Loss of Habitat

Notwithstanding the Whitehall Loop , the conservation agencies do have a point. The amount of saltmarsh on UK coasts has more than halved in the last half-century or so. This has been caused by a combination of draining the marshland to create agricultural land (e.g. on the Thames estuary), construction of flood defences, and industrial waterside development, including ports. Sea level rise and hard defences threaten a squeeze of the remaining marshes. Fish stocks are declining, probably due to over fishing, and incidents such as the Sea Empress grounding at Milford Haven, the loss of the Erika off Brittany, and more recently the sinking of the Prestige off the Galician coast of Spain are portrayed as irreversible environmental catastrophes. Doom mongers among environmental pressure groups utter a Litany of disaster, which, according to them, threatens the planet. In fact, the natural environment usually recovers quite quickly, and the damage is more to local jobs, especially fishing and tourism. Unless English Nature and its counterparts in Scotland and Wales are seen to be acting vigorously defending everything in sight, then they are threatened with judicial review by the pressure groups. Moreover, most of the staff in English Nature is trained and committed environmentalists. Some are outstanding scientists too. They subscribe to the Litany of Doom, but lack a wider view. The English Nature staff seem to feel quite content to secure as much control as they can by any means available, including the . And if even that fails them, they can fall back on the Precautionary Approach. In many cases this is justified, but it easy to abuse such a save all provision for which – almost by definition – there can be no appeal. The way in which the precautionary approach should, and should not, be used is well covered by the Guidance to the Habitats Regulations that implement the European designations in UK law.

Solent Designations