Conservation MethodsL/O: To describe and evaluate different methods

for conserving wildlife

TaskMethod Examples Advantages Disadvantages

Legal Protection

1. Trade Controls2. Banning damaging activities3. Protected areas4. Sustainable exploitation

Laws and agreements to prevent or manageexploitation, damaging activities and trade.

• Ban or control of trade between countries in endangered animals, plants or their products, e.g. ivory, whale products, spotted cat skins, turtles.

• Appendix 1: complete ban on trade (except by special licence), e.g. tiger, blue whale, all rhinoceros species.

• Appendix 2: restricted trade, e.g. Honduras mahogany, great white shark.

The Wildlife & Countryside Act (1981 and 1984)Protecting Birds

• It is an offence (with exception to species listed in Schedule 2) to intentionally kill, injure, or take any wild bird or their eggs or nests.

• It is an offence to disturb birds at their nests, or their dependent young listed on schedule 1 (e.g. Kingfisher, Barn Owl).

• The Secretary of State may designate Areas of Special Protection (subject to exceptions).

• It prohibits certain methods of killing, injuring, or taking birds, restricts the sale and possession of captive bred birds, and sets standards for keeping birds in captivity.

The Wildlife & Countryside Act (1981 and 1984)

Protecting Wild Animals• It is an offence (subject to exceptions) to

intentionally kill, injure, or take, possess, or trade in any wild animal listed in Schedule 5, (e.g. Otters, turtles, frogs, etc).

• Prohibits interference with places used for shelter or protection, or intentionally disturbing animals occupying such places.

• Prohibits certain methods of killing, injuring, or taking wild animals.

The Wildlife & Countryside Act (1981 and 1984)

Protecting Plants• It is an offence to pick, uproot, trade in, or

possess (for the purposes of trade) any wild plant listed in Schedule 8 and prohibits the unauthorised intentional uprooting of such plants.

• e.g. ground pine or wood calamint

The Wildlife & Countryside Act (1981 and 1984)

Protecting Native Species• Measures for preventing the establishment of

non-native species which may be detrimental to native wildlife.

• Prohibits the release of animals and planting of plants listed in Schedule 9, e.g. Mandarin Duck, Giant Kelp.

The Wildlife & Countryside Act (1981 and 1984)

Nature Conservation, Countryside and National Parks • Protects and Manages SSSI– areas of special scientific

interest by reason of their flora, fauna, or geological or physiographical features.

• Prohibits the disturbance and removal of limestone pavements from designated areas

• Designates and protects Marine Nature Reserves.

• Prohibits agricultural or forestry operations on land within National Parks which has been either moor or heath for 20 years, without consent.

• Set up under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling

• Complete protection of certain species• Designate specified areas as whale sanctuaries• Set limits on the numbers and size of whales which may be

taken• Prescribe open and closed seasons and areas for whaling• Prohibit the capture of suckling calves and female whales

accompanied by calves. Compile catch reports and other statistical and biological records.

Zoos

• If species numbers are too low - captive breeding in zoos may serve to restore them

• Some species have been successfully reintroduced to the wild. This includes the Golden Lion Tamarind (a South American Monkey) and the Arabian Oryx (an antelope).

• Port Lympne/Howletts:Gorilla’s/Rhino’s

• “To inspire and deliver science-based plant conservation worldwide, enhancing the quality of life.”

• Micro-propagation of plants• Cryopreservation• Seed bank

• A world-wide collaboration• Aims to safeguard over 24,000 plant species from

around the globe against extinction. • The bank is located in a specially designed building sited

at Wakehurst Place, West Sussex• It has already successfully assured the future of virtually

all the UK’s native flowering plants.• Efficient and cost effective - seeds occupy such a small

space and require relatively little attention.• The total project cost, until 2009, is £80 million.

National Nature Reserves (NNR)

• 222 NNRs in England covering over 91,343 hectares.• To protect the most important areas of wildlife habitat and geological

formations in Britain, and as places for scientific research. • This does not mean they are "no-go areas" for people. • We must be careful not to damage the wildlife of these fragile places.• Many contain nationally important populations of rare flowers, ferns

and mosses, butterflies and other insects, nesting and wintering birds. • We do not always advertise rarities, to avoid attracting too much

attention to them.

E.g. Studland Heath NNR, Winterton Dunes NNR,

RSPB Nature Reserves

• 200 reserves totalling 137,127 hectares• SSSI or ASSI occurs on 150 reserves• Supports at least 30 per cent of the UK breeding populations of 13 species of Birds of Conservation Concern, including bittern (39%), black-tailed godwit (93%), Slavonian grebe (46%), red-necked

phalarope (78%) and roseate tern (80%).• Not just for birds…

E.g. Minsmere RSPB Reserve, Loch Garten RSPBReserve (Scotland)

• Creates and restores wetlands to help reverse the loss.• In the UK, WWT own 2,000 hectares of reserves include seven

SSSIs, five Special Protection Areas (SPAs) and five internationally important Ramsar sites.

• Provides winter refuge for more than 150,000 waterbirds.• Experienced in wetland restoration, creation, management.• Monitors the migration, health and populations of waterbirds

including the long term studies of Bewick’s and Whooper Swans, Brent and Barnacle Geese.

• Swans, geese, ducks, flamingos, otters, beavers, Water Voles, dragonflies, frogs and rare plant life.

E.g. Slimbridge WWT Reserve, Gloucester.

National Parks (not in the UK)– Maasai Mara, Kenya– Serengeti, Tanzania – understanding park

ecology, assessing environmental impact, managing effects of fire, anti-poaching.

– Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Habitat Management• To maintain a habitat by counteracting undesirable change, e.g.

removing invasive scrub from Magdalen Hill Down, Hampshire, for butterfly conservation (Brown Argus, Green hairstreak, Chalk-Hill Blue).

• To increase its wildlife value by making the conditions more suitable for the desired species, providing bat boxes, raising the water table in a wetland habitat, biological corridors such as hedgerows.

• To restore valuable damaged habitats – BAPs, e.g. flooding previously drained wetlands, conifer plantation removal to re-establish heath land in the New Forest.

• Species Action PlansE.g. Ensure that the pink sea-fan maintains its current abundance and its current geographical distribution.

• Habitat Action PlansE.g. Maintain the extent of all existing lowland heathland, improve by management all existing lowland heathland currently in unfavourable condition, encourage the re-establishment by 2005 of a further 6,000 ha of heathland with the emphasis on the counties of Hampshire, Cornwall, Dorset, Surrey, Devon, Staffordshire, Suffolk and Norfolk in England and Pembrokeshire, Glamorgan and west Gwynedd in Wales, particularly where this links separate heathland areas.

• Local BAPs – local partnership to identify local priorities and to determine the contribution they can make to the delivery of the national Species and Habitat Action Plan targets.

Habitat Creation

• Woodland planting, e.g. Hawkinge residential developments

• Pond creation• Wetlands

E.g. Water Voles in the Uplands• Habitat creation at two de-commissioned upland

reservoirs in the Peak District