Securing Biodiversity in Breckland - European Commission

Breckland Conservation and the Need for this AuditThe afforestation of Breckland and the loss of heathland was decried in the mid 1930s by theNorfolk Naturalists Trust and notable figures such as the biologist E.J. Salisbury and geographer L.D.Stamp, who campaigned to preserve some of the wild landscape to protect its character andbiodiversity. Their bold vision for a connected network spanning from STANTA in the north in abroad sweep of landscape joining remaining heaths in the east and south of Breckland (Sheail 1979)was never realised. However, a number of key sites were secured for conservation in perpetuity,beginning with the acquisition of East Wretham Heath by the Norfolk Naturalists Trust (now NorfolkWildlife Trust) in 1939, closely followed by Weeting Heath and Thetford Heath (purchased for theNorfolk Wildlife Trust by the philanthropist and conservationist Christopher Cadbury), in 1942 and1949 respectively. Supported by a legislative framework, nature conservation (the National Parksand Access to the Countryside Act 1949) came into being, the Nature Conservancy and its successoragencies (the Nature Conservancy Council, English Nature and most recently Natural England)designated a suite of key sites and secured their protection (see Table 4).The national and international importance of Breckland has been recognised by the designation offour National Nature Reserves (NNR) and 55 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) that cover 40%of the land area. Of these more than 30 are heaths or contain a substantial heathland element. Thedesignation of many of these sites in the 1950s and 1960s coincided with a period of rapid andprofound ecological change on most heathland sites.The loss of livestock grazing, a consequence of the dominance in the farming economy of arablecropping, elevated the importance of rabbits in grazing the vegetation and preventing succession.The selective grazing and small-scale scraping and disturbance created by rabbits were crucial incontrolling both the plant species composition and the physical structure of the vegetation and thusthe range of micro-habitats available for invertebrates and plants (Farrow 1917a; Watt 1957; 1960;1962; 1981a; 1981b; Rodwell 1992). Following the introduction of myxomatosis to the UK in 1953and the translocation and release of infected animals by farmers seeking to control rabbits in theagricultural landscape, the rabbit populations had collapsed by 1955. The effects on bothvegetation and invertebrates were immediate and profound. Many heaths became grassy,overgrown and subject to scrub and pine invasion (e.g. Marrs Hicks and Fuller 1986) and it is likelythat some species and population extinctions can be directly attributed to these. In addition, theharvesting of heath products such as gorse, bracken and heather had also ceased during the early20 th century, allowing further invasive change to occur (Crompton and Sheail 1975; Rothera 1998).Conservation efforts have been successful in restoring grazing management regimes to the majorityof heathland SSSIs. At some sites rabbit populations rapidly recovered (e.g. Weeting Heath NNR);however, the destruction of rabbit populations on some key heathland sites following theirrecovery hindered conservation interests. STANTA has been sheep grazed since before the 1970s,while at some privately managed sites sheep grazing was introduced during the 1970s (e.g.Thetford Heath NNR). Establishment of grazing regimes was greatly helped by the introduction ofagri-environment support mechanisms. In 1988 the Breckland Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA)scheme was established, providing area payments to landowners to graze heathland, combinedwith capital payments for grazing infrastructure such as fencing and control of scrub and bracken.The ESA scheme was closed to new applications in 2004 and has been followed by the introductionof Environmental Stewardship (ES) in 2005, providing a similar range of incentives with generally21