Additional Information:

PSA Delivery Agreement 28:
Secure a healthy natural environment for today and the future (Government literature)

England Biodiversity Group 2004-05 annual stocktake report

DEFRA
Working with the grain of nature: a biodiversity strategy for England
The England Biodiversity Group’s annual stocktake 2004 - 05 December 2005

The new draft Planning Policy Guidance: Housing, released as part of the Government’s response, reinforces the importance of taking into consideration environmental issues at an early stage of the development process, including the need to undertake a thorough landscape and ecological survey and appraisal. In addition, the Governments commitment to achieving 60 per cent of new development on brownfield land, and a more efficient use of land through higher densities, will contribute to containing urban sprawl and protecting the Green Belt.

(Where is the 60% of Brownfield land in the Attleborough plan?)

http://www.norfolkbiodiversity.org/news/Revisedreport.pdf

Summary taken from the link above:
Apart from a few notable exceptions such as the north coast, much of Norfolk has suffered a dramatic reduction in biodiversity. A significant cause of this decline has been the rise of intensive agriculture over the past 60 years alongside the development of housing and infrastructure. The result is that much of Norfolk now comprises a landscape dominated by intensive agriculture. Once extensive areas of habitat such as heathland now comprise small remnants isolated from each other and surrounded by relatively inhospitable land-use. As a result, there are significant consequences for the long-term survival of biodiversity. The process of habitat fragmentation has a number of consequences that affect the ability of wildlife to survive into the longer term:

Firstly, small and isolated sites may become too small to support viable populations of a particular species or may be adversely impacted by surrounding land-uses;

Secondly, many ecological processes are now largely human controlled with the result that small, fragmented habitats are often unable to function naturally;

Thirdly, a particular concern that has emerged in recent years is how our wildlife and habitats can respond to climate change. In order to safeguard wildlife in the long-term there are a number of measures that need to be taken.

Firstly, valued wildlife sites must be protected from damage and destruction.

Secondly, they should be properly managed.

Thirdly, there is the need to expand and re-connect the existing areas and restore habitats where they have been destroyed. The large-scale restoration and linking up of habitats – a ‘landscape scale’ approach – is increasingly seen as necessary to safeguard our wildlife and to ensure sustainable development. One approach that provides the conceptual basis for achieving this outcome is that of the Ecological Network.