Planning for nature conservation within forestry

Abstract

We stressed at the start of the previous part that nature conservation is both an attitude of mind and a form of land management. We then considered what nature conservation was trying to achieve in woodlands, which sites were most deserving of attention, and which features in them are most important. We discussed earlier the circumstances under which ancient, semi-natural woods had maintained some natural features through centuries of traditional management and exploitation, but we recognised too that these woods comprise no more than one-fifth of all woods, and that the remaining four-fifths which are plantations or recent, semi-natural woodland are also vast stores of wildlife which can hardly be ignored in any nature conservation policy. Now we turn to the practical aspects — the action necessary on the ground — which many would regard as the true test of an effective nature conservationist.