Priority Habitats, Protected Sites and Climate Change: Three Investigations to Inform Policy and Management for Adaptation and Mitigation
		Ioannis Vogiatzakis, Geoffrey Griffiths and Joseph Tzanopoulos Within the UK the conservation of important wildlife and geological sites is achieved mainly through a legally binding system of protective designations created by successive governments and the European Union. Despite this protection, many sites are no longer in the condition favourable to maintain the features for which they were designated originally. In addition there is increasing concern about the potential effects of climate change on protected areas and the habitats and species they support. Therefore the aims of the devolved administrations of the UK are to maintain sites that are in a favourable condition, improve management of those in less favourable condition and adopt an approach to conservation planning which will be flexible and adaptable to future climate change. To determine what proportion of protected sites were in favourable condition, a system had to be developed that could measure their condition both now and in the future. Consequently the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) created the Common Standards Monitoring (CSM) scheme to allow the condition of protected sites to be measured in a thorough and consistent way across the UK. The CSM makes an assumption that the world remains unchanging and that, with the right management, favourable condition can be achieved for most protected sites. This assumption could become invalid as the climate changes in the coming decades. This is because some species will not be able to adapt to the new climate whilst others will increase making it difficult, if not impossible, to maintain the condition of protected sites. Many protected sites have been designated because of the special habitats that are found there. Within the UK there are 25 marine and 40 terrestrial and freshwater Priority Habitats. As protected sites with Priority Habitats will be managed for the conservation of their biodiversity it would be useful to know what other positive benefits they may have for society. One such benefit would be the ability to absorb and/or store Green House Gasses (GHG). Conversely, the destruction of some Priority Habitats such as Blanket Bog will release GHGs to the atmosphere. There is a need to look carefully at the current system of protected sites to see whether they can adapt to climate change or not. Understanding the impacts of climate change on protected sites will require the CSM to be able to allow for climatic factors, which in some cases it does not. Once the impacts of climate change on protected sites are understood, recommendations on how to adapt to, or mitigate against, those impacts can be made. This project carried out for Defra has three objectives which address the issues outlined above, namely: 1. To assess whether the current UK network of protected sites and the legal framework for it will be able to continue delivery of the intended objectives for biodiversity under climate change. 2. To determine the implications of climate change on implementation of Common Standards Monitoring of protected sites. 3. To provide a quantitative estimate of, and to review the contribution of Priority Habitats to mitigation of climate change. Project PartnersSponsor Prof. Nigel Arnell, Walker Institute Prof. Pete Smith, University of Aberdeen Dr Pete Carey, Bodsey Ecology Dr Graham Tucker, IEEP Dr. Jo Treweek, Treweek Environmental Consultants Bill Butcher, WGB Environment/ Treweek Environmental Consultants