A gap analysis of terrestrial protected areas in England and its implications for conservation policy

• Published in: Biological conservation 2004-12, Vol.120 (3), p.303-309
• Main Authors: Oldfield, Thomasina E.E, Smith, Robert J, Harrop, Stuart R, Leader-Williams, Nigel
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Conservation planning; Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife; England; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gap analysis; Parks, reserves, wildlife conservation. Endangered species: population survey and restocking; Positive incentives; Protected areas
• ISSN: 0006-3207; 1873-2917
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2004.03.003

Many protected area (PA) systems have developed in response to socio-economic and aesthetic criteria and need to be modified to increase their conservation value. National gap analyses are an important step in describing and addressing this problem, so we sought to determine the representativeness of English PAs devoted to biodiversity conservation by using Natural Areas (NAs), elevation and PA boundary data. We found that National Nature Reserves (NNRs) and Sites of Special Scientific Interests (SSSIs) cover only 6.3% of England and are generally small, with respective median areas of 1.1 and 0.2 km 2. The English PA system under-represents lowland areas and provides a median level of 2.5% protection for the NA types, with seventy nine per cent of NA types having less than 10% protection. Therefore, we suggest that England's PA system needs to be expanded, although this would probably entail modification of existing legislation to increase involvement by landowners. We also compare our results with previous appraisals that used species distribution record data and suggest that landscape-level analyses may give a more accurate and less positive assessment.