2. Cornwall Wildlife Trust - an overview

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4.1 Deliver a Living Landscape for Cornwall There is growing recognition that, although Cornwall has a rich and diverse natural environment, this is actually a shadow of its former self. Wildlife habitat is more fragmented, species populations less robust, and ecosystems are unable to function as they should. Cornwall’s wildlife is currently not resilient enough to cope with the effects of climate change and more local development pressure. Opportunities are being missed to ensure the natural environment underpins our social and economic health and well-being. A Living Landscape is: • an ambitious plan to secure a better future for wildlife and people where nature is embedded into the heart of all our lives. A Living Landscape consists of: • a healthy suite of wildlife-rich core areas such as nature reserves and County Wildlife Sites from which wildlife can spread out into the wider landscape; • a vibrant network of rivers and streams, Cornish hedges, waysides and stepping stones of new or restored habitat that link wildlife-rich areas together – from moor to coast, through towns and villages; • a working wider countryside that is managed so that plants and animals will be able to move through this permeable landscape, enabling them to adapt to changes in climate. A Living Landscape is key to our quality of life; it contributes to the physical and mental well-being of Cornwall’s residents and numerous visitors through the provision of ‘Ecosystem Services’, including healthy food, clean air, clean water, healthy soils and flood control. The UK National Ecosystem Assessment 6 provides a national analysis of the value that the UK’s natural environment provides to society. Securing a better future for wildlife is at the core of our Living Landscape vision, but the key to its delivery is recognising the wider social, economic and environmental drivers and benefits. 6 UK National Ecosystem Assessment (2011) The UK National Ecosystem Assessment: Synthesis of the Key Findings. UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge http://uknea.unep-wcmc.org Page 9
Case Study - Wild Penwith The aim of Wild Penwith is to work with local farmers, landowners, businesses and communities to restore and reconnect a coast-to-coast Living Landscape across the Penwith peninsula, West Cornwall. The main drivers for Wild Penwith are: • The end of the Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) scheme which paid landowners to manage their land in an environmentally sensitive way. Once current ESA agreements end there will no longer be a financial incentive to maintain important wildlife habitats. • Water quality issues – the project area covers Drift Reservoir, St Loy and Lamorna catchments. • Connectivity – working to reconnect fragmented habitats. Wild Penwith staff carry out farm visits that include an ecological survey and soil and nutrient tests resulting in the production of a Whole Farm Plan. Advice is provided to farmers about securing agri-environment scheme funding and training events and workshops are also delivered. Other landowner services include a capital grant scheme and help with practical conservation tasks from the Wild Penwith Volunteers Group. In the first two years of the project over 50 landowner visits have been carried out and over 900 hectares of land have been surveyed. A series of community events have also been delivered including a roughland memories day and a community hedge survey. Wild Penwith is funded by the Tubney Charitable Trust, Defra Countdown 2010, West Cornwall Local Action Group and South West Water through its Upstream Thinking initiative. Delivering a Living Landscape for Cornwall is a major challenge and will take many years, even decades. It will involve effective working with our existing partners but also requires us to establish links with new sectors such as agriculture, water companies and health organisations. The Natural Choice: securing the value of nature sets out a new vision for the future of the natural environment. It is very positive that it recognises the need for restoration and recovery of the natural environment at a landscape scale, the sentiments within the paper closely relate to the Trust’s Living Landscape objective as set out in this Plan. However, the extent to which this ambitious and positive vision for nature’s recovery will be embedded in new policy and legislation is currently unclear, so lobbying and campaigning work may be required. Page 10
Page 1 and 2: Cornwall Wildlife Trust Strategic P
Page 3 and 4: 1. Introduction This Plan sets out
Page 5 and 6: • has 10,760 adult members, 2,600
Page 7 and 8: Making Space for Nature The Making
Page 9: 4. Meeting the challenge - our deli
Page 13 and 14: • Maintain an up-to-date set of m
Page 15 and 16: With the establishment of the Marin
Page 17 and 18: • Support other organisations in
Page 19 and 20: Between 2012 and 2015 our inspiring
Page 21 and 22: Between 2012 and 2015 our growing o
Page 23 and 24: Between 2012 and 2015 our be widely
Page 25 and 26: Between 2012 and 2015 our managing
Page 27 and 28: Key staff contacts Deliver a living

2. Cornwall Wildlife Trust - an overview

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