Strategy and Targets

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Regional Biodiversity Strategy

The Regional Biodiversity Strategy, launched by Lord Whitty in March 2005 and adopted by the Regional Assembly, is intended to guide the work of a wide range of organisations within the region. The Strategy is one of the key regional strategies that help to deliver the environmental improvement that the region needs. The Strategy seeks to protect and enhance the region’s biodiversity for the benefit of everyone. The WMBP works with partners of the Regional Concordat and others to help achieve the vision set out in Sustainable West Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy leading to a better quality of life for all, now and in the future. The WMBP also works closely with the network of Local Biodiversity Partnerships across the region. The local partnerships are central to the coordination of the local delivery of projects that are essential to deliver the Biodiversity Strategy.

The WMBP is also strengthening its links with the majority of key concordat partners in particular:

West Midlands Regional Assembly
Advantage West Midlands
Government Office for the West Midlands
West Midlands LGA
Sustainability West Midlands
West Midlands Rural Affairs Forum
West Midlands Regional Observatory
RegenWM
West Midlands Strategic Health Authority

Click picture to download pdf of Strategy or here for Executive Summary

The 5 Key Challenges

This Regional Biodiversity Strategy sets out five key challenges which are considered to be the most important priorities for biodiversity in the Region.

Maintaining and improving the condition of habitats, species and ecosystems
Developing and area based approach to restoring wildlife
Monitoring the condition of habitats, species and ecosystems
Re-connecting and integrating action for biodiversity with other environmental, social and economic activity
Coping with the impacts of climate change

All these key challenges are vitally important to the success of the strategy. The relationship between each needs to be recognized with climate changea and intergration with other sectors being key drivers. Links made with other regional and local strategies, plans, programmes and activities are also vital to the success of delivery.

Picture_wmbp_key_challenges_2_4web

The diagram above has been extracted from the 2006/7 Annual Report & 2007/8 Delivery Plan.

An Executive Summary of the 2006/7 report can also be downloaded.

2007/8 Annual Report

Click on photo to download the current annual Report

HABITAT AND SPECIES TARGETS

Introduction

Various biodiversity targets exist for different governmental structures and levels and for different purposes.

National Targets

At a UK level there are National Action Plans overseen by UK level Action Group and these can be accessed from the UK BAP web site. In 2007 the list of priority habitat and species was revised with new habitats and species added including traditional orchards and open mosaic habitats on previous developed land both of which are extremely important within our region. Further information on this can be found at the UK BAP web site. There are national action plans or targets for these habitats as yet.

Regional Targets

Annex B of the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) contains a comprehensive list of targets for habitats which are replicated within Appendix 4 of the Regional Biodiversity Strategy . These targets are currently being revised as part of the review of the RSS.. Further information on this review can be found at **** (INSERT LINK TO SECTION)

Local Targets

Each of the six Local BAP Partnerships publish a set of Habitat and Species Action Plans which include targets for all the important habitats and species within their area. These can be viewed either by going each of the LBAP partnership web sites or from the Biodiversity Action Reporting System (BARS) web site

A report carried out for the WMBP in May 2005 attempted to coordinate the local and regional targets and although this report is now out of date as the targets have changed it contains some useful information. The report can be downloaded here (INSERT LINKT TO RENNOCKS REPORT)

New Target Definitions

There are now four new target definitions for habitats and two for species as set out below. A paper providing further information on these target definitions can be downloaded as a pdf here

Habitat

Species

Maintain extent

Achieve condition

Restoration

Expansion

Range

Population size

Species Targets

The SAP targets define the vision of what we are aiming to achieve in terms of the population size and range of our priority species. In doing so, they need to be realistic in terms of climate change scenarios, and so they need to allow for range shifts and the loss of some populations over time.

Habitat Targets

It is useful to consider “Maintaining extent” and “Achieving condition” as activity on the existing BAP resource, while “Restoration” and “Expansion” represents activity on areas that do not currently qualify as BAP (i.e. the potential BAP resource), as shown in the figure below.

Target_definitions4web

Habitat Targets

Maintenance and Achieve Condition Targets

The aim for these targets for all habitats is to retain all existing areas of priority BAP habitats and to bring this into good condition. In many cases the baseline data is still inadequate to provide a full picture of the total extent of habitat within the region. The Regional Habitat Data Project is seeking to overcome by pulling together all the data from across the region to identify this. More information on the Regional Habitat Data Project can be found at (INSERT LINK TO RELEVANT PART OF WEB SITE)

Information on the extent of BAP habitat can be found at Nature on Map web site or by contacting your Local Record Centres contact details below:

The State of the Natural Environment report produced by Natural England in 2008 provides a overview of the situation across England and the section on habitats can be accessed at

The condition of SSSIs within the region can be viewed at The condition of our Wildlife Sites has just started to be assessed through a new National Indicator (NI 197) which aims to assess the proportion, as a percentage, of the total number of local sites under positive management. More information on this can be viewed at:

Restoration and Expansion Targets

In 2007 the national targets for the restoration and expansion for BAP habitats were revised and new regional targets were provided. These targets are outlined in the table below. These are considered to be the minimum that should be delivered between the start of the national action plan (usually 1998/9) to 2015. The colours indicate progress

	Indicates that the region is probably on track to deliver this target
	Indicates that unlikely to met target or more work required to confirm situation
	Indicates that currently will not meet target

General habitat grouping	BAP Priority Habitat	2015 Targets
		New Resource
		Restore	Expand
Heath	Lowland heathland	n/a	430 ha
	Upland heathland	n/a.	No target set

Grassland	Lowland meadows	100	35
	Lowland dry acid grassland	28	35
	Lowland calcareous grassland	15	60
	Purple Moor-grass & rush pasture	10	10
	Coastal and floodplain grazing marsh	300	25

Freshwater	Eutrophic standing waters	Prevent further deterioration 449 Tier 2/3 sites
	Mesotrophic lakes	Prevent further deterioration 17 Tier 2/3 sites

Fen/bog	Lowland raised bog	110	n/a
	Fens	120	n/a
	Reedbeds	n/a	50

Woodland	Native woodland Expansion		5,361* New target agreed 5479 ha
	Woodland Restoration	4,750
	Wood pastures and parkland	60 sites	18 sites

RSS Habitats Targets Review

Background to the Study

The Regional Assembly has engaged consultants, Treweek Environmental Consultants to undertake a review of the regional targets for all priority BAP habitats for inclusion within the revision to the RSS. The current regional targets are outlined in Annex B of the RSS and are reproduced within the Regional Biodiversity Strategy. The consultants will produce a technical report to support the proposed new figures for each habitat. The project aims to:

use best available data including as much local data as possible which is being collated through funding from WMBP,
calculate the extent of new habitat required to develop resilient landscapes to assist with climate change adaptation to 2050 and calculate the revised targets for the RSS to 2026.

The project will:

identify habitat networks within and outside the regional opportunity areas (as defined in the Landscapes for Living Regional Opportunities Map) i.e. areas of existing priority habitat,
investigate potential areas for habitat restoration/creation within and outside the regional opportunity areas,
calculate the extent of new habitat required for each priority BAP habitat e.g. by expanding existing habitat within and adjoining networks.

Whilst the focus for landscape scale restoration will focus in the Regional Opportunity areas the project will also take account of dispersed habitats that can not be protected/ enhanced within these areas.

The main purpose of the maps used to develop the regional target figures for 2026 will be to act as an evidence base for these target figures, They are not intended by themselves to direct where habitat should be delivered - the networks analysis and the habitat potential maps will require ground truthing with local knowledge and on the ground surveys. In addition our ability to create new habitats will be dependent upon a wide range of factors, not least resources available and the landowner’s willingness to allow such work to take place. However it will show at a strategic level the extent of new habitat this region requires to meet its commitment to secure resilient landscapes for climate change adaptation.

The network maps and the habitat potential maps will be available for use in the development of local opportunity maps and the habitat target figures will also be broken down according to local opportunity zones and LBAP boundaries for future discussion.

Regional Habitats Targets Review Workshop

Held on the 22nd October to introduce the project being carried out by Treweek Environmental Consultants on behalf of the Regional Assembly to undertake a review of the regional targets for all priority BAP habitats for inclusion within the revision to the RSS. The workshop also provided an opportunity for participants to hear about progress, to ask questions and to offer suggestions concerning the approach. A report of the workshop and the main presentation can be downloaded and are also avaialble on the Regional Assembly web site