Creating a living landscape

Norfolk boasts an impressive array of nature reserves, from the well known coastal marshes frequented by birdwatchers through to small blocks of woodland tucked away in the centre of the county. Each reserve tends to be managed in a particular way and benefits a particular suite of species, with some reserves managed for just one or two high profile species. Although there is no questioning the role and value of such reserves, I have sometimes felt a little uneasy about the way in which we seem to partition nature off from the wider countryside. Sure, we can defend our efforts by saying that we are seeking to protect wildlife in these few remain patches of habitat but is this enough? By accepting these small and often isolated patches as being for nature, are we not just allowing the desecration of the remaining countryside? There is a danger that nature reserves simply reinforce the perception that nature can only occur where we allow it and, ultimately, this divorces us from the world around us.

It is welcome news, then, that the Wildlife Trusts have just announced a new approach to conserving and protecting our wildlife. Accepting that many nature reserves will not be sustainable in the longer term, not least because of the effects of global climate change, the Wildlife Trusts have launched a series of landscape scale projects under the banner of ‘A Living Landscape’. This approach adopts a different philosophy to that employed for most current nature reserves by seeking to protect landscape-scale features. By definition this approach requires a thorough understanding of what constitutes a particular landscape in terms of its wildlife, habitats, geology and geography. With this knowledge it should be possible to determine how the various habitats associated with the landscape can be enhanced or restored to create a landscape that is sustainable over the longer term. It is, very much, a holistic approach. In the formerly well-wooded low Weald of Sussex, the local wildlife trust is working to enhance the fragments of remaining ancient woodland, by re-establishing lost woodland and connecting the isolated blocks together. A similar approach is being adopted by the wildlife trust in Cambridgeshire, where the Great Fen project aims to restore some 3,700 hectares of lost fenland. With time, such projects should benefit a great number  of species and, importantly, allow them to exist within a landscape that is viable over the longer term.

Of course, a landscape level approach has one other clear benefit; it reinforces the view that we need to live sustainably within a landscape. This means that such projects need to involve landowners, integrate with wider government policy and involve local communities. Only then will we have a living landscape.