Wildlife sites 'being ruined by over-grazing'
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By Robert Uhlig Daily Telegraph 17 November 2003
More than half of England's sites of special scientific interest are unable to support the wildlife and geology that they should, a report by English Nature said in a recent report.
The environmental watchdog, an independent agency that the Government is seeking to abolish under its rural delivery review, says the Government's chances of meeting its public service agreement target of bringing 95 per cent of SSSIs up to scratch by 2010 will be challenging.
Over-grazing is cited as the single greatest destructive force, affecting more than 45 per cent of SSSI land, much of it upland.
"Excessive numbers of sheep grazing on moorland change it from a habitat covered by heath to one dominated by species-poor acid grassland," the report says after a six-year study.
It also blames fisheries and inappropriate coastal management and says that legislation is urgently needed to regulate agriculture on common land.
The second largest cause of unfavourable conditions at sites is inappropriate moor burning, particularly in the Pennines, the Yorkshire Dales and parts of Exmoor and Dartmoor. It can dry out delicate peat bogs and destroy the nesting habitats of moorland birds, the report says.
England's 4,112 sites of special scientific interest make its nature and landscape special and distinct from any other country in the world, the report says. That distinctiveness is threatened by damaging policies.
Sites of special scientific interest are vital for supporting rare nesting birds, such as nightjars in winter and hen harriers in summer, and plants such as wild orchids, red clover and ox-eye daisies.
They can be small areas that protect populations of a single species or large expanses of upland moorland or coastal mudflats and marshes.
The smallest examined in the study was a roof space in a private building in Gloucestershire used as a roost by lesser horseshoe bats; the biggest covered 153,000 acres of mudflats and marshes in the Wash.
The report classifies 55 per cent of sites as unfavourable, meaning that they do not meet their conservation objectives of providing a special habitat that can support particular species.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds called the report "shaming" and "a wake-up call to the Government".
The Countryside Land and Business Association took issue with the report's focus on landowners as the main culprits in the destruction of sites.
Douglas Chalmers, the regional director for the north, said: "The CLA would remind people that land has to be managed if it is to have any economic or environmental benefit.
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