Management Measures
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activities
The results of the assessment of the measures which are
considered to be beneficial to achieving or maintaining favourable
feature condition are summarised in Figure 6.
Figure 6. Management measures
reported
Management agreements with owners or occupiers are the most
common way of trying to bring sites into management and favourable
condition. This situation may change from now on, with
agri-environment schemes having a larger role to play. However, it
is not yet known how long it may take to return many
features to favourable condition, and some agri-environment schemes
have not proven to be very successful at funding the restoration
phase where capital costs are very high. Experience to date shows
that restoration is best achieved through targeted projects.
Table 4 shows the effect of combining favourable assessments
with those which are unfavourable-recovering. It is ordered, under
broad feature category headings, according to the percentage
achieving favourable and unfavourable-recovering conditions. Shaded
rows are the same as those in Table 3 to facilitate
comparison.
This is the state that we should expect to see assuming the
management that has been put in place is sustained and is
successful (i.e. unfavourable-recovering condition is converted to
favourable condition). However, time will be needed for
actions taken to realise their benefit on the ground. The
higher ranking of some features in Table 4 compared to Table 3,
including amphibians, lowland heaths and grasslands, demonstrates
the considerable efforts made by the conservation agencies to
improve the condition of features in these vulnerable groups over
recent years, and the potential value of continuing, and enhancing,
this effort.
At the broad scale, tackling many of the problems of
unfavourable condition of terrestrial features undoubtedly lies in
the area of major policy changes to further encourage
environmentally-friendly farming systems. The prevalence of
grazing problems needs to be tackled urgently. Frequent site
visits and regular contact between conservation staff and farmers
are required to build relationships and ensure that the
conservation vision for the site is understood.
Management agreements and agri-environment schemes are both
important tools. Agri-environment schemes will increasingly
become the main response mechanism to management problems.
In England, where SSSIs are already being targeted,
this will be supplemented by Wildlife Enhancement Schemes.
The equivalent approach in Scotland
and Northern Ireland are the
Natural Care and Management of Sensitive Sites schemes.
In Wales, management agreements are regarded as an
essential means of topping-up what cannot be delivered through
agri-environment agreements. Influencing livestock policy
will be essential. Schemes such as the Grazing Animals
Project in England, and Pori, Natur a
Treftadaeth in Wales, are producing promising results,
but need more secure financial backing.