Landscapes for biodiversity: landscape character & ecological integrity

The conservation of European wildlife is moving away from a largely site-based approach to concern about the future of wildlife in the wider countryside. This has been prompted by increasing evidence, in Britain especially, of continuing declines in common species within agricultural landscapes. A project between Wye College and the Department of Geography at the University of Reading, is being funded by English Nature to investigate the relationship between landscape character and biodiversity. Landscape character is being mapped in detail at county scale, based on its intrinsic physical and cultural properties. This paper describes the objectives of the project and outlines the methodology that is being developed to test the validity of the landscape character approach for biodiversity assessment and monitoring.