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It
has perhaps been inevitable that man's
superiority among species led to the
exploitation of animals for his own purposes;
and perhaps the same inevitability has led to
his environmental exploitation. The result of
both, however, has been to hazard the welfare
and conservation of animals and plants. |
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The
keyword of the concern is biodiversity.
The Convention on
Biodiversity signed during the Earth
Summit at Rio in 1992 defined Biodiversity as:
'The viability among living organisms from all
sources, including, inter alia, terrestrial,
marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the
ecological complexes of which they are part;
this includes diversity within species, between
species and ecosystems.' |
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The
universal concern over global warming means that
people are now really worried about the need to
protect the environment and an increasing weight
of public pressure is forcing the subjects of
biodiversity and animal welfare to the top of
political agendas. The exploitation of forest
areas by man in most parts of the world has led
to the ecological disaster of fragmentation:
small, fragmented areas of forest remain
uncleared but still are under extreme pressure
of encroachment and exploitation, while the
isolation of the remaining parts limits or
prevents wildlife communication. Indeed, that is
a feature of nearly all the British landscape,
but the New Forest is unfragmented and, as such,
is the largest area of lowland forest in
Northwest Europe. The benefits which this
confers on wildlife are immense. |
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Today
there are growing environmental pressures on the
New Forest, with the encroachment of urban
development to meet the needs for housing, the
enormous expansion of leisure and tourism thanks
to strategies encouraged by current management
control, eroding the habitat and increasing
litter on an industrial scale, and the clear and
obvious increase in road congestion, associated
with such policies. More people are seeking to
escape from urban purgatories, even if only for
the day, as well as a welcome, increasing
percentage of the population who are taking an
interest in natural history for their own
leisure purposes; |
Litter in The New
Forest - Southampton Echo |
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but
the downstream consequences are posing new
threats to the Forest. These are the most
pressing problems, for they alone could
precipitate the downfall of the Forest habitat;
and without the habitat, there will be no fauna
at all. It is no accident that, in 1999, the
plan for the Forest in the next hundred years
was built on a strategy to put wildlife first,
rather than the interests of man. Although the
latter has been responsible for conserving the
Forest in the last thousand years, its
protection must be regarded as a priority and
the protection of biodiversity demands that the
most crucial work is pursued, of wildlife
management. Without it, the Forest would be in
serious peril.
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Congestion in Lyndhurst -
NFDC |
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Today, as its second millennium approaches, the
New Forest faces a critical challenge - the
challenge of conflicting interests, of
Conservation versus Tourism, a conflict which
must be managed overall by the New Forest
National Park Authority. Experience in East
Africa and the United States, though,
demonstrates that the two not only can be
managed together, but the latter can actually be
exploited to enhance commercially the former,
which is where the Commoners come into the
picture.
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Tourism - Blue Star |
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The
Commoners are the very reason why we have the
Forest today, for they have maintained it thus.
Paradoxically, it has been their support for the
ancient business of hunting which has led to the
management of the Forest with such positive
results. The problem arises in that this
management historically paid scant attention to
the protection of animal welfare. Far from being
a unique problem, this issue had to be
confronted by the pioneers of wildlife
management in East Africa in the 1980’s – and
resulted in astonishing success.
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Commoning -
Carnyx Wild |
All
animals need protection against cruelty and
suffering caused by actions which are
deliberate, or arise by reason of indifference
or ignorance. Deliberate acts or omissions, or
those generated by indifference, can be
legislated against; acts or omissions based on
ignorance can only be removed by education. The
most glaring difference between wildlife and the
other classes of animals such as domestic stock,
is that wildlife needs an additional sort of
protection: conservation. In realistic terms,
this is now perceived as being best served by
managing the wildlife's environment, where local
communities can be guided by legislation and
education for the mutual benefit of those
communities and the animals within their sphere
of influence.
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Wildlife Management must be conducted with the
objective of maintaining the wild species and
their numbers within regional environments, in
order to promote their welfare on individual,
group and species levels, with the objective in
mind of maintaining the highest level of
biodiversity which can reasonably be achieved.
The critical issue, therefore, is the management
of biodversity within regional environments. The
effects of climate change may possibly alter the
evolution of biodversity within a region;
responsible management should control not the
past or present biodiversity of a region, but
the biodiversity which can best be sustained
within the parameters set by climate change. It
is essential that wildlife managers should not
be museum curators.
But
it goes further than that.
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Dr
Bill Jordan, Founder and former Chairman of Care
For The Wild International, raised the debate of
wildlife management high on the agenda in his
work with wildlife, particularly elephants, in
Africa:
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Dr Bill Jordan |
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"As a response to human interaction in the
environment, wildlife management also involves
politics for it must manage wild animals for
human purposes such as the enhancement of
commercial interests that are affected by
wildlife, while maintaining the numbers to
promote the maximum sustainable yield, and
protecting endangered species. The decision as
to what is too many depends entirely on the
ideals of the human beings involved.
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“From the scientific point of view, it can be
confidently stated there has been no ecological
system which, when left alone by man, became
dislocated permanently by increasing numbers
causing apparent overpopulation. The numbers of
animals are regulated naturally, so as to avoid
both over-abundance on the one hand and
extinction on the other, by being part of
complex interactions between species, which are
largely food chains, or food webs. Put simply,
all species except those at the end of the chain
are preyed upon by some other animals. And the
top predators are controlled by food supplies
and parasites."
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The
development of human society at least
demonstrates an increasing responsibility
towards global wildlife by virtue of the fact
that it debates the best way forward to achieve
the aims realistically of conserving our
wildlife. From the former attitude among the
well-meaning but largely uninformed
environmental activists, we now have the more
realistic message that local people are
best-placed to manage wildlife conservation in
order to ensure future sustainable development.
As the experience of wildlife management in East
Africa demonstrates, if conservation is to be
practical and sustainable, it needs a social and
economic perspective: conservation is largely
promoted or constrained by raw economics. There
can be no doubt that this is a factor which the
National Park Authority will appreciate. But, in
recent years, eco-tourism has been observed
elsewhere to put intolerable stresses on
wildlife conservation if it is not managed
robustly.
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At an
international wildlife management congress in
Costa Rica in 1993, the message was clearly
conveyed that local people must be integrated
into wildlife conservation in order to ensure
sustainable development. They have, of course,
been driven by economics, but that is the
driving force of our society, and many would
argue that local people would have made better
decisions for the New Forest than the removal of
deer or the planting of non-native conifer
plantations. The difficulty is that their
motivation derives substantially from raw
economics, while they lack higher education in
zoology or wildlife management.
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Grazing pressure by ponies, cattle and deer is
vital to maintain the Forest’s balance, but it
must be neither too high nor too low. A severe
reduction or absence of domestic stock grazing
woodland pasture would result in rapid
regeneration of trees and shrubs, with a
consequent loss of open ground and changes in
light conditions and the micro-climate. On the
other hand, static pressure of grazing prevents
regeneration, and excessive grazing can severely
limit tree regeneration, at least in the short
term. It will also decrease the availability of
nectar sources upon which woodland invertebrates
depend. For all of this, commoning is not
enough: the Forest has to be managed with
specialist knowledge and experience, applied by
people who are employed specifically to meet
that demand.
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Bartley Heath,
Highland Cattle & Ponies - HWT |
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There are four main conservation objectives in
the Forest: |
1
2
3
4 |
The
perpetuation of grazing by large herbivores
The protection of the open forest from damage or
destruction by drainage or agricultural
'improvement'
Active management; that is, burning and cutting
vegetation, pine clearance, bracken cutting and
the maintenance of drainage on the open forest,
provided that Management is effective in what it
sets out to achieve
Recreational use of the Forest is contained
within the limits set by the sensitivity of the
Forest's vegetation to wear and tear and the
sensitivity of its wildlife and wilderness
quality to gross disturbance. |
Controlled Burning at Ocknell - NFNPA |
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In
1974 the Sandford Committee recommended that the
statutory purposes of national parks should make
it clear that their enjoyment by the public
shall be in a manner and by such means as will
leave their natural beauty unimpaired for the
enjoyment of this and future generations. The
Committee emphasised that recreation and
conservation can coexist but, in the event of a
conflict between the two, if a solution cannot
be resolved, then conservation should always
prevail. This principle was adopted in section
62 of the Environment Act 1995, but somebody’s
eye has been taken off the ball with an apparent
trend in this new Millennium to put leisure and
tourism on a collision course with the welfare
of wildlife; and when budgetary cuts erode the
effectiveness of the conservation function,
there is going to be trouble.
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Whichever way the management function is sliced,
the New Forest National Park Authority must take
into account the bewildering array of
legislation which, necessarily, includes the New
Forest Acts and, for effective wildlife
management the magistracy of the verderers needs
to be preserved, in managing commoning as a
vital part in the process.
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But
we need more – we need professionals in wildlife
management to preserve the welfare of the fauna
and flora. Let us learn from the experience of
others for this.
When you drive up towards the Great Smoky
Mountains in the United States you are struck
with a basic similarity of the countryside with
the New Forest – it is just on a massively
grander scale. They have the Black Bear, the
Ruby-Throated Hummingbird and the White-Tailed
Deer; we have the Badger, the Green Woodpecker
and the Red Deer. How is wildlife management
treated there? It’s a science.
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Green Woodpecker - FC |
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The Great Smoky Mountains
National Park Service says it all:
since the early years of the Smokies National
Park in the 1930s, rangers have been responsible
for the health of wildlife within its
boundaries. Gradually, as Park visitation
increased, rangers who dealt with wildlife
became more specialized: they studied biology
and wildlife management in college and graduate
school, and became experts in their field. While
there are only three permanent, year-round
wildlife managers, an additional 4-5 people plus
6 interns come on board during the busiest
months .
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The
science of wildlife management in the Smokies
still has to live alongside the way of life of
the ‘commoners’ (black bears can be hunted), and
the pressure of tourism which sees an incredible
number of hikers on the Appalachian Trail. It
may be an uneasy relationship to manage, but the
business of wildlife management cannot be
permitted to fail. And, while the Smokies have
their Rangers, we in the New Forest have our
Keepers.
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New Forest, Red Deer Stags - Carnyx Wild |
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At
the time when the Forest’s 100-year strategic
plan was being completed at the end of the
1990’s, the New Forest Keeper team consisted of
17 staff, comprising two head keepers, each of
whom was in charge of 6 beat keepers, with 2
trainee keepers and a full-time administrator. A
keeper patrols his beat managing the wildlife in
many ways, with tasks that range from deer
control to anti-poaching, theft and land
encroachment. With the increase in traffic in
the Forest it is necessary to deal with the
humane despatch of road kills, and the pressures
created by urban development have demanded
increasing time spent investigating land loss
through developmental encroachment. |
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In the
autumn the Forest’s rich resources of wild fungi
are harvested on industrial scales, often for
commercial gain, and little can be done. In
spring-time and summer he is busiest of all,
when his duties of wildlife surveys and
conservation work have to be fitted in between
his work against 21st Century Society threats of
drug trafficking, illegal camping, fires, arson
and trespass by 4x4 vehicles. During April a
census is taken of the deer on each beat,
involving the keepers in hours of patient
observation; from this census a shooting plan is
made, as the deer must be controlled to prevent
numbers rising beyond the capacity for the
Forest's winter resources to support them. |
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Of
course, other animals have to be controlled as
well, particularly the non-native species:
rabbit, fallow deer and grey squirrel all damage
the trees and the keepers have to maintain
controls on the populations, in a dynamic and
forward-moving natural environment for which
open and flexible minds are essential in the
management process. |
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New Forest Keepers, circa 1953 - W Gulliver/FC
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So
the keepers ultimately comprise the essential
feature which characterises effective wildlife
management in the New Forest. If their
incredibly valuable and diverse experience and
specialist knowledge were to be denied to the
Forest, then it would be difficult to reconcile
the National Park’s actual management with that
demanded by the Sandford Committee’s
recommendations. But, with the inevitability of
Greek Tragedy, the Forestry Commission has
embarked on a process of budgetary controls
which will see the Keepers reduced to just
seven, while a single Head Keeper will have
responsibility extending well beyond the Forest
boundaries, to Dorset in the west and West
Sussex in the east. Precisely what we have in
common with Gatwick is a little obscure, and
Gatwick would probably say the same about us.
But the grinding process of meeting the
Government’s cuts has already been put into
effect, with natural wastage seeing keepers
retiring or leaving and not being replaced,
creating not just a gap in field resources –
boots on the ground – but also a gap in the
learning chain, for the specialist expertise
unique to the Forest can hardly be passed down
to the next generation of keepers if the old
guard has disappeared.
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The
very special expertise upon which the Forest’s
wildlife management depends is being put in
hazard. And the New Forest Keeper team is
standing up to be counted in the fight. They
have a solution, which, in view of their special
position and expertise, must present a
persuasive argument. The team’s solution urges
the Government to recognise and designate the
New Forest as a Heritage Forest. This will help
to avoid the damage so foreseeable under a
management plan which is designed on a national
scale, and has very little in common with the
local needs of the New Forest.
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Further Reading:
Defra News
BBC News
FC News
See also "Related Files" below |
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The
solution will also allow the Forestry Commission
New Forest Team to put all of their local
expertise into ensuring that the Forest is run
locally, by the team of Keepers which knows
exactly what is required to maintain the many
unique management strands which are essential
here. The New Forest Keepers have the huge
advantages of knowledge and understanding of the
Forest’s needs, so when they speak so loudly of
the hazards that we are walking into, I believe
them.
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Simon Daniels |
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