Twenty-eighth Report Adapting Institutions to Climate Change Cm ...

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Defra announced on 1 December 2009 the 15 pathfinder local authorities which had been
successful in bidding for resources under the coastal change pathfinder programme. 83 The
programme will explore new approaches to planning for, and managing, adaptation to coastal
change, and will run until spring 2011. The available funding, £11 million, will be used to help
pathfinder authorities explore ways of engaging and supporting local communities as they adjust
to the impacts brought on by coastal change. The projects being funded range from education to
schemes for the purchase of property. The funding will also help with the design and implementation
of local solutions as coastal communities adjust. Although no solutions are offered by the
consultation, it does suggest what planning for and managing coastal change could look like in
the future.
INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR NATURE CONSERVATION AND BIODIVERSITY
3.95 Nature conservation is the responsibility of several organisations operating under a number of
different institutional arrangements. The legislative framework and the division of responsibilities
have been largely shaped by previous policy imperatives which are not necessarily appropriate for
addressing adaptation to climate change in the delivery of the UK’s nature conservation agenda.
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Institutional arrangements established in the era immediately after the Second World War made a
clear distinction between scientific and aesthetic aspects of nature; different bodies were responsible
for the designation and management of land for nature conservation and for the public enjoyment
of the countryside. Organisational changes over the years have brought these two strands together
but have also created geographical differences, so that there are now separate bodies in England,
Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, each covering both nature conservation and recreation.
The underlying legal framework has nonetheless remained largely intact.
The legal framework in relation to species developed separately from that for protected areas
and it has a number of separate strands relating to the protection of rare and endangered species
(nature conservation), and pest control and exploitation (hunting, shooting and fishing). Private
bodies, including non-governmental organisations, have been instrumental in developing policy
in this area.
The National Parks and Access to Countryside Act 1949 placed a duty on the then Nature
Conservancy Council to notify planning authorities of the locations of Sites of Special Scientific
Interest (SSSIs) and it also established powers to designate land as National Nature Reserves or Local
Nature Reserves. These powers were used extensively over the following 30 years to protect natural
habitats from land use change (such as intensive agriculture, forestry and urban development) by
designating sites on the basis of specific geological features, species and habitats.
Subsequently, EU legislation has provided a broader framework for nature conservation. In
1979, the Birds Directive (79/409/EEC) provided the framework for the conservation and
management of wild birds. In the UK, protection mechanisms were implemented through the
Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, the Wildlife (NI) Order 1985 and the Environment (NI)
Order 2002, leading to the partial protection of a wider range of habitats through a strengthened
SSSI designation (Area of Special Scientific Interest, ASSI, in Northern Ireland).
3.100 The 1992 Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) subsequently required Member States to introduce a
range of measures to maintain and restore natural habitats and certain wild species at “favourable
conservation status”. In Great Britain, the Directive was transposed into national laws by means
of the Conservation (Natural Habitats, etc.) Regulations 1994 that provided for the designation
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Chapter 3