Fate of semi-natural grassland in England between 1960 andud2013: a test of national conservation policy

摘要

It is well documented that significant losses in semi-natural grassland occurred acrossudEurope during the second half of the twentieth century. However, comparatively fewudstudies have investigated and quantified the fate of large numbers of individual grasslandudareas. This is important for understanding the causes of decline, and consequentlyudestablishing new policies to conserve and restore lost habitats. This study addresses thisudproblem; GIS was used to compare historic survey data collected between 1960 and 1981udwith two contemporary spatial datasets of habitats in England. The datasets included theudPriority Habitats Inventory 2013 and the Land Cover Map 2007 and this was undertaken foruddifferent types of semi-natural grassland across England. Considerable decreases occurredudacross the different grassland types, with a loss of 47% of studied semi-natural grasslandsudsites in England over 32–53 years. Of this, the majority of grassland was lost to conversion toudagriculturally-improved grassland or arable cultivation, 45% and 43% respectively. Changesudto woodland and urban areas were also evident, but on a much smaller scale. Sites receivingudstatutory protection as a Site of Special Scientific Interest were found to have retainedudmore grassland (91%), compared with non-protected sites (27%), thus highlighting theudeffectiveness of this aspect of current conservation policy in England, and the need for thisudto continue in the future.