Indicators for biodiversity

 

View the biodiversity chapter of 'UK Indicators of Sustainable Forestry', as published in October 2002.

Any recent developments, and links to additional information, are shown below.

B1. Ancient woodland

• Estimates of ancient woodland areas, based on ancient woodland inventories mostly compiled in the late 1980s, were published in Pryor & Peterken (2001).  These are published in Forestry Statistics Table 4.1.

The indicator B1 published in 2002 used results from Pryor & Smith (2002). This was an updated estimate of ancient woodland area derived by overlaying the NIWT 1995-1999 digital map onto ancient woodland inventories. This gave lower figures than those published in Pryor & Peterken (2001). At the time, Pryor & Smith (2002) was thought to give the best estimates of ancient woodland area.

However, further investigation of the discrepancies between NIWT and the ancient woodland inventories suggests that some discrepancies are due to differences in spatial registration of woods, and that some areas of ancient woodland are incorrectly omitted from the totals in Pryor & Smith (2002). In consequence, the estimates from Pryor & Peterken (2001) are now recommended for use, until better information becomes available.

The ancient woodland data set for England is currently being revised by English Nature, and data for Wales are under review.  For Northern Ireland, a report and website Back on the map were launched in 2006/07.

B2. Native woodland area

• A Native Woodland Survey of Scotland is being carried out for FC Scotland. Project design started in 2004 and piloting started in 2005. The main fieldwork started in late 2006, and is expected to continue for 5 years.

• There are plans to include the identification of native woodland in the next National Inventory of Woodland, for which fieldwork is expected to start in 2009.

B3. Native woodland condition

• Statistics for condition of woodland SSSI's are not yet available for Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

B4. Abundance of fauna

• The bird index is part of one of the 20 UK Framework Indicators, published in 2005 and updated in July 2006 in 'Sustainable Development Indicators in your Pocket'. Over the last 10 years the woodland bird indicator has remained about 15-20% below the level in the early 1970s.
• Updated Regional results for England covering the period 1994-2005, were published in March 2007.
• Results of the Repeat Woodland Bird Survey, looking at long-term trends in birds in woodland habitats, were published in March 2006.
• More information about individual bird species trends can be found on the RSPB website in State of the UK's Birds 2006.
• In 2004 Butterfly Conservation produced a report to the Forestry Commission on The Current Level of Butterfly Monitoring in UK Woodlands and potential use of the data to inform sustainable forestry (Durwyn Liley, Tom Brereton & David Roy, November 2004).  
• The UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme was launched in 2006.

B5. Richness of flora

• Further information is available on the Countryside Survey 2000 website. The Forestry Commission is one of the sponsors of the Countryside Survey 2007, which will report in 2008-2009.

• The report Biodiversity in Britain's Planted Forests, published in December 2003, presents the results from the Forestry Commission's Biodiversity Assessment Project. This project was established in 1995 with 52 permanent plots in conifer forests to assess many different aspects of biodiversity, including structure, soil, fungi, higher and lower plants and invertebrates.

• A study into long-term ecological change in British woodland (1971-2001) reported in 2005 (English Nature Research Report 653). See the Research Information Note, Report 653 and Appendices.

B6. Diversity of woodland within a stand

• The information available for deadwood has now been extended to include fallen trees - see revised indicator. Note that these sample results should give an unbiased estimate of the average amount of deadwood, but under-estimate the proportion of forest containing some deadwood.
• Pilot work in 2004-05 for the next National Inventory found deadwood in a high proportion of plots.

B7. Natural regeneration of woodland

• Woodland Grant Scheme natural regeneration statistics for England, Scotland and Wales, used in compiling the published indicator, are available here.