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From Norfolk RCC

WELCOME TO THE SENSE OF PLACE TOOLKIT A Site Map Glossary Index STEP 1: GET ORGANISED Step 1a: Form a Steering Group Step 1b: Tell people what you're up to Step 1c:Explore the options for recording, communicating and sharing Step 1d: Bringing it all together STEP 2: GET TO KNOW YOUR PLACE Step 2a: What's on your patch and why is it important Step 2b: Working with the wider community Step 2c: Drawing it together STEP 3: IDENTIFY ISSUES AND OPPORTUNITIES Step 3a: Investigate issues, threats and existing efforts to protect and enhance Step 3b: Identify your opportunities Step 3c: Refine your options STEP 4: GET PEOPLE ACTIVE

In thinking about countryside and wildlife there are a number of pressures and challenges that you should be aware of. These are briefly set out below and lead to the following general wildlife and conservation priorities:

• wildlife sites need to be protected from damage and destruction

• existing habitats need to be properly managed

• there is the need to expand and re-connect the existing areas and restore habitats where they have been destroyed

Contents 1 Climate Change 2 Fragmentation of Ecological Networks 3 Land use and development 4 Other issues and sources of information

Climate Change

From the almost daily news reports most people will know about the need to cut down on carbon emissions in order to prevent what is called 'dangerous climate change'.

There is still a lot of debate about what level of climate change is 'dangerous', but the upshot is that, even if the world does get its act together to stop 'dangerous' climate change, we can all expect to experience a significant change in climate and weather patterns in the future.

Scientists are still working to model what sort of changes we can expect but there is still a lot of uncertainty as to what exactly is going to happen. What is clear though is that we can all expect quite a change over the coming decades.

In terms of the biodiversity and landscape issues you have been looking at there is a need to ensure that these places can adapt to the changes - we need to make them more resilient and able to adapt to climate change. For biodiversity, expanding and linking up the different habitats in an 'ecological network' becomes an essential step to their future survival.

Click here to find out more about the impacts of climate change.

Fragmentation of Ecological Networks

The last 60 or 70 years has seen the decline of once common habitats and species. A significant cause is that much of Norfolk is now made up of a landscape dominated by intensive agriculture, built-up areas and infrastructure such as roads. Within all this sits a number of relatively small and fragmented natural habitats often no more than a few hectares in size. In simple terms, this means that:

• small and isolated sites may become too small to support viable populations of some species or may be impacted by surrounding land-uses
• many habitats are now largely human controlled with the result that small, fragmented habitats are often unable to function naturally
• species that live in and make up these small habitat areas are vulnerable to even small changes in conditions because they can't move from one place to another similar place in search of food, territory or more suitable conditions

Importantly, fragmentation isn't just about animals moving around but is also about plants - don't forget that plants move too - it's just that it happens much more slowly over generations.

For this reason there is a need to expand and open up corridors between different habitat areas. This has become known as making an Ecological Network.

Click here to find out more about ecological networks and the work being done to map out what needs doing and where in Norfolk

Land use and development

As well as breaking up habitats into fragments, land use and development around an area of wildlife, or other value, will impact on it. This impact is often negative, but it doesn't have to be that way.

Sensitive management of the land around an area of wildlife or other interest can act as a buffer to protect the area of interest from the worst of the impacts, or even better, an area into which the habitat can expand.

In terms of new (and existing) development, there are also opportunities to mitigate (make up for or reduce) the impacts by good design.

You can find out more about land use issues by clicking here.

Other issues and sources of information

In addition to the information on Norfolk that you can find by clicking the above links, you can find a variety of useful guides on issues, roles and responsibilities at:

• Natural England's website contains a lot of additional information, with downloads available on numerous topics

• The Home Page of the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs' (Defra's) website provides information on issues, policies and roles and responsibilities

• The conservation section of the RSPB website provides various resources on general and specific conservation issues

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