- The key factors influencing the “condition” of these features.
- Whether there are potential conflicts and constraints in achieving the
ideal “condition” of these features, and if so, how these could be resolved or
overcome.
Only after going through this process will it be possible to make informed
decisions about:
- Whatyou want to achieve (your objectives).
- Howyou intend to achieve it (your prescriptions).
- What monitoringyou need to carry out to determine whether you are
achieving your objectives.
One way to ensure that you have followed this process is to produce a manage-
ment plan. There are a variety of formats for management plans (e.g. Hirons
et al. 1995), but the ideal is short, simple, and focused on the key decisions.
Those people who will implement the plan should be fully engaged in the
process of producing it.
Most management plans include setting targets or upper and lower “limits of
acceptable change” (LACs) for species and assemblages. Even though populations
of many species fluctuate widely in response to factors unaffected by habitat
management (such as the weather), setting targets and LACs is still a useful way of
precisely defining objectives, and, subsequently, assessing success.
When considering objectives for a site with existingconservation value, it is
best to start with the assumption that it is more important to maintain suitable
conditions for key species and assemblages already present, than to create suit-
able conditions for those not currently there. In many parts of the world, virtu-
ally all areas of semi-natural habitat have survived only because they have been
managed to provide something useful, such as grazing, hay, timber, or peat.
Species present in these habitats may only have persisted because of this tradi-
tional management. The greatest chance of retaining suitable conditions for
these species will therefore often be to continue existing management. However,
alternative management might create even better conditions for the species
already present. It may also provide suitable conditions for species unable to sur-
vive under the existing management regime. However, since many patches of
semi-natural habitat are now isolated from areas of similar habitats, many of the
potential colonists may never arrive (but see Section 14.4.4). This is likely to be
less of a problem for many birds and flying insects than for less mobile species.
Some forms of “traditional” land management may also be important in terms of
their cultural heritage or aesthetic value, for example, flower-rich traditionally
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