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Biodiversity planning and the Hertfordshire landscape

For many years attention was focused on conserving wildlife in sites. But some species are not well-served this way, and the pressures on wildlife and the desire to have it accessible to people mean that increasingly the wider environments need to be seen and planned as a wildlife resource.

Recently, the development of landscape character assessment, which is based on an analysis of geology, soils, topography, hydrology, cultural pattern - many of the same things that influence species distribution - has provided one means of speculating on the biodiversity potential of different areas of the countryside.

Another approach is careful interpretation of aerial photographs, armed with local knowledge, to identify potential habitats, corridors and buffer zones, or Wildspace in the areas inbetween the special sites. This is particularly relevant in and around towns.

The County Council, with information on wildlife sites and protected species provided by the Hertfordshire Biological Records Centre, and mirroring work going on within Europe, nationally and regionally, is exploring the potential of approaches like these to better plan for the county's wildlife. A particular project is to accurately remap the prime biodiversity areas that were coarsely indicated in the Hertfordshire Biodiversity Action Plan instead as key biodiversity areas the boundaries of which have now be 'snapped' to the appropriate landscape character areas and the resultant areas forming the core of the Herts & Middlesex Wildlife Trust's "Living Landscapes" programme.