Despite its future being subject to serious debate, I was delighted to hear that Natural England was able to focus on their core business today: helping to protect our finest wildlife sites.
The Natural England Board has agreed to confirm the notification of a grassland SSSI at Benty Grange in the Peak District. You can find out more about this case here.
We’re delighted. We publicly supported the notification as we believe that this will help protect one of the largest remnants of this species-rich neutral grassland in Derbyshire. This type of grassland is considered to be of principal importance to the conservation for biodiversity in England (Section 41 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006), and is a priority habitat under the England Biodiversity Strategy 2020.
This decision is particularly pleasing given the horrendous loss of environmentally valuable grasslands that has occurred across England but especially in Derbyshire. I am also delighted that Natural England stood firm in the face of real pressure from the landowning community who opposed notification.
This case comes just a week on from a report, commissioned by the RSPB, which outlined the significance of appropriate grazing to support biodiversity in the uplands.
But it also reminds me of some work that I was involved in during my days at Plantlife. At the time, we worked with The Wildlife Trusts to document the ongoing loss of grasslands since the 1980s. While the historic loss was well known, we were shocked by how much had been lost in recent years. Derbyshire alone had lost 91% of grasslands which had been surviving in 1983 by 1999 due to fertiliser use on unimproved grassland, reseeding and ploughing. Today’s decision will help protect a significant remnant of the Derbyshire wildlife-rich grasslands that remain.
Threats from inappropriate grazing and neglect obviously remain. So it is good news for nature conservation that Natural England has stepped in to help protect part of our natural heritage.
That's great news Martin, this just shows how important it is to have a strong and independent Natural England
I am very heartened to hear that some SSSI's are still being notified in England.