Supporting conservation policy and management for protected woodland species in Britain

Abstract

Conservation action is urgently required to address global decline in biological diversity. Research evidence underpins conservation of biodiversity, in setting international and country policy, informing conservation management, formulating incentives and legislation. Appropriate and sound evidence, accessible to policymakers and practitioners is required and the challenge to fill knowledge gaps remains. Research evidence has to be delivered where conservation policies and actions are applied. This is often at a sector by country level. The focus of this thesis is British woodlands. Chapter 1 considers the types and qualities of research and five sequential stages in accumulating and reviewing knowledge. Chapters 2 to 9 describe individual studies and provide examples of each of the five stages. Supporting conservation policy and management for protected woodland species in Britain requires a varied research approach, as baseline knowledge on different taxa is diverse. I found ecological theory, particularly the niche concept and plant succession, provided a sound basis for my work. In Chapter 10, I reflect on the impact of my research and the scale at which information is delivered to meet end-user needs. My research is of instrumental, symbolic and conceptual use to the forestry sector. The information is provided for end users at strategic, tactical and finer scales for policy advisors, forest planners and operational decision-makers, respectively. Although my thesis describes a framework for gathering knowledge of high utility to forestry decision-makers, it does not answer all woodland conservation policy and management needs. Further, the relative value of either specific actions for individual species or management that benefits multiple species is unresolved. Instead, I suggest a scaled approach based on the level of legal protection a species has. Otherwise, delivering effective policy and management recommendations, which meet both these needs, is too challenging without further research to accumulate, review and disseminate evidence.