2.1 Overview of the Environment
- Rich diversity and local distinctiveness are key features of the environment of the South West Region. The Region's environment has an economic and social value in addition to its intrinsic ecological value for landscape, wildlife and heritage. The sustainable use of the Region's air, soil and water resources is critical to its protection and enhancement. The quality of these resources and the current state of the Region's environment is, therefore, fundamental to an understanding of the environmental priorities for this Rural development Plan.
- The Regional Development Agency's Regional Strategy (Version 1) envisages that, "….the environment, in its broadest sense (to include agriculture and tourism), should be a key 'driver' for a sustainable and successful economy for the future." Environmental land management will become less reliant on public finance and more self-sustainable, if direct links with economic activity can be forged. Combined business and environmental appraisals are proving, as in the Bodmin Moor Project, to be an effective way of identifying opportunities and of encouraging farmers to use environmental planning in farming practice.
- The Environmental Prospectus for SW England (March 1999) estimates that the environment sector in its broadest sense, contributes over 4% of employment and an overall 5-10% of total GDP.
- Many of the Region's high quality landscapes and valuable habitats owe much of their value and distinctiveness to centuries of traditional farming and woodland practice. But these environmental assets are now under threat from changes in agricultural and farming practice and other pressures.
- The present depressed state of income across all sectors of the agricultural industry leaves farmers with less to be invested in environmental work. This is also likely to further increase pressures for farm amalgamation. Land improvement (mainly in the east of the region), abandonment of marginal land and/or lack of positive management has led to reduction in important habitats and characteristic landscape features in the Region, for example:-
- Continuing loss of lowland heath and calcareous chalk grassland through urban encroachment, scrub invasion or conversion to arable.
- Field boundaries, whether hedges, banks or walls, are important features contributing to the character of the Region. Lack of investment in the management of these features will gradually erode local distinctiveness. Field amalgamation and loss of boundaries would have similar effects.
- Maintenance of the conservation interest of lowland pasture is affected by the viability of farms in the lowland beef and sheep sector (a particularly prevalent type in this Region) which is under considerable pressure. In addition, the present agri-environment schemes are targeted in such a way as to provide limited support for conservation of lowland pasture.
- Soil erosion incidents have increased in recent years and the problem is likely to increase if cropping and rainfall patterns alter due to climate change. The move from spring-sown crops to winter sown crops, for better and more consistent yields and easier cultivation, has also led to reduced crop cover over the winter months, which is a key factor in increased soil erosion. The large increase in forage maize production in the Region may increase the risk of soil erosion and nutrient run-off into watercourses. This is covered in greater detail in Section 1.2.3. With regard to water quality, synthetic pyrethroid sheep dips, which are more toxic to the environment than the organo-phosphate dips previously used, also cause problems. Use of such chemicals, together with the increased soil erosion, have particularly added to pressures on freshwater fish populations.
- Overgrazing has been a particular problem in the degradation of heath and moor in upland areas and inappropriate grazing of botanically-rich grassland, due to shortage of suitable grazing animals, has reduced diversity. The latter has resulted largely from BSE and the 30-month slaughter rule, but, even if this were lifted, there is likely to be a reduced market for more mature beef. Lack of appropriate grazing regimes and inability to maintain water levels have also contributed towards the loss of important areas of bog, swamp and fen in the Region. Ensuring sympathetic management and grazing of species-rich floodplain grassland (e.g. Somerset Levels and Moors) is another problem.
- Increasing intensification and monocultural approaches to farming have resulted in amalgamation of holdings and an increase in field size. In the traditional arable areas many pasture fields are being converted to arable cropping, but in the traditional livestock areas the reverse is happening with a move away from arable enterprises and mixed farming, which is proving damaging to the flora and fauna. In places new enterprises, such as outdoor pig rearing or free range poultry, have introduced non-pastoral forms of land management and posed planning problems, e.g. where larger buildings are needed to house extensive poultry enterprises.
- New crops (linseed, oilseed rape, etc.) can also alter the appearance of many landscapes. Another effect of the move to winter-sown crops is a decrease in food and cover for farmland birds over the winter months. This has contributed to a documented decline in the populations of several farmland birds, including the skylark (population down by 75% in the period 1972-1996), the turtle dove (down by 85% in the same period) and the lapwing (down by 46% in the same period). Modern arable farming has the potential to damage field monuments and hidden archaeology, but incentives to manage and interpret these sympathetically are limited.
- A pattern of small deciduous woodlands and pasture is characteristic in many parts of the Region. There is a need to encourage the management of existing woodlands and the establishment of new ones, particularly linking existing woods for the greater benefit of wildlife. There is a need to explore how to encourage planting of this type of woodland to strengthen local character and benefit wildlife.
- Tourists visiting the Region provide important inward investment and opportunities for green tourism initiatives and farm diversification. These opportunities include provision of farm tourism and accommodation, outdoor pursuits and environmental education but skills for developing and marketing them are not well developed at present.
- Tourism can also bring some adverse influences on the environment such as erosion, traffic congestion, trespass and disturbance to wildlife. Careful visitor management is required to ensure optimum economic benefits for local communities without long-term damage to the high quality of the environment upon which the tourism industry is founded.
- Pressure for urban uses in a mainly rural landscape include infrastructure development, (around such things as wind farms and communication masts), recreational uses, (e.g. golf courses), mineral extraction and urbanisation in the form of roads, housing and industry.
Page last modified:
17 August, 2005
Page published: 1 October, 2000