Cornwall's Biodiversity Action Plan - Cornwall Wildlife Trust

Targets
Within this document it has been decided to set targets for
the county rather than each individual project. This will allow
monitoring and reporting to be consistent with Regional and
National BAP targets as there will be direct comparison to
methodologies used in defining the targets.
At each project development stage realistic targets should be
set for habitat maintenance and restoration/expansion. These
will then feed into the county targets, i.e. the Wild Penwith
Project has contributed x amount to the county targets, y
amount to regional and z to the National targets.
Maintenance target
Data from ERCCIS and Cornwall’s Landcover 1995-2005
(2010) 8 report have been used to establish the baseline
figures for each BAP habitat where information is available.
Baseline figures are not available for some BAP habitats as
insufficient survey work has been undertaken. Different levels
of confidence for these figures have been applied, the lack of
certainty derives both from the lack of clarity in the habitat
definition and incompleteness of fieldwork data in the county.
The figures for extent have been used to indicate the
maintenance target for each of these BAP habitats. The
habitats which have no maintenance figures are due to the
fact that these areas of habitat cannot be quantified; however
it is important that the current extents of these habitats are
maintained. Once these habitats have been surveyed and
mapped then numerical targets can be set.
Expansion/restoration target
The methodologies used to define the expansion/restoration
targets vary depending on data available. Three methods have
been used and these are summarised below.
Method 1
All habitats mapped on South West Nature Map have the
expansion/restoration figures for 2050 calculated using the
same methodology as that in Review of the South West
Biodiversity, BRERC, March 2006 9 , a full description of the
methodology can be found in this document. The 2015 figure
is derived by assuming a linear rate of increase and dividing the
2050 figure by 8.
Method 2
The Review of the South West Biodiversity gives restoration/
expansion targets for both 2015 and 2030 for the region
for habitats not mapped on South West Nature Map. The
percentage of habitat occurring in Cornwall was calculated
and the 2030 aspirational target was calculated using the same
proportion as for the region. The target for 2015 was created
by averaging the 2010 target and the 2020 aspirational target
Method 3
No relevant data exists to produce targets for these habitats.
Therefore it should be ensured that these BAP habitats are
maintained until further information is available and future
targets can be set.
It should be noted that these targets are not prescriptive; they
are an indication of the scale of local contributions that are
needed to deliver regional and national targets. No targets
have been set for marine habitats or habitats without any
current baseline data; this is something that will need to be
addressed at the next 5 year review using the information
gained from the mapping projects outlined in this document.
8 www.erccis.co.uk/projects/cornwall_landcover_change
9 www.biodiversitysouthwest.org.uk/docs
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