Environmentalists will today (Tuesday 7 October) celebrate a milestone in landscape-scale conservation: more than 100 schemes across the UK will help people and wildlife combat the impacts of climate change. Together these ‘Living Landscape’ schemes cover more than one million hectares.

One of the world’s leading economists, Professor Dieter Helm CBE and Michael Allen, chairman of The Wildlife Trusts, will set out The Wildlife Trusts’ vision of ‘A Living Landscape’.  This vision involves enlarging, improving and joining-up areas of land on a vast scale to help wildlife adapt to climate change but also for the benefit of people.  Through the development of many large area conservation schemes across the UK, the once traditional focus of wildlife conservation is being broadened: from protecting individual reserves to considering the landscape as a whole.  The Wildlife Trusts’ 2,200 nature reserves form the basis for these Living Landscape schemes. Its approach relies on participation and partnerships with landowners, land managers, government agencies, planners, politicians and more.

Stephanie Hilborne, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, said: “This is the future of conservation. We have spent 100 years safeguarding wildlife havens. Now we must expand on these and create ‘A Living Landscape’ where our nature reserves are integral parts of wider functioning landscapes and not isolated oases. This work is already under way and, today, we are celebrating the first steps of success. There is much to do but these large-scale schemes will help to alleviate floods, control pollution and help us cope with extremes of temperature. What is good for wildlife is good for people too.”

The effects of climate change - already being witnessed - mean many plants and animals will need to move in search of suitable conditions: a 2°C rise in temperature will shift the natural range of some species more than 150 miles to the North or nearly 1,000ft up the hillsides. Wildlife needs to adapt, and for that to happen, the landscape, both urban and rural, needs to be addressed as a whole.

This means we urgently need policy change.  The new Climate Change Act, when passed, should focus on what the UK Governments must do to prepare for a changing climate: it is vital that the natural environment is placed at the heart of the adaptation programmes that will be developed in the coming years.  Policies that impact on land use and management – land use planning, agriculture, water and woodland - also need to reflect the value of the natural environment. We must both protect our wildlife-rich sites and also enable wildlife to move through the rest of the landscape including our built environment. And we must avoid development that acts as a barrier to species’ movement or fragmentation of our habitats.

These policy changes and mechanisms must be developed now and The Wildlife Trusts stress the need for government regulations and incentives to ensure this happens at a local level throughout the UK.

Stephanie Hilborne added: “In the current economic climate, it is imperative for people to understand just how closely nature ties in with the way we live our lives. Through environmentally-sensitive farming and land management we are encouraging the return of rare species, while providing a boost to declining local economies.

“We are working to create more natural landscapes - involving landowners, farmers and local communities in rural and urban areas – for the benefit of wildlife and people. These landscape-scale projects are driven by local people.

“The Wildlife Trusts play a leading role in developing this vision but also in mustering support to allow communities to drive their own change. We are looking to the Government - and local MPs - to show leadership. Government needs to be brave enough to remove the obstacles preventing the UK from adapting to climate change and to show political will by serious investment in habitat restoration and creation.”

Leading economist, Professor Dieter Helm CBE, said: “The Living Landscape vision is not only good from a narrow environmental perspective but it makes economic sense too. The economic benefits are potentially very great, and as these islands get more crowded and economic growth makes people better off, the value to future generations will be ever greater.

"There are few better examples of how to promote sustainable development, and take proper care of what future generations will inherit, than the vision of A Living Landscape.”

In November 2006, The Wildlife Trusts published a report, ‘A Living Landscape’ as a ‘call to arms’ for government, environmentalists and ordinary people to face up to the realities of climate change and take the necessary steps to allow the UK's wildlife, and its people, to adapt to the future.

‘A Living Landscape’ - An overview

A future for wildlife
As the impacts of climate change increase, wildlife will need to move freely between suitable habitats. ‘A Living Landscape’ will reconnect large areas of land, creating wildlife corridors; enabling habitats to cope with change and securing a more prosperous future.

Change everywhere
The Wildlife Trusts are bringing about change on a scale never seen before, improving land that seemed beyond repair and rebuilding connections between habitats which have been broken for decades. Across the UK’s countryside and in towns too, vast areas of land are being changed forever.

Happier, healthier people
To improve the environment is to improve the future quality of life for everyone who lives, works and plays there. But ‘A Living Landscape’ promises more. The Wildlife Trusts’ projects are capturing the imagination of entire communities, bringing people together for long-lasting positive change.

A lasting legacy
The Wildlife Trusts hold the vision, but are also uniquely placed to maintain the momentum, of ‘A Living Landscape’ for this generation and beyond. By mobilising its vast membership (currently 765,000) and organising passionate volunteers (currently 33,000) The Wildlife Trusts can provide hope for the future and a lasting legacy.

• By region: examples of Living Landscape schemes and case studies

Staffordshire Washlands (West Midlands)
The Staffordshire Washlands Living Landscape scheme covers 18,700 hectares. By restoring rivers and their floodplains the scheme aims to increase flood storage capacity and restore lost habitat for threatened wildlife.

Snipe - Breeding snipe are virtually extinct outside nature reserves in lowland England but the washlands of river floodplains make ideal habitat for them. These wet grasslands can also function as natural flood storage areas.

Outer Humber (Yorkshire/Humber)
Spurn Head marks the start of one of the main migration routes for birds across the UK. Owned by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, its sandy spit also marks the eastern end of the Trust’s vision for an Outer Humber Living Landscape, linking Hull to Spurn.

Sea holly - Spurn Head marks the current northern-most edge of the range for many species including suffocated clover and many insects. Its sand dunes and rich grasslands are an important stepping stone for species extending north, due to climate change.

London’s Gardens (London)
London Wildlife Trust is calling on gardeners to join together and transform the capital’s three million gardens into a network of nature reserves, making the city more resilient to climate change and better for wildlife.

Hedgehog - Hedgehogs are currently in decline across the UK. To survive they need a connected network of green spaces through urban areas. Gardeners can help by encouraging insects with leaf and log piles and areas of longer grass.

Blean Woods Kent (South East)
Covering 3,000 hectares Blean Woods is one of the most extensive areas of woodland in the South East of England. Here Kent Wildlife Trust is creating corridors between nature reserves and creating new woodland.

Bluebell - Warmer temperatures could see springtime displays of bluebells disappear from UK woodlands. If trees come into leaf early bluebells will get less light to grow and flower.

Working Wetlands on the Culm (South West)
The flower-rich wet culm grasslands of north Devon and Cornwall are among the rarest grasslands in the world. Only small and isolated pockets remain and are now suffering from a lack of management. This landscape-scale project, co-ordinated by Devon Wildlife Trust, will create a network of better functioning wetland habitats across the Culm Natural Area.

Marsh fritillary - The flower-rich culm grasslands of north Devon and Cornwall are a stronghold of the marsh fritillary. However the increasing fragmentation of this habitat threatens its future.

Usk to Wye Project (Wales)
Gwent Wildlife Trust will ensure the enhancement and creation of networks of semi-natural habitat in the face of rapid climate change. The scheme will encourage and co-ordinate action between conservation bodies and a wealth of enthusiastic landowners to manage their own land for wildlife.

Lesser horseshoe bat - The decline of the lesser horseshoe bat means it is now only found in south-west England and Wales. Taking a landscape-scale approach, reconnecting fragments of woodland, grassland, old hedgerows and tree lines, will help it to survive.

Ballynahone Bog (Northern Ireland)
Ballynahone Bog is the largest of the Ulster Wildlife Trust’s nature reserves and is near Maghera. In the past this bog has been devastated and scarred as at least half of it was cut for peat. As a result it is suffering from scrub-encroachment and drying out due to drainage. At the moment Ulster Wildlife Trust manages 204ha out of the 244ha but needs to continue such vital management to restore the bog and wet woodlands back to their former glory.

Irish damselfly - Species acclimatised to the northern European climate could be affected by global warming. A change in climate may well result in a shift in the distribution of many species, including the Irish damselfly.

MAGical Coast (North East)
Durham Wildlife Trust is racing against time to save the remaining fragments of natural grassland along the Durham coast. The Trust is creating and connecting 200ha of flower-rich meadows along an 8km coastal strip, giving local plant communities and wildlife space to move and adapt

Durham brown argus - Unique to County Durham, the Durham brown argus butterfly is under threat as the flower-rich limestone grassland it calls home is becoming fragmented or eroding away. Unable to fly far, it needs a connected network of grassland sites to disperse and thrive.

Witherslack Living Landscape (North West)
Cumbria Wildlife Trust aims to create a continuous network of wildlife-friendly countryside stretching from fell top to shoreline. This year, a new wetland has been created next door to a raised bog nature reserve. This means vital new habitat for wildlife and a huge carbon store.

White–faced darter dragonfly – Approximately 95% of the original lowland raised bogs have been destroyed. This has limited the availability of habitat for the white-faced darter and it is thought there are now only five breeding sites in England. In recent years it has been lost from some southern sites. If temperatures increase in line with predictions, new wetland habitat created by Cumbria Wildlife Trust should provide vital refuge at the new southern edge of this species’ range.

The Great Fen (Eastern region)
Managed by the Wildlife Trust for Beds, Cambs, Northants & Peterborough, this project aims to reconnect two of the last remaining fragments of ancient fenland; creating a 3,000ha haven for wildlife and people at the heart of one of England’s most intensively-farmed landscapes.

Spoonbill - Recreating the lost landscape of the fens will provide 21st century benefits like floodwater storage and carbon sequestration but wetland birds like the spoonbill, once a resident of the fens but now extinct here, will also hopefully return.

Isle of Eigg (Scotland)
The Scottish Wildlife Trust has been encouraging landowners on the Isle of Eigg to manage the island in a more wildlife-friendly way with the use of agricultural-environmental schemes. By adopting these schemes the bogland, woodland and upland will be restored.

Golden eagle - The Isle of Eigg is one of the best places in Scotland to see golden eagles. The island’s bogs, woods and moorland are managed with wildlife in mind and this helps to make it a popular tourist destination.

Soar and Wreake Valley (East Midlands)
This Leicestershire & Rutland Wildlife Trust scheme hopes to acquire land for nature reserves and work with landowners within the 6,000ha floodplain of the Soar and Wreake rivers to create a mixture of old and new landscapes. This floodplain is home to otter, water vole, dragonflies, rare water beetles and many migrating birds.

Otter - Otters travel long distances along river corridors in search of food and undisturbed resting places. An adult male otter’s home patch can be up to 10km in size. Functioning river catchments, such as the Soar and Wreake Valley, will help them expand their range across the UK.

For more examples, visit www.wildlifetrusts.org/alivinglandscape