Landscape scale conservation and the role of protected areas

Stuart HousdenDirector, RSPB Scotland

•SPECIES•PROTECTED AREAS•LANDSCAPE SCALE VISION

Great Yellow Bumblebee records: 1900-1990 (yellow) and 1990-2010 (red). Data from NBN

Planning at a landscape scale

Upland Catchment Management

The Firth of Forth

The Future?

Conclusions

Climate change will put biodiversity under more pressure than ever before

Protected areas will continue to play a key role in biodiversity conservation: managing them so they are more resilient and enable species to adapt will be crucial

Moving species are more likely to colonise protected areas

Landscape scale conservation must have protected areas at its heart and work around them to increase heterogeneity, reverse fragmentation and increase connectivity

The legal framework of the EU directives gives both cover for site-based and wider landscape activity

But lets not forget the Marine Environment

Razorbills tracked from Orkney in 2010 and 2011

2010 n=12 2011 n=13