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Coastal management
Management decisions concerning flood and coastal defences can and do have an impact on important wildlife sites, not only through direct habitat loss, but also through coastal squeeze as a result of coastal erosion exacerbated by climate change and rising sea levels.
Over the past five years, strategic flood defence planning has been developed for the coast of England and Wales.
Shoreline Management Plans provide the opportunity to address these issues. However these plans have, to date, failed both to identify the environmental impacts of the selected policies and to maximise opportunities for habitat creation and enhancement.
For example in East Anglia the SMPs, if implemented, will result in the loss of more than 550 hectares of grazing marsh and 220 hectares of lagoons and associated reedbed.
However with proper funding and greater integration of strategic plans, SMPs could not only deliver ecologically sustainable flood defences, but make a significant contribution to UK Biodiversity Action Plan targets.
We have prepared a detailed report on shoreline planning and wildlife in East Anglia called Coasts in Crisis (see downloads).