduce the rate of set aside to 0% for 2008. Disfunction to Connectivity This has been driven by market forces resulting from low cereal stocks after Roger Crofts a poor harvest in 2006 and the prospect of a mediocre outlook for the 2007 The Natura 2000 Network: The 9 - 11 harvest. First 15 Years Many IEEM members will remember that set-aside was first introduced in 1988 John Houston CEnv MIEEM as a voluntary supply-control measure. It effectively became compulsory in Nodes in Green Networks: Local 12 - 14 1992 when it was made a condition of receiving the, then new, EU Arable Area Nature Reserves for Local People Payments. The quantity and type of set-aside has changed over the years and across the UK was set at 8% of eligible arable area in the 2006/07 season. John Box CEnv FIEEM, Steve Berry, There is sufficient evidence to support the contention that set-aside has had Peter Cush, Ian Angus and Pete Frost major environmental benefits. In particular, it has boosted populations of The Forest Habitat Network Grant 15 - 17 threatened farmland birds such as skylark, yellowhammer, corn bunting, cirl Scheme: The Wiki-Way in the bunting and grey partridge. Scarce arable plant populations have also benefited Scottish Highlands from set-aside. Set-aside has also contributed to meeting targets for resource Phil Baarda CEnv MIEEM protection, for example, by reducing the potentially negative impacts of pesticides and fertilisers on the farmed environment, especially watercourses. Brownfields, Greengrids and 18 - 21 Invertebrate Biodiversity Most commentators predict that there will be large losses of set-aside to Greg Hitchcock and Jane Ellis arable production following the setting of a 0% rate. Thus, at least some of the environmental gains made over the last 15 years or so could be lost over the Mapping Britain and Ireland’s Birds: 22 - 23 next year. In particular, loss of set-aside could threaten the ability to meet the The 2007-2011 Bird Atlas Project Public Service Agreement (PSA) and UK BAP targets for farmland birds. The loss Bob Swann of set-aside could also reduce landscape connectivity, which may constrain the New Species Protection Legislation: 24 - 27 ability of species to move between habitat patches. Ecological networks is the Opportunities and Risks for theme of the IEEM autumn conference entitled ‘Making the connections: A Role Consultant Ecologists for Ecological Networks in Nature Conservation’. See the conference report on Penny Simpson page 28. IEEM Annual Conference Report 28 - 29 The most straight forward solution would be to introduce a new cross compliance Nick Jackson AIEEM condition under which a percentage of arable land is managed for environmental benefits. Alternatively, extra resources could be made available for agri- Developments in the Ecological 31 - 33 environment schemes to mitigate the impact of the loss of set-aside on key Profession: Membership Survey environmental features. 2007 Jason Reeves AIEEM However, it is unlikely that these measures will be adopted as DEFRA favour a voluntary approach whereby it will be left to farmers to continue to deliver Institute News 34 at least some set-aside. Continued monitoring of key farmland biodiversity Geographic Section News 35 - 39 indicators will be essential to see if this approach is successful. SocEnv, EFAEP and IUCN News 40 In the Journals 41 - 46 Richard Jefferson CEnv FIEEM Recent Publications 47 Senior Specialist (Grasslands), Natural England News in Brief 48 - 49 Tauro-Scatology 50 New and Prospective Members 51 Diary 52 Cover image: The three acorn Merry Christmas and trophies, created using sustainable methods by Deryck Gilham, ready to Happy New Year! be presented to the winners of the IEEM Best Practice Awards 2007. Everyone here at IEEM would like Photography: Jason Reeves AIEEM to wish you a wonderful Christmas Artwork on the cover will normally and a prosperous New Year! illustrate an article in, or the theme of, the current issue. The Editor would be pleased to consider any such material from authors. NOTTINGHAM CONFERENCE PLENARY LECTURE Environmental Stewardship: From Disfunction to Connectivity Professor Roger Crofts CBE IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas 1990s and the breaking of the link between financial support Introduction and production? I do not think so. There are unintended hose working in the field of ecology and environmental consequences which must be addressed in the next review. Tenvironmental management wish to see gradual improvement in environmental quality. In Protected areas are not working because habitat fragmentation our highly managed environments in the UK, the is a major problem and there is insufficient public and political reality is that maintaining environmental quality support. The ‘benefits beyond boundaries’ arguments, so well set out at the 5th World Parks Congress in Durban in 2003, and natural environmental processes is not getting have not been well articulated and there is an uneasy truce any easier. The situation is complex. There is between local communities and protected areas authorities. a wide variety of owners and managers of land More significantly, the long-standing ideas of buffering having different objectives, and managing their protected areas from the surrounding non-protected territory land for different outcomes. There is a plethora of have rarely been implemented, despite the long-standing strategies and plans. And the number of bodies, thinking and action under the UNESCO Biosphere Reserves governmental, private and charitable, makes the approach as revised through the Seville Agreement of 1996. And the decade old Pan European Ecological Network (PEEN), position confusing to say the least. Fragmentation as part of the Council of Europe’s Pan European Biological and of habitats is continuing as a result of agricultural Landscape Diversity Strategy (PEBLDS), has been virtually intensification, under-management of land, ignored until literally