Geomorphological conservation and public policy in England: A geomorphological critique of English Nature's 'natural areas' approach

Abstract

The traditional top-down, site-based approach to nature conservation has been extended in recent years to include the conservation interests of 'the wider countryside'. English Nature's response to this movement has been to divide the country into Natural Areas which have coherence in terms of geology, landform, soils, plants and wildlife. These represent more meaningful units for setting nature conservation objectives than do administrative boundaries. They are also intended to allow easier integration of Earth science and wildlife conservation objectives and to provide a meaningful framework into which the interests of individual sites can be set, thus leading to a less fragmented approach to nature conservation. This paper reviews the geomorphological content of the 120 Natural Area Profiles, eight regional summaries and the relevant pages of the English Nature web site. It concludes that wildlife conservation, which dominates the profiles, has fully grasped the principles of conservation in the wider countryside, but geomorphological conservation has largely missed the opportunities provided. The site-based approach still dominates, there is an inconsistency in approach and the few encouraging geomorphological descriptions or objectives that do occur are never fashioned into sustained geomorphological strategies for the wider countryside. What is needed is a strengthening of geomorphological/Quaternary conservation within English Nature and its Local Area Teams, a more detailed approach to geomorphological description of the Natural Areas which recognizes landform evolution, landform character and sensitivity to change, and improved links between geomorphology and the land-use planning system. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.