The National Association for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (NAAONBs) welcomes the recent publication of the State of the Natural Environment Report by Natural England.
Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs), together with National Parks, are in the unique position of having strategic management plans based on landscape scale planning. The Natural England Report recognises that these are essential if we are to have sustainable conservation of England’s natural environment.
AONB Partnerships are currently revising their five year management plans and look forward to working closely with Natural England to ensure that the good progress made in recent years continues.
As the Report highlights, the overall condition of England’s SSSIs has improved dramatically in the last 10 years and AONB Partnerships are continuing to work hard to ensure that the targets for the condition of SSSIs in AONBs are reached by 2012.
Ashley Thomas, Chairman of the NAAONB says
“Although the Report flags up what we all suspect, that our natural environment is much less rich than 50 years ago, I am convinced that with the continuing passionate hard work of our small AONB teams, we can support Natural England to meet their aspirations for sustainable, viable, rural communities with accessible beautiful countryside".