JNCC underwent further transition during this reporting
year. In October the Natural Environment and
Rural Communities Act 2006 came into force, bringing substantial
changes to statutory nature conservation responsibilities in
England. That change saw the establishment of Natural
England, which brought together England Nature and parts of the
Countryside Agency and the Rural Development Service in a new body
with responsibilities for nature conservation, countryside
management, landscape and recreation. Natural England
replaces English Nature as one of JNCC’s constituent bodies.
The Act also made other changes to JNCC’s constitution and
functions. Most important is the fact that the JNCC ‘family’
has grown; the Act incorporated Northern Ireland’s Council for
Nature Conservation and the Countryside as our fourth constituent
body and extended our remit from Great Britain to the United
Kingdom. The change formalised our long-standing engagement
with nature conservation in Northern Ireland. As well as
providing advice to UK Government, we will continue to work closely
with each of the devolved administrations and their nature
conservation bodies, recognising their major responsibilities for
the environment and nature conservation.
There were also less obvious, but far-reaching, legislative
changes. For example, the Act requires JNCC to carry out its
nature conservation duties with a regard to the desirability of
contributing to sustainable development. That places nature
conservation within the wider context of society’s needs.
This is a shift of emphasis that JNCC had already anticipated; our
vision and strategy, set out in 2004, seek to bring a social and
economic dimension to all of our work, both at home and
abroad.
As you will learn throughout this report, the work we have
done in recent years to implement and further develop our strategy
continued during the reporting year. Working with the country
agencies and others, we have made great strides towards creating a
framework for UK nature conservation, and have developed our
conceptual thinking on this important area of work. We have
made efforts to ensure that an understanding of environmental
economics informs the projects we carry out. Work on the UK’s
global ecological ‘footprint’ has made considerable progress during
the year and we have continued to promote the ecosystem approach as
a mechanism for achieving nature conservation benefits within the
wider context of sustainable development.
In the UK arena we have advised Government on a range of
issues. Perhaps the most challenging has been avian
influenza, which dominated the news agenda at both ends of the
year. We have continued our work to maintain – and improve -
the surveillance and monitoring of animals and plants and to make
the results available in a way that best serves the protection and
improvement of biodiversity.
Finally, on a personal note, this will be my last Annual
Report, as I leave JNCC at the end of September 2007. I’ve
greatly enjoyed my three years working with the organisation, a
group of talented and committed people who manage to combine an
understanding of high-level policy with a grasp of the details of
working science. Together they create a formidable
partnership.
Adrian Darby OBE
Chairman, JNCC