Wildlife and Conservation Review of 1999 49
As the year drew to a close, and the world was gripped by Millennium fever, it was hard to avoid the
temptation to look for signs that the natural world will fare better under the 2 lst Century than the 20th.
If Government commitments are anything to go by, then the signs are hopeful. In the November
Queen's Speech, launching the 1999-2000 Parliamentary Session, the intention of the Government
to strengthen current wildlife laws was announced. Sites of Special Scientific Interest, as designated
under the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981, have proved largely successful in stemming the tide of
losses to development, agriculture and forestry. But we are all aware of exceptions and loopholes,
and it is their intention that many of these will be addressed. It is hoped that the new law will, for
example, allow the statutory conservation agencies to refuse consent for a damaging operation without
incurring potentially huge compensatory payments, to give them powers to require a site to be
restored after damage or neglect, and to place a duty of care upon public bodies who own or manage
SSSIs.
Of course, wildlife does not and cannot exist only within protected sites. So the announcement of the
continued decline of the 'skylark index'- the index of breeding farmland birds, one of DETR's 13
headline indicators of quality of life - was worrying. But the Government response was commendably
swift, when they announced just before Christmas that more than £1 billion over seven years was to
be diverted away from agricultural production price support schemes into environmentally-friendly
farming schemes. The proof will be in the post-Millennial pudding, but the signs arc certainly positive.
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 17 (2000)