Conservation Planner issue 28 - RSPB

RSPB poses tough questions
and rough answers for
adaptation to climate change
The publication, in December 2007, of Planning Policy
Statement: Planning and Climate Change represented the
first real attempt to enshrine the need to contribute to the
alleviation of climate change through the planning system
in England.
The RSPB welcomes this document. It makes positive
strides towards greater awareness of the vital role the
planning system can play in reducing greenhouse gas
emissions and encouraging adaptation of the natural and
built environments to inevitable climate change.
Adaptation is something of a Cinderella in the climate
change world. The urgent need for global mitigation has
attracted massive attention – yet it is not the whole answer.
Wildlife is already responding to climate change and we
know further change cannot be avoided. We must therefore
adapt to the climate change that we cannot avoid, whatever
mitigation measures we take. The new PPS touches on
adaptation in its overarching principles.
To contribute to the debate, the RSPB has published a new
report, Climate change, wildlife and adaptation: 20 tough
questions, 20 rough answers, which outlines how nature
conservation needs to adapt to meet the impacts of
climate change.
The scale of current and projected climate change and
the speed of its development set the context for
adaptation. We need to build a framework for action,
which needs the views, experience and support of others,
to help build the best adaptation strategy possible for the
UK to secure a future for biodiversity, and the services it
provides. Planners and the planning system will have a
key role to play.
For biodiversity, our first response must be to strengthen
and secure wildlife populations today: without these, we
have no seed corn for the future. The 20 questions consider
a range of issues, with conclusions that may surprise. We
outline why we believe a focus on species conservation is
perhaps more important than ever, the importance of
protected areas, and how species movements and
re-distribution may be assisted in the wider countryside. We
look at the legal underpinning of conservation, including
how planning legislation can play its part. We consider
whether some species really are beyond help; the validity of
species targets, and the role of nature conservation
techniques such as re-wilding and translocation, and, on
broader issues, the delivery of ecological services, the
meshing of conservation with adaptation in other sectors,
and how we might address the issue of uncertainty.
The report also sets out a call to action. We need strong
leadership from Government, for adaptation as well as for
mitigation. This must start today, building resilient
populations of wildlife in healthy habitats, with a massively
increased area of land managed for environmental benefits.
In planning terms we ask for a policy requirement for those
areas of highest potential for habitat creation to be
safeguarded from development. Investment in the future
needs to include proper sustainability safeguards, mapping
and protection of areas likely to be of biodiversity
importance, and a programme of action to improve
landscape permeability, underpinned by an enhanced
commitment to agri-environment spending. There should
be biodiversity checks and safeguards on the adaptation
plans of all relevant sectors. We believe that all land should
deliver some environmental benefit, which the planning
system can help to ensure.
The report is available on the RSPB’s website at
www.rspb.org.uk/Images/
climatechange20questions_tcm9-170121.pdf