Memorandum submitted by the Environment
Agency (N15)
1.0 SUMMARY
1.1 The Defra Public Service Agreement (PSA)
target to achieve by 2010 favourable condition in 95% of nationally
important wildlife sites demonstrates a strong policy commitment
by Government towards conserving and enhancing biodiversity in
England.
1.2 The Environment Agency has an important
role to play in helping achieve the target for water and wetland
SSSIs in particular. We are already working closely with English
Nature and others to this end.
1.3 The 2010 timetable is challenging and
will not be achieved unless action is taken now to tackle the
impacts of diffuse pollution from agriculture as well as those
point source and abstraction problems still to be resolved.
1.4 A landscape-scale approach to environmental
management is required if our nationally and internationally important
wildlife sites are to be sustainable in the longer term.
1.5 Institutional, legal and proper funding
arrangements need to be secured to achieve effective protection
of SSSIs.
2.0 BACKGROUND
TO THIS
SUBMISSION
Our responsibilities for wildlife conservation
and role in contributing to the PSA target
2.1 The Environment Agency is the leading
public body working to protect and improve the environment in
England and Wales. We regulate pollution to air, land and water
and manage flood risk, water resources and freshwater fisheries.
We have important statutory duties to conserve and enhance wildlife
in carrying out our activities.
2.2 Under the Conservation and Rights of
Way (CroW) Act 2000, we have a statutory duty to further the conservation
and enhancement of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs).
We are a competent authority under the European Birds and Habitats
Directives and we have a general duty to promote the conservation
of wetland habitats and species.
2.3 Our influence as an environmental regulator
extends to a wide variety of SSSIs. For example, we regulate industrial
emissions to air that may directly or indirectly affect sensitive
heathland vegetation. However, our main regulatory locus, where
we also have a significant operational remit is water and wetlands,
particularly in the lowlands and associated coastal areas. That
is where we will concentrate our evidence for this Inquiry.
2.4 We have three roles to play in relation
to the PSA target: (i) a minor but important one as an SSSI landowner;
(ii) a major one, by regulating or carrying out activities that
could potentially damage wildlife interest on other SSSIs; and
(iii) shaping policies and legislation for environmental and agricultural
activities that help to protect SSSIs.
3.0 AGENCY-OWNED
SSSI LAND
3.1 We own land in 181 SSSIs, covering a
total of 5,126 hectares, which represents about 0.5% of the total
SSSI land area in England.
3.2 English Nature condition assessment
data show that 76.1% of our SSSI landholding area is in "favourable
condition", compared with a national figure of 58.3%.
3.3 English Nature has told us what is causing
damage at our sites in unfavourable condition and we are drawing
up a work programme to ensure that improvements take place as
quickly as possible. Given that several landowners are often involved
in managing a single SSSI, we will not be able to achieve favourable
condition by our actions alone.
3.4 In many instances we own flood defence
or other infrastructure (eg weirs, flow gauges) as our only landholding
within an SSSI. As these cannot be altered for operational reasons,
changes in land management by owners elsewhere in the SSSI are
needed to bring about favourable condition.
3.5 Our work programme (mainly related to
flood management and pollution control) will concentrate on practical
actions that have tangible biodiversity benefits.
4.0 HELPING TO
IMPROVE OTHER
SSSIS
4.1 Several factors that damage SSSIs, particularly
in the lowlands, are influenced by our regulatory or operational
activities. Point-source water and air pollution, excessive abstraction
of water, inappropriate water level management and intertidal
habitat loss are all well-established causes of unfavourable condition
where we have a major role to play. We are working with English
Nature to agree remedies within our remit or influence.
Our Habitats Directive work
4.2 We are undertaking a statutory review
of all our existing environmental licences and consents, to identify
and remedy the causes of damage to those SSSIs which are of European
importance. These Birds and Habitats Directive sites (collectively
known as Natura 2000 sites) comprise a substantial proportion
of SSSIs by area. Our Habitats Directive work should therefore
contribute significantly to the PSA target because about half
the wetland, riverine and lake SSSIs are also Natura 2000 sites.
4.3 This review, the biggest of its kind
in Europe, involves many thousands of individual licences. We
have agreed a three-phase, priority-based programme of work with
Government and need to decide before March 2006 which environmental
licences will have to be modified or revoked to reverse damage
on 41 high priority sites. We will have completed our review on
all 321 Natura 2000 sites in England by March 2010.
4.4 This exercise involves close co-operation
with English Nature and has taught us some important lessons:
— condition assessment needs to be
robust, auditable and based on best available information;
— there must be good evidence for damage
and determining the likely causes of that damage;
— remedial action needs to be risk-based
and concentrate on those actions which will secure tangible improvements;
— those responsible for remedial work
need to be clearly accountable for their actions;
— there must be an effective legal
framework and sufficient means of funding to enable the necessary
action to be carried out;
— those affected by change need to
be informed early on, otherwise understanding and support will
be hard to secure.
4.5 The technical information and experience
gained will inform the programme of work for SSSIs outside Natura
2000 sites. The wider range of issues involved will mean that
a streamlined and rigorous priority-based approach to identifying
and rectifying problems will be required.
Water pollution and abstraction problems
4.6 English Nature's condition assessment
concludes that 31% of river SSSIs, 69% of lake and canal SSSIs
and 65% of fen, marsh and swamp SSSI are in favourable condition.
4.7 For damage caused by water industry
activities such as water abstraction and sewage-related pollution,
we have concentrated on influencing rounds 3 and 4 of the Ofwat
Periodic Review of Water Prices.
4.8 The Periodic Review environment programme
approved for 2000-05 and the forthcoming one for 2005-10 are crucial
for remedying damage in more than 150 SSSIs, many of which are
Natura 2000 sites.
4.9 Working closely with English Nature,
we secured an environment programme for 2000-05 worth £5.3
billion involving a capital investment programme of £100
million to protect SSSIs, including several Natura 2000 sites.
£40 million is being spent on nutrient removal at 72 sewage
treatment works affecting 29 SSSIs, whilst £60 million is
being spent on schemes to alleviate water abstraction problems
on 18 SSSIs and investigations into water resources concerns on
a further 27 SSSIs.
4.10 As a result, for example water quality
has been improved by reducing excessive nutrient input (which
damages water plant communities) at several key sites including
the River Wye and the Norfolk Broads. Flows have been restored
on the River Eden in Cumbria, and valley bogland vegetation improved
on North Dartmoor.
4.11 For the 2004 Periodic Review we have
agreed with English Nature that the environment programme for
2005-10 needs funding to support 260 schemes to tackle water quality
problems at 63 SSSIs, alleviate water abstraction problems at
46 sites and to investigate problems at a further 121 sites. The
Secretary of State for the Environment has now published her final
guidance on the environment programme which includes these elements.
Our programme to restore sustainable abstraction that will benefit
water and wetland SSSIs also needs to be accounted for in this
Periodic Review round.
Diffuse pollution
4.12 Since 1990, over £20 billion pounds
has been spent upgrading the sewerage infrastructure in England
and Wales to improve the quality of discharges and hence the quality
of receiving waters. These improvements have brought into stark
focus the impact diffuse pollution is having on surface and groundwater
quality. For example, (i) 21 out of 56 salmon action plans will
probably miss spawning targets because of the impact of silt and
(ii) over half of rivers monitored for water quality have elevated
phosphorus levels.
4.13 More stringent sewage treatment will
not alone solve the water quality problems affecting SSSIs. Nutrient
enrichment of water, caused by phosphorus and other fertilisers
washed into water courses from adjacent fields is a widespread
problem and this so-called "diffuse pollution" is a
damaging factor in at least 100 water and wetland SSSIs.
4.14 In many catchments, at least half the
phosphorus entering rivers is derived from diffuse sources in
adjacent fields. For example, the River Teme SSSI requires action
to reduce phosphorus from point source discharges and also catchment-related
action on diffuse pollution, particularly in the lower reaches.
Lakes which act as a sediment trap for phosphorus, are even more
vulnerable to nutrient enrichment. Unless the diffuse pollution
problem is tackled in parallel with point sources, many river
and lake SSSIs will remain in unfavourable condition.
4.15 In preparation for the Water Framework
Directive, Defra is developing a strategic action plan for tackling
diffuse agricultural pollution and a comprehensive evidence base
has been prepared. However, the consultation draft is insufficiently
focused on the immediate practical actions that are needed. We
have been working closely with English Nature to help Defra identify
priorities and actions.
4.16 We have progressed with English Nature,
a practical approach to tackle the problems. We need: (i) a suite
of transitional measures around improved advice, grant aid, and
conditions on CAP payment, to be implemented by 2005; (ii) a robust
and costed delivery model for stakeholders to comment upon; (iii)
sufficient funding from Spending Review 2004 to allow advisory
officers to be put into priority catchments to advise landowners
on practical measures that need to be taken.
Water level management
4.17 We are working with Defra, English
Nature and Internal Drainage Boards to improve the condition of
496 wetland SSSIs which have water level problems. We have lead
responsibility for drawing up and implementing water level management
plans for 343 wetland SSSIs. We have completed 323 plans and started
an implementation programme.
Coastal habitat management
4.18 Intertidal habitat loss caused by the
"squeezing effect" of sea-level rise and maintenance
of "hard" sea defences on flood-prone low-lying coasts
in the south and east is a particularly challenging problem, requiring
long-term solutions.
4.19 Shoreline Management Plans and Coastal
Habitat Management Plans have identified the anticipated rate
of loss over the next 50 years and how much new intertidal habitat
needs to be created through managed realignment of sea defences
to compensate for that lost unavoidably.
4.20 Working with Defra, English Nature,
RSPB and County Wildlife Trusts, we have already successfully
recreated saltmarsh and intertidal mudflat habitats through managed
realignment in Essex, Lincolnshire and on the Humber. Plans are
well advanced for further work.
4.21 We are also trying to find better and
more sustainable ways of managing shingle beaches where they are
currently managed as sea defences in SSSIs. Shingle recycling
and reprofiling damages the wildlife interest and often no longer
delivers the required standard of flood defence. There are alternative
options that can be identified through shoreline management plans.
River management
4.22 Substantial lengths of river SSSI have
been physically modified by land drainage and flood defence works
in the past. This constrains the amount of habitat able to support
characteristic plant and animal communities, so physical restoration
of habitat is important in helping river SSSIs achieve favourable
condition.
4.23 Restoring river habitats countrywide
is a long-term aim and currently there is a lack of powers to
undertake the work and funds to make it a reality. Buffer zone
management along river fringes offers a relatively low-cost option,
but needs more agricultural funding to make it feasible on a large
scale.
4.24 In the meantime, we have agreed with
English Nature to define catchment-scale restoration needs on
SSSI rivers and identify potential funding streams for implementation
within the PSA target timeframe.
Lake restoration
4.25 Accelerated soil erosion from fields
has produced sedimentation at more than 10 times the natural rate
in some lake SSSIs, smothering clean-water plant and animal communities.
Successful local remedial action has been achieved on the Norfolk
Broads involving ourselves, the Broads Authority and Anglian Water;
jointly funded by European money, this project has clearly demonstrated
the length of time and funding needed for the benefits to be fully
realised.
Non-native species
4.26 Invasive non-native species damage
several water and wetland SSSIs because native flora and fauna
are suppressed by aggressive competitors such as Japanese knotweed,
American mink, signal crayfish and Australian swamp stonecrop.
We have an interest in containing or controlling these alien species
and are working with English Nature to define a catchment-scale
approach to the problem. The key recommendation from the recent
Defra working party on non-native species need to be implemented
to establish the necessary legal framework, strategy, funding
and organisational co-ordination to take this work forward effectively.
5.0 PARTNERSHIPS
WITH OTHERS
English Nature
5.1 We have a very close working relationship
with English Nature at both policy and operational levels. This
is reinforced through a formal agreement, setting out shared objectives
and ways of working. Top priorities are agreed and a joint programme
of work reviewed annually.
5.2 Together we have developed joint strategies
and consenting protocols for protecting and enhancing river SSSIs
and recently concluded a very successful EU funded project "Life
in UK rivers" based on the conservation of Natura 2000 rivers.
5.3 For our Habitats Directive work, joint
specialist groups on air quality, water quality, flood management,
water resources and fisheries have developed and applied scientific
knowledge to inform management decisions on priorities and technical
decisions.
5.4 This working relationship and products
such as technical guidance documents provide an excellent model
and will be used in our programme of work to tackle problems in
SSSIs outside Natura 2000 sites.
Other partners
5.6 We have started discussions with major
landowners such as the Ministry of Defence and Forestry Commission
to agree how we will work with them to jointly tackle problems
on damaged SSSIs owned by them.
5.7 We are members of the Defra major landowners
group and this forum has injected momentum into the PSA target
implementation programme.
5.8 Given that pressures on biodiversity
and ecosystem integrity will increase in future as development
of housing, infrastructure and industry increases (eg the Thames
Gateway), the importance of Regional Development Agencies, local
authorities and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in achieving
the PSA target will be crucial.
6.0 CAN THE
PSA TARGET BE
ACHIEVED?
6.1 Those problems causing damage which
do not have effective legal, technical or financial solutions
make achievement of the target by 2010 unlikely unless the following
actions are taken.
— Implementation of the full national
environment programme covering SSSIs for the Periodic Review of
Water Prices during 2005-10.
— A robust and fully funded strategic
action plan for controlling diffuse water pollution from agriculture,
including measures to improve environmental standards based on
a whole farm approach.
— More agri-environment funding for
SSSI landowners involved in implementing water level management
plans.
— Implementation of a management strategy
for low-lying coasts with agricultural land-use to secure saltmarsh
and intertidal mudflat in the long term.
— Securing landscape-scale environmental
improvements as a precursor to work under the Water Framework
Directive.
— Implementation of the key recommendations
from the Defra review group report on non-native species.
6.2 All parties responsible for action ought
to know what they need to do and when. This means a PSA target
implementation plan based on a realistic assessment of what can
and cannot be done by 2010.
6.3 Work priorities and co-ordination between
organisations need to be based on environmental outcomes, whilst
blockages to progress need to be identified and rectified at the
earliest opportunity. The Defra High Level Biodiversity Delivery
Group is essential to this process.
Landscape scale management and climate change
6.4 The long-term viability of SSSIs, many
lowland examples of which are small, isolated and vulnerable,
depends on an ecosystem approach to land management. This is particularly
important in view of the combined impacts of habitat fragmentation
and climate change.
6.5 A landscape scale ecosystem approach
means environmental planning and management that provides integrated
and sustainable solutions to the protection and use of natural
resources. Sensitive land management to buffer SSSIs from damage
and reconnecting fragmented habitats of rivers and wetlands will
help to put resilience back into the system. For example, imaginative
strategic options for flood risk management are required in the
context of climate change uncertainties. The Government's Foresight
programme will be addressing this and this approach could
be usefully extended elsewhere.
6.6 Strategic development plans (eg for
roads, airports, ports and housing) need to reflect biodiversity
factors because gross damage to SSSIs must be avoided and opportunities
taken to compensate for previous habitat loss and fragmentation.
Planning policy guidance needs to reflect the longer-term objective
of improving biodiversity rather than maintaining the current,
vulnerable wildlife resource.
6.7 A more resilient and attractive landscape
will benefit the rural economy. It will also through improved
water and air quality and flood risk management, benefit urban
populations as well.
6.8 A close working relationship between
ourselves and the proposed integrated land agency is essential
to take opportunities for tackling diffuse pollution and using
strategic management options to maximise biodiversity gain in
SSSIs and the wider countryside.
16 March 2004
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