Is nature under threat in National Parks?
June 29, 2018
On 27 June the Campaign for National Parks published a new report calling for National Parks in England and Wales to ‘pull their socks up’ in order to halt and reverse the loss of wildlife. Andrew Lee, Director of Countryside & Policy for the South Downs National Park Authority considers their case.
‘The Campaign for National Parks are right to set down a challenge about wildlife in National Parks but it’s important to remember that the South Downs landscape is significantly different from those of our fellow National Parks on the uplands. Our wildlife – which includes many rare or endangered butterflies, reptiles and plants – depends on an intimate patchwork of woods, heaths, downs, arable land and riverside meadows created in a populated and farmed landscape over a period of 6,000 years.
‘Some of our most species-rich habitats, such as chalk grassland, have been kept open by sheep and cattle grazing. In others, such as ancient woodland, regular coppicing has created glades and rides for butterflies and nightingales. It is true that in the twentieth century a great deal of habitat was lost as farming became mechanised and use of chemicals became widespread, but a great deal remains.
‘The creation of the South Downs, Britain’s newest National Park, has been a catalyst for new partnerships which are helping to protect and restore wildlife at a landscape scale. This builds on a strong tradition of working together which characterises this part of Southern England. In our first year of operations we became the only National Park to have a Defra-sponsored Nature Improvement Area – the South Downs Way Ahead project – which cleared scrub and restored grazing management to clusters of chalk downland sites from Winchester to Eastbourne. The Heathlands Reunited project has already restored 45 football pitches worth of rare heathland. On the central downs, the farmland bird initiative has shown how grey partridges and corn buntings can thrive on working farms – bucking the national trend. Elsewhere more than 180 barn owl boxes have been put up by landowners. Water voles once again inhabit the river Meon, and red kites and goshawks are now widespread along the downs. Ninety five percent of our SSSIs (designated for their special scientific interest) are in a good or recovering condition, but these are just important pieces in a much larger jigsaw, for example six farmer-led cluster groups now cover more than 65% of the National Park and all have better management for wildlife as a key aim.
‘The rewilding movement is doing a great job in provoking debate – the Knepp Estate is a brilliant example right next to the South Downs which many farmers and estates are looking at – but there is no single or simple answer to how to get more wildlife back into our landscapes. Restoring biodiversity in the South Downs will require a mixture of approaches including: more nature-friendly farming; taking some land out of production; better woodland management; and making our river valleys more natural. Done well these things can also produce good food, cleaner water, cleaner air, healthier and more attractive places to visit and local jobs. This is a type of ‘rewilding’ which would breathe more life into our managed landscapes rather than simply abandoning them to chance.
‘The Partnership Management Plan for the South Downs National Park is now five years old. We’re currently working with every major conservation body, as well as many other organisations, to review what has been achieved to date and look ahead. We’ll be putting out some ideas for feedback between October and January so this will be a good time for suggestions of how this National Park can do even more for nature in the next five years.