1. SUDG stakeholder meeting 13th July 2017
Improving the way we describe Favourable Conservation Status FCS Pilot Project
SUDG stakeholder meeting
13th July 2017

2. FCS = Country wide
“Favourable Conservation Status is a situation where a habitat or species is prospering in its natural range, with good prospects to do so in the future as well”
FCS
Favourable Conservation Status a positively oriented objective for the natural environment, which is more than just avoiding extinction.
FCS can be seen as the line, or threshold, above which we say we have achieved our overall goal: habitat or species is well conserved.
Importantly, the concept of ‘conservation status’ covers all occurrences of a habitat or species, inside and outside protected sites. It evaluates the entire resource in England. This makes it different from ‘site condition’ that we use for SSSIs on land, and more suitable as a broader scale objective.
The FCS project tries to define where that line is (both in terms of habitat extent; population size and habitat quality).
The expectation is that this will help us in the context of CS21:
Supporting landscape scale objectives: Setting out an overall ambition (‘how much is enough’); that provides context for contributions at different spatial scales; enables us to look beyond individual site targets and view their contribution to FCS in conjunction with other places in the landscape.
Flexibility: Focussing on the large scale outcome can help identify flexibility to shift ambitions between sites for mobile species; protect populations instead of individuals in licensing.
The aim of the FCS pilot project is: 1) to see if we can define FCS in ecological way; 2) to test how we can achieve those expected benefits.
FCS belongs to a family of concepts closely related to the precautionary principle and sustainable development.
It is the overall objective of the European Habitats Directive, with a comparable objective in the Birds Directive. The Environmental Liability Directive makes the definition applicable to birds as well.
The Birds and Habitats Directives are the EU’s implementation of wider international nature conservation agreements to which UK is also an independent signatory. Bonn convention also has a Favourable Status at it’s heart, while the Bern Convention has a similar definition as the Birds directive: it requires measures to achieve population levels that ‘correspond to ecological scientific and cultural requirements’.
The concept of Favourable conservation Status will therefore continue to be relevant after an EU exit.
Domestic law already incorporates FCS: Habitats regulations, WCA, Environmental Damage Regulations. Until changed by parliament, FCS is part of our regulatory framework.

3. Nesting objectives UK and global England Region Landscape Population
FCS can be applied at different geographic scales. Each place contributes to the achievement of FCS at a bigger scale.
FCS can be described for a local population or a group of sites, as a contribution to FCS in a region or landscape, which in turn contributes to achieving England’s contribution to FCS. Ultimately, FCS is achieved across the (international) natural range of the habitat or species.
The concept of FCS can help us recognise the importance of local work in the context of larger scale aims (e.g. protected species licensing, work on an SSSI unit, the contribution of a farm cluster to conserving corn buntings.). It nests smaller scale objectives into bigger ones.
Population
Site

4. Long term objectives/ strategies2 1 3
Core to developing our thinking here is the recognition that we are talking about different aspects of long term objectives.
the definition– a scientific judgement on ‘ how much is enough’ based on ecological requirements of species and their habitats (green line)
A policy decision on what society want to achieve: whether it’s the green line, less than that or more than that e.g. for ecosystem service reasons (red line, blue line)
Where contributions come from and the way we want to get there. “Lets call it a Strategy”. This can take account of wider considerations: the realities of the policy framework, budgets, types of delivery mechanisms we want to deploy.
Separating these steps allows us to move from a definition of ‘how much is enough’ from ecological perspective, to objectives that are pragmatic and also incorporates other considerations.
Flexibility comes from the fact that contributions from places can vary, as long as it adds up to FCS.
Time

5. Benefits of describing
Articulate ‘how much is enough’ Contribution from places Context to local decision making Decisions on where best contribution to conservation of habitat or species
Western Gorse Titterstone Clee SSSI, Non-Agreement Shropshire Hills ESA
SO WHY ARE WE DOING THIS…
There are situations that we can find ourselves
Difficult to communicate where we need to get to; - relative role of individual sites – national level scale of ambition.
Sometimes a perception that Protected sites ‘look back’ rather than forward – if we need to shift ambition between sites for wider species conservation – we’ve in many cases lack the framework for doing this, in the face of dynamic change.
It is often unclear what the value of non-designated – core areas – is to habitat and species conservation.
Barrier to using the flexibility within regulation for imaginative solutions – if we can describe local – favourable populations – shift from risk adverse decision making – focussing on impacts on individuals – to population scale solutions.
So almost the converse of this ARE the benefits.
Articulate ‘ how much is enough’ for habitats and species across England.
Be clear about the contribution we need to seek from
Protected sites
Wider countryside and marine environment
Identify flexibility in site targets and species protection
Shifting ambitions between sites, mobile species when we have that framework
Protecting populations instead of individuals
BUT also Expose tensions between features and targets at individual site level and provide a framework for deciding between them.

6. Pilot project: better defining FCS
What is FCS?
Historic situation
Current situation
Potential for restoration
Conserving biodiversity
It’s a pilot project. Testing for a sample of habitats and species how we can define FCS, working through the issues of doing that, exploring how the draft definition can be used.
How are we doing?
We’ve got a draft methodology. A key principle is that FCS must be defined based on ecological/ scientific considerations only. Socio-economic considerations come into play when translating the ‘scientific judgement’ into operational targets for different places.
There’s no one-size fits all method for defining FCS, because each feature is different and there is no unambiguous scientific answer to the question ‘ how much is enough’.
Instead specialists are asked to make feature specific judgements based on four considerations: the current situation, the historic situation, the technical potential (e.g. taking account of climate change) and the requirements for biodiversity conservation. Key external partners and experts are asked to contribute. The result is an FCS statement.

7. Pilot features Selected species Selected habitats
S1015 Round-mouthed whorl snail
S1016 Desmoulin’s whorl snail
S1092 White-clawed crayfish
S1106 Atlantic salmon
S1166 Great crested newt
S1329 Grey long-eared bat
S1341 Common dormouse
S1350 Common dolphin
S1351 Harbour porpoise
S1395 Petalwort
S1421 Killarney Fern
S1409 S balticum bog moss
S1528 Marsh saxifrage
S2492 Vendace
Geyer’s whorl snail
Narrow-mouthed whorl snail
Violet click beetle
Little whirlpool rams-horn snail
Duke of Burgundy butterfly
Lesser black backed gull
Twite
Dartford warbler
Little tern
Curlew
Buzzard
Pilot features
Selected habitats
H1140 Intertidal mud & sandflats
H1170 Reefs
H1310 Glasswort & other annuals colonising mud & sand
H3150 Natural eutrophic lakes
H4030 European dry heaths
H6410 Purple moor-grass meadow
H6520 Mountain hay meadows
H7130 Blanket Bog
H7230 Alkaline fens
H8240 Limestone pavement
H8310 Caves not open to the public
H91A0 Old Sessile Oak Woods
Sand dunes
Lowland Heathland
Lowland Dry Acid Grassland
These are the features we’re working on within the pilot. Colours indicate the progress: dark green = finished FCs statement we’re reasonably happy with; light green: almost done; amber: underway

8. Timeline

9. Next steps 17/18: FCS methodology: Further test using pilot features
Address the ‘outstanding issues’
Webinars with partners over the summer
Evaluate and revise the methodology
FCS application:
Test what pilot statements would mean in real places