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

3.101 More than 250 Special Protection Areas (SPAs) covering 1,600,000 hectares have been protected
under the Birds Directive and more than 600 Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) covering
2,600,000 hectares have been protected under the Habitats Directive. These UK sites contribute
to the European Natura 2000 network of areas of high conservation importance. In all, nearly
10% of the UK’s terrestrial and freshwater environment is protected under these international
designations or as Local or National Nature Reserves and SSSIs/ASSIs. While the patchwork of
designated sites was not established in the context of a changing climate, the resulting network is
clearly an important framework for incorporation into adaptation strategies.
3.102 Until relatively recently, the institutional arrangements for marine conservation were different
from those applying on land, and the conservation bodies had only a limited remit for marine
areas. The Birds and Habitats Directives changed this so that there are now comparable legal
measures for marine and terrestrial species and habitats at the European level. The area of the
marine environment protected by statutory designations is currently much lower than for terrestrial
sites – perhaps only in the region of 2% – but with the implementation of the new Marine and
Coastal Access Act, and the Marine (Scotland) Bill currently before the Scottish Parliament, this
should begin to change.
3.103 The underlying policy for nature conservation has gradually changed over the years but these
changes have not been explicitly recognised in legislation. The original thinking focused on the
concept of ‘natural beauty’ expressed in terms of scientific or aesthetic interest. Most recently
the concept of ecosystem services has gained credence and nature conservation bodies have
changed their agendas accordingly. However, there has been little consideration of what these
different approaches actually mean for the future of biodiversity. Existing legal and institutional
arrangements are being used to deliver very different objectives without any fundamental
assessment of their appropriateness.
3.104 In recognition that climate change is an important challenge facing biodiversity in this country,
the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs recently announced a review of
ecological networks in England which may go some way towards addressing the appropriateness
of existing protected area mechanisms. xiii Furthermore, ‘Securing Biodiversity’ is a new framework
in which Defra and its non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) are seeking to address the
conservation needs of individual species, wherever possible through habitat management – and
this brings with it a range of further benefits from the ecosystem services that those habitats
provide. 85 This is complemented by the landscape-scale approach to habitat restoration that is now
being taken (in part) to enable biodiversity to adapt to climate change. xiv
3.105 As we have described in the previous chapter, climate change will result in dramatic changes to our
flora and fauna, in terms of species composition, abundance and distribution. Thinking on how
to deliver conservation under changing environmental conditions has focused on the need to be
flexible and has tended to lead to discussions about landscape-level measures, wildlife corridors
and a ‘space for nature’ – a protected space where organisms can find refuge in a changing world.
There has been no discussion of what society might want from biodiversity in the future; for
example, how much need will there be for open recreational spaces, and will protected areas
xiii Declaration of Interest: The review of ecological networks is being chaired by Sir John Lawton, Chairman of
the Commission.
xiv See, for example, the work of the Wildlife Trusts described in 3.107.
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Chapter 3