Archived press release

FOE report highlights damage to wetlands

21 March 1996

FOE report highlights damage to local wetlands

Dozens of internationally important wetland areas across the UK are being damaged or are at threat according to a new report by Friends of the Earth which highlights failures to protect them under existing measures.

The report comes as Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on wetland protection [1],including the UK, meet in Brisbane for the sixth conference from Tuesday 19 March, 1996.

The UK has 100 Ramsar designations in 86 sites(some sites have more than one designation) and 80 candidate sites. These form a network of wetlands -such as rivers, fens, lakes, bogs, coastal habitats and wet grasslands - of international importance which are distributed across the whole country. The Friends of the Earth report details the damage and threats that have occurred to sites in local areas and says there is an urgent need to strengthen their legal protection.

Tony Juniper, Deputy Campaigns Director at Friends of the Earth, said: "The UK has an enormous variety of wetlands of international importance, but this report shows that they are not adequately protected.Stronger laws are needed to ensure that at least these top sites can be retained."

The report [2] concludes:

Site protection remains weak. Over half of the UK's most important wetland sites have suffered damage in the last three years or remain under threat. Ramsar sites are not given any greater protection than Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), which themselves have only weak protection.

Designation of sites has been too slow. At the present rate of designation, candidate sites will not be given Ramsar status until 2002, despite the fact that the UK became a Contracting Party and was required to designate sites 21 years ago. In the meantime many of these sites have been damaged or are threatened.

Sites have not been designated for economic reasons. Some sites and parts of sites have been excluded from designations because they are earmarked for development. For example Cardiff Bay was excluded from the Lower Severn Estuary Ramsar site, despite its international importance for birds, and Lappel Bank from the Medway Estuary and Marshes Ramsar site. Both are integral parts of the Ramsar sites, but both designations would conflict with proposed development.

Damage and threat have not been adequately reported. The Department of the Environment (DoE)has watered down the damage and threat statistics in its National Report to the 6th Meeting of the Conference of Contracting Parties, suggesting that fewer sites have been damaged or are threatened than official records, and its own draft report, indicate.

It says negative changes have occurred or will occur on 12 sites: Loch's Druidbeg, A'Machair and Stilligary,Loch Leven, Ouse Washes, Silver Flowe, Dee estuary, Redgrave and South Lopham fens, Lyn Idwal,Esthwaite Water, Exe Estuary, Hamford water, Loch Ken and River Dee Marshes and the Midland Meres and Mosses. The draft report written by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) had also included three other sites: Crymlyn Bog, Stour and Orwell and Burry Inlet, but these were excluded from the final DoE report.

The DoE report also fails to reflect the range and extent of negative impacts on the UK's most important wetlands. For example threats from acid rain to the Midland Meres and Mosses, Roydon Common and Martin Mere Ramsar sites have not been included, nor were the 60 separate records of significant' damage to the Norfolk Broads.

FoE is campaigning for stronger legislation to counter damage to the UK's most important nature conservation sites through a private members bill being proposed by John Couchman (Conservative,Gillingham).

Juniper said: "The Bill will place duties on planning authorities to avoid damage to SSSIs from development, will promote positive management and require restoration if sites are illegally damaged. It has already gained massive commons support and we hope it will become law soon."

A list of damaged and threatened Ramsar sites is available on request from Friends of the Earth. Please

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS:

[1] The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat came into force in 1975 (named after the town in Iran where it was held). It was the first global nature conservation treaty and now has 88 Contracting Parties (countries) which cover three quarters of the world's land. It aims to designate the world's finest wetlands and to promote their conservation.

Contracting Parties agree to designate sites and to protect them under national legislation. They also agree to report those sites where the ecological character of the site has changed, is changing or is likely to change for inclusion on the Montreux Record'of endangered sites.

[2] The report is titled: A Review of UK Compliance with the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat.

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