Conservation in the wider countryside: SSSIs and wildlife habitat in eastern England

Abstract

This article discusses the role of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) in the conservation of semi-natural habitats in the UK, and relates this to the nature of the conservation resource in the ‘wider countryside’. The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 increased the emphasis by the Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) on SSSIs as a means of promoting conservation. However, there is little analysis available of the extent or scope of the SSSI system in the context of the whole nature conservation resource. The SSSI network in seven counties of south-east England is analysed, and the representation of semi-natural habitats in the SSSI system in two counties (Norfolk and Suffolk) is compared with the total nature conservation resource identified using county Phase I surveys. There are a small number of fragments of semi-natural habitat remaining in partial isolation from the economic landscape of arable farming. However, the survival of the SSSI system depends on this wider matrix. Policies for the protection of the wider countryside must therefore be developed alongside those aimed at the protection of individual sites. This requires a range of innovative approaches to both the ecology and the economy of the farmed countryside.