This blog is filled with the stories of special places for nature. It makes sense to indentify those sites that most important for particular species and ensure that they are effectively protected. But what happens if the species that depend on particular sites move their distribution in response to changing climate conditions, for example? This is an important question as we plan strategies to give nature room to adapt to a changing climate.
Richard Bradbury from our Conservation Science team reports on a brand new study that reveals the role that protected areas play.
Protected areas are places designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Special Protection Areas and Special Areas of Conservation. Their status is the basis for giving wildlife critical protection from damaging development proposals. Often wider protected areas contain nature reserves where management aims to ensure conditions for wildlife are favourable. The news coverage here slightly mangles the importantant distinction between nature reserves and the wider protected area network.
Last autumn, I reported here, last year, the results from a scientific paper that showed that species relied substantially on protected areas when advancing their ranges north in the UK, many in response to changing climate. Now, a further paper in a leading scientific journal shows that our protected areas have been equally important for the recent colonisation of the UK by a range of wetland bird species.
Published online in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B., the study shows that, of the 20 wetland bird species that bred for the first time in the UK since 1960, 18 bred first in protected areas. Protected areas were crucial as the population established and grew. Once established, the birds began to spread out into other locations as they expanded their ranges across the country. For some warmth-loving southern species, such as little egrets and Cetti’s warblers, these arrivals appear to be in response to a changing climate. For others, such as common cranes, they are a response to other factors, such as recovery from historical loss of habitat or persecution.
Common cranes - protected areas provide the best chances for successfully expanding their range. Photo RSPB Images
The mainstay of traditional conservation has been to establish protected areas to provide refuges against the loss of habitats and other threats in the surrounding countryside. But one concern is that, if species ranges need to shift in response to climate change, all these sites will be in the wrong place, reducing their relevance.
However, species which are shifting their ranges also need high quality places to move into. The new study provides more evidence that the current network of protected areas in the UK is providing such places. It also emphasises the importance of the tremendous recent effort by conservationists to recreate and manage large wetland areas, and the protection of these and other important sites for wildlife. This action has been absolutely vital in creating starter homes that enable these species to settle and flourish.
This gives some cause for optimism in the midst of concern that climate change and other factors will imperil many species. Protected areas are helping to give birds and other species a fighting chance of moving into new regions where they can breed successfully.
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