Strategic Natural Area Profiles
Published on 15/2/2008
DWC have recently been awarded a contract with Devon County Council to develop profiles for a number of Strategic Natural Areas (SNA). SNAs are blocks of land that are important for both the conservation and, crucially, expansion of important habitat types. The SNAs are part of a new approach to wildlife conservation. Whilst the conservation of individual sites of important wildlife habitat remains as vital as ever, there is an increasing recognition that this traditional approach to conservation is not enough on its own. The SNAs present an opportunity for landscape-scale conservation. They provide a framework for planning both the conservation and recreation of semi-natural habitats, thus providing the connectivity within the landscape necessary to enable plants and animals to migrate and establish sustainable populations and communities.
At present, the SNAs represent boundaries on a map and have little associated information. This project aims to develop profiles for SNA that will provide basic information to help take forward habitat conservation and recreation within their boundaries. This involves utilising protected species and habitat data provided by Devon Biodiversity Records Centre, aerial photographs of the current SNA and those from the 1940s and liaison with organisations involved in nature conservation including Natural England, Devon Wildlife Trust,