Plant Diversity Challenge - Plantlife

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Objective 2: Conserving Plant DiversityTarget 5:Identifying and conservingImportant Plant AreasOngoing actions contributing tomeeting the target• Compiling an inventory of the UK’sImportant Plant Areas• Monitoring the condition of species andhabitats in protected areas• Completing and implementing the findingsof the Review of Marine NatureConservation• Refining understanding of effectiveconservation and favourable condition as apart of work on the Habitats and SpeciesDirective and the Country AgencyCommon Standards Monitoring projectHigh priority additional work• Targetting the uptake of agri-environmentschemes to support IPA protection andmanagement• In the light of the recommendations of theIrish Sea Pilot, determining whetheradditional means of protection arenecessary to support the conservation ofnationally important marine species andareas• Using the UK IPA inventory to informlandscape-scale conservation projects• Working with landowners to deliverpositive management for IPAsLower priority or long-term additionalwork• Ensuring the needs of IPAs are included inthe work of relevant local and regionalBiodiversity Action PlansProtection of 50 per cent of the most important areasfor plant diversity assured.ScopeMany people will know and cherish a favourite plant place, perhaps because of themontane flora of Ben Lui, the limestone grassland flora of the Peak District, the fungiof Windsor Great Park or the richness of the bryophytes in the Anglesey dunes.Target 5 seeks to conserve those areas most important for plant diversity (or‘Important Plant Areas’) by identifying, protecting and managing a network of suchareas in each ecological region (as defined by target 4).Current situationA number of protected area mechanisms exist in the UK but the most relevant arethose that have a specific conservation remit e.g.Areas or Sites of Special ScientificInterest (A/SSSIs) and internationally important sites designated as part of the EU’sNatura 2000 network - Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and Special ProtectionAreas (SPAs).To date 601 sites (2,500,884ha) have been proposed as candidate SACs,242 sites (1,470,364ha) have been classified as SPAs and 6,761 sites have beendesignated as A/SSSIs (2,377,714ha).The area covered by these designationsrepresents very approximately 10% of the total UK area.At sea, a number of different types of protected areas afford protection for marineplants but vary in their management options and their extent into the marineenvironment (e.g. Ramsar sites extend only to 6m below low tide). In some casesthey only occur in limited numbers (e.g. only three Marine Nature Reserves exist).The current UK suite of candidate SACs conserves a wide range of algae as well asvascular plants within a range of coastal habitats. Further selection of SACs awayfrom coastal regions may include vegetated areas although many of these sites willconsist of habitat beyond the depth range of marine algae.The Review of MarineNature Conservation (RMNC), established in 1999, is examining the effectiveness ofthe system for nature conservation in the marine environment.As part of theReview, the Irish Sea regional pilot is testing criteria for identifying nationallyimportant areas, which includes consideration of vegetated marine habitats, andtrialling a marine nature conservation framework which includes evaluation of theroles of existing and extended marine protected area networks.The Reviewsupports the aims of the Government’s strategy for the conservation and sustainabledevelopment of the marine environment set out in the first Marine StewardshipReport, Safeguarding our Seas: A Strategy for the Conservation and SustainableDevelopment of our Marine Environment published on 1 May 2002.The Government is committed in England to achieving 95% of SSSIs in favourablecondition by 2010 and 95% of ASSIs in Northern Ireland by 2013. Efforts to improveprotection and management of these sites have been strengthened by theCountryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (England and Wales) and the Environment(Northern Ireland) Order 2000.The emerging Nature Conservation (Scotland) Bill22
will also strengthen SSSI provisions to protect places important for wild plants inScotland.The country agencies, together with the JNCC and the Environment HeritageService in Northern Ireland, are producing guidance for monitoring of the conditionof species and habitats on protected sites.The condition of the site features will bereported on a six-yearly cycle and will be used to help assess the conservationstatus at a UK level and also to influence management of sites.Across the UK, financial incentives are offered to farmers to encourage them tomanage their land sympathetically for, amongst other things, wild plants.These agrienvironmentschemes are crucial for delivering the right management for wild plantsoutside of protected areas (see target 6).Looking to the futureA project to identify the Important Plant Areas (IPAs) of the UK has already startedfollowing internationally agreed criteria. It is not intended that IPAs become a newformal designation, rather the resulting inventory will support, inform and underpinexisting efforts to protect our most important plant places through the mostappropriate means whether it be legislation, incentives or advice.Existing protected areas are probably sufficiently representative of areas importantfor vascular plants (including veteran trees) but it is likely that the UK IPA inventorywill identify unprotected sites which are important for bryophytes, lichens, algae andfungi.NEIL McINTYREBOB GIBBONS/NATURAL IMAGEThe UK contains some of the world’s moststunning plant habitats.Work to identifythese areas as IPAs is underway and it islikely the inventory will include areas such asScar Close National Nature Reserve in theYorkshire Dales (above), and the lastremaining ancient forests and woodlandssuch as the Caledonian pine forest atRothiemurchus in the Scottish Highlands(below).This IPA inventory will not only usefully help agri-environment targeting but alsopossibly support landscape-scale initiatives for plants.23
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