Act Now to Safeguard Nature

By Ian Hepburn

Head of Conservation

UPDATE (24/7/15): Consultation deadline has been extended to SUNDAY JULY 26th

We’ve asked on several occasions that our supporters put fingers to keyboards to show that we are solidly behind the European legislation that’s been of real benefit to wildlife across Europe and which could now be at risk.

To those who’ve done so, we are very grateful for your support. To those who haven’t, there is still time to act, BUT ONLY 2 DAYS … the public consultation closes on Sunday 26th July . Use this link to act NOW.

A quick reminder: the ‘nature directives comprise the Birds Directive, adopted in 1979, and its younger sibling the Habitats Directive, adopted in 1992. Together they are the basis for nature conservation policy and actions at a European level.

What have the nature directives done for wildlife in Sussex?

It’s quite easy to feel remote from European legislation, so here are just a couple of examples from the far west and the far east of Sussex to show how the nature directives have helped wildlife locally.

Chichester Harbour supports the biggest population of non-breeding waders and waterfowl on the South Coast. On average around 47,500 migrant and wintering waterbirds. Statistics from Chichester Harbour Conservancy note that there are seven marinas, 17 sailing clubs and more than 5,000 moorings, servicing the estimated 12,500 boats which regularly use the Harbour. Landward, a network of public footpaths hugs the coast a few metres from high water mark along much of the foreshore.

This is the setting for potential conflicts between birds and recreational interests. The internationally important bird populations are increasingly at risk from disturbance; access to the foreshore is unmanaged; the number new homes in the area are set to increase by at least 7,000 by 2029. There are already over 10,000 residents within Chichester Harbour AONB and the Cathedral in the city centre is just 2 km from the foreshore. The popularity of the site brings risks to the birds feeding and resting in the Harbour and disturbance at times of stress, such as periods of exceptionally cold weather, reduces waterbird survival.

And here’s where the status of the Harbour as part of a Special Protection Area, classified as such under the EU Birds Directive, has a major benefit. To comply with the Directive, public authorities have a duty to ensure that recreational pressures are effectively contained and controlled so that any potentially detrimental impacts on wildlife are avoided. As a result, the new Chichester Local Plan has a special policy on ‘Development and Disturbance of Birds in Chichester and Langstone Harbours Special Protection Areas’ to set out the measures that will deliver the ‘no significant impact’ objective. There is no question that if the Birds Directive did not exist, then public authorities would not be making such efforts to safeguard important, sensitive wildlife areas, from the potential impacts of an increasing population.

120 km east along the coast from Chichester, is Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. This site is internationally important for breeding and wintering birds and for a range of scarce coastal habitats. Bitterns have been a scarce winter visitor to Rye Harbour for decades. From 1970 to the mid-1990s single birds were often recorded, but not every year. This started to change when Sussex Wildlife Trust extended the Reserve and embarked on a programme to increase and improve the small fragment of reedbed which existed at Castle Water. A critical boost to this work was the inclusion of Rye Harbour as part of a large EU LIFE-Nature grant awarded in 2002. This multi-partner project, under RSPB’s leadership, was made possible as a direct result of the nature directives.

The whole purpose of the original LIFE-Nature fund was to support actions which implemented the objectives of the nature directives, and in particular to support creation of the network of European protected areas, ‘Natura 2000’ (comprising Special Protection Areas under the Birds Directive and Special Areas of Conservation under the Habitats Directive).

Rye Harbour’s share of the €3.8 million EU allocation was used to undertake major engineering works to create the conditions for more reedbed to develop at Castle Water and provide a basis for further work in following years. From a small remnant reedbed in the late 1990s, Rye Harbour now has more than 25ha of reeds … and since April 2009 booming bitterns have become a regular feature in spring at Castle Water.

Rye Harbour is one element in a countrywide strategic network of reedbed habitats supporting a breeding population of bitterns which has gone from strength to strength in the last 15 years. There is no doubt that the injection of EU funding had a pivotal role in making this possible.

So in these two examples we can see that the nature directives oblige public authorities to avoid damaging important wildlife sites and provide funding to support strategic investment in species recovery actions. There are many other examples of how the EU nature directives help wildlife in Sussex.

We need the nature directives. Without them the safeguards for our wildlife will be significantly diminished. Conservation organisations throughout Europe are working hard to secure these hard-won laws that protect nature. But we urgently need public support – your support – if we’re going to win this battle. There’s political pressure to eliminate or to reduce the power of European environmental legislation. We have an opportunity to safeguard the nature directives by contributing to the European on-line public consultation which is under way now and closes on July 24th.

Follow this link to The Wildlife Trusts’ webpage which will guide you through the simple process to respond. Conservation organisations have provided guidance to help answer the consultation questions. This is an important action: every individual response counts. So please help us to Safeguard Nature by defending the European laws that help us.

PLEASE ACT NOW … DON’T DELAY … DO IT!