Conserving Forest Biodiversity: Recent Approaches in UK Forest Planning and Management

  • Kevin Watts
  • Christopher P. Quine
  • Amy E. Eycott
  • Darren Moseley
  • Jonathan W. Humphrey
  • Duncan Ray
Chapter

Abstract

The need to combat woodland loss and fragmentation are key objectives for forestry and biodiversity conservation strategies in the UK. Conservation action has often been centred on the protection and management of individual sites with limited, often ad hoc, action within the surrounding landscape. However, woodland biodiversity conservation efforts, including restoration and re-creation measures, are beginning to be scaled-up to the landscape level in an attempt to address habitat loss and fragmentation. There is also a need to integrate biodiversity goals with other objectives which are planned at the landscape scale, marking a significant shift from segregated to integrated planning. An assessment of landscape structure and function is needed to target conservation action and to evaluate landscape change. This will ensure that the appropriate action is applied in the most effective location. It will also contribute to the development of multi-use landscape plans ensuring biodiversity needs are adequately represented. The aim of this chapter is to present examples of recent approaches to landscape-scale forest planning in the UK. These will illustrate the application of both functional approaches, utilising focal species and estimates of functional connectivity, and also structural approaches, based on the use of landscape metrics, to target and evaluate potential biodiversity conservation action. These examples have been used to target strategic conservation action at a country scale, target specific locations for woodland planting schemes and assess the performance of a woodland planting policy to combat habitat fragmentation. They also demonstrate that the appropriate choice of a functional or structural approach is dependent upon the issue being addressed.

Keywords

Functional Connectivity Landscape Metrics Forestry Commission Woodland Habitat Habitat Network 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008

Authors and Affiliations

  • Kevin Watts
    • 1
  • Christopher P. Quine
  • Amy E. Eycott
  • Darren Moseley
  • Jonathan W. Humphrey
  • Duncan Ray
  1. 1.Forest Research, Alice Holt, WreccleshamFarnhamSurreyUK

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