5-YEAR PLAN TO CONSERVE AND ENHANCE THE ISLE OF WIGHT’S NATURAL BEAUTY APPROVED

A 5-year plan for conserving and enhancing the Isle of Wight’s Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) was unanimously approved by councillors this week.

Full Council, one of County Hall’s prime decision-making bodies, decided to go ahead with the Isle of Wight National Landscape Partnership’s 2025 -2030 Management Plan.

Now referred to as national landscapes, AONBs are specially protected by the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000.

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The DEFRA-funded partnership is made up of a wide range of national and local organisations with links to the AONB, including the Isle of Wight Council, the Environment Agency, English Heritage, the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and the Isle of Wight Biodiversity Partnership.

Councillor Julie Jones-Evans, representative for Newport Central, asked:

“It’s really interesting to read about the butterfly species that have been lost from the Island.

“Whereas our Island status can protect us, so we still have the dormouse and and red squirrel, the butterflies apparently won’t get reintroduced without human intervention.

“Is that something that might happen?”

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Cabinet member for planning, coastal protection and flooding Councillor Paul Fuller replied:

“Yes, there are works currently underway concerning the butterflies and the blue butterflies that we have on our chalk downlands.

“Very important and we’ve received government funding as I understand to be able to enhance that.

“There are lot of projects that we receive Defra funding from and this is one of the areas that is seen as a priority because our species of butterfly are in decline in many parts.”

6 overaching aims were set out in the partnership’s 157-page document: upholding the statutory purpose of the AONB, encouraging opportunities to enhance its landscape and seascape and increasing awareness of the area.

Also included were advancing understanding of the national landscape through guidance documents and publications, monitoring ‘forces for change’ likely to affect it and assisting rural economic development that supports conservation and enhancement.

These objectives link to the plan’s 4 sections: place, climate, nature and people.

• ‘Place’ relates to protected landscapes and coastal areas within the AONB, geodiversity, the historic environment and tranquility and dark skies
• ‘Climate’ includes climate change and mitigation solutions, minerals and soils, air and water and energy
• ‘Nature and Land Use’ involves wildlife, farming and forestry and woodland management
• ‘People’ divides into arts and culture, sustainable communities, the visitor economy and access and recreation

The document’s introductory statement said:

“Policies and the decisions taken, based on sound evidence around the natural and historic environment and landscape, have conserved and enhanced the special characteristics of the Island’s finest landscapes, giving the AONB a strong identity and ‘sense of place’.

“Anthropogenic climate change has, and continues, to take place in a way which threatens the conservation and enhancement the natural beauty of the area as well as the needs of local communities, rural businesses and the land use sector. Mitigation of these influences are an important part of this Plan.

“Farming and woodland management remain central to the continued conservation and enhancement of the beauty of the landscape.

“New technologies have been appropriately accommodated through careful consideration and mitigation for their impact upon the AONB, bringing economic and social benefits and retaining the intrinsic special qualities of the environment.

“Economic benefit has been brought directly to local communities through sustainable tourism and business activities.”