Natural Areas in the Yorkshire & the Humber 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. Humber Bridge. Peter Roworth/English Nature Yorkshire and the Humber 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 School visit to Thorne Moor. Peter Roworth/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. Yorkshire and the Humber Region Introduction 4 Objectives for sustainable development and 100 Saltburn to nature conservation in 15 Pennine Dales Fringe Bridlington 17 North York the Yorkshire and the Moors and Hills 18 Vale of Humber Region Pickering 8 Yorkshire 23 S Dales 19 Yorkshire o 16 u Wolds Yorkshire and the Humber is a th Vale of ern York and Region of dramatic, and often sharp, Mowbray 20 M Holderness contrasts that is always associated a g n 22 101 Bridlington with a strong sense of identity and e sia Humberhead to Skegness community. Dense urban n Levels 21 Humber 24 Coal L Estuary populations can be found in and Measures im e sto around the major conurbations, 14 Southern 36 Lincolnshire n Coast and Pennines e traditionally linked to the coal and Marshes heavy industries but also around the wool towns. Agriculture is the dominant land use and underpins 34 North 25 Dark Lincolnshire the rural economy. Peak Coversands and Clay Vales 35 Lincolnshire The diverse landscapes, from the Wolds open spaces of the arable farming Regional boundary which dominates the lowlands to the rugged coasts and uplands, support Natural Areas covered in the Yorkshire and the Humber Region report a characteristic combination of wildlife and geological heritage. Our ability to exploit the ensure that they are given the same Areas like the Pennines, the lowland environment for economic gain is weight as economic considerations peatlands and the Lower Derwent beginning to jeopardise our present at the beginning of the process. This Valley, to name but a few, have an and future well-being. Since our is what is meant by integration, and outstanding diversity of habitats and decisions can have far-reaching contrasts with the more familiar species that are very rare, and of very effects on present and future situation, where proposals are drawn high quality, of which the Region generations, we need to look at how up against economic criteria alone can be justifiably proud. The natural we can act to maintain and improve and are only weighed against their beauty of the Region, in particular both our local and global environmental impact when they are the National Parks, provides the environments. There is no doubt about to be implemented. mainstay of a significant tourism that work at the Regional level can industry. be a powerful force in steering local The basic means for many of the agendas for environmental action, regional level structures and The distribution of wildlife and the whilst providing strong links to organisations to act will be through texture of the landscape are the national and international the planning process for built product of complex interactions. programmes. development and infrastructure. The basic physical qualities of the Planners have a key role in rock, soil and climate have set the Sustainable development requires incorporating economic, scene, but the detail has been, and integration, rather than balance or environmental and social factors into will continue to be, shaped through trade off. Decision makers need to decisions about where to put homes, human activity which is driven by build environmental and social jobs, shops and leisure facilities. In economic, social, and environmental criteria into the heart of their this way, demands on land, the forces. policies and programmes - and environment and nature can be Yorkshire and the Humber Region Introduction 5 managed more sustainably. implementation of policy and agricultural practices and pressure Regional Planning Guidance will be programmes for forestry, agriculture, from development, including the use written to help with this process. water and recreation. Farming is the of pesticides and fertilisers, run-off of Yorkshire and the Humber Region’s pollutants from industrial and housing Current government policy major land use. The habitats estates, and the lowering of water encourages investment in urban described in the following chapters tables through drainage and areas and existing centres rather are predominantly part of abstraction. Similar pressures of than out of town sites. This means agricultural management systems. agricultural intensification, notably re-using previously developed urban Farmland therefore provides a overgrazing, inappropriate burning land as much as possible, while major source of opportunity for regimes and a move from traditional ensuring that the quality of towns or habitat creation and grassland management, are applied to cities is maintained or improved. maintenance, and species the wildlife of the uplands. The challenge will be to determine protection and enhancement. which patterns and locations of Its importance is reflected in the The populations of birds, mammals development prove most sustainable. issues and objectives that are and plants which rely on the listed at the start of each section. agricultural systems themselves have Conserving and enhancing nature also plummeted. Major priorities can be compatible with development The intensification of agriculture, and therefore include: the sensitive and, whilst