West Weald Landscape Project
The WWLP is a visionary partnership project working to promote integrated management of a viable and enhanced landscape in the West Weald for people and nature. This is being progressed through a co-ordinated approach to management for wildlife, provision of “ecosystem services”, environmental quality, and use and appreciation by key audiences.
The project works on a landscape scale across 240 km2 of Sussex and Surrey at the western end of the Low Weald, one of the best-wooded parts of the UK and of international importance for nature conservation, as well as being a rare example of a more naturally functioning forest landscape.
Four core designated forest areas have been identified as key nodes for enhancement of habitat quality and the viability of key species populations, including buffering and expanding these features as possible. In the surrounding wider countryside, the focus is more about facilitating the processes that create a healthy functioning natural environment. This is being pursued principally by encouraging sympathetic management by private landowners to promote ecological connectivity and landscape permeability for biodiversity, whilst also bolstering the provision of ecosystem services and resilience to the impacts of climate change.
Extensive research has been carried out to establish a baseline on the condition of the natural environment at a landscape scale to enable future monitoring of change, as well as conducting studies of core forest areas and links between land use change and the water environment for example.
A project manager based at the Sussex Wildlife Trust runs this initiative, supported by a broad partnership of twelve organisations including the Surrey Wildlife Trust, Natural England, Forestry Commission, and the four local authorities in the area. Project funds are secured from a variety of sources to support salary costs and project expenditure (c. £40K per annum).
Contact Email:
Organisation:
Sussex Wildlife Trust
Funding Details:
Funded through ongoing bids to charitable trusts and project partners.
Status:
In progress
Website relating to case study:
Organisation’s website:
Keywords relating to this case study:
West Weald, biodiversity conservation, natural environment, landscape ecology, ecosystem services, wildlife, Sussex
South East groups case study relates to:
Biodiversity
