ABSTRACT

This chapter considers the roles and issues of countryside management writ broad across the landscape. The overall population increase and structural changes over the last forty years has affected how the countryside is managed and how countryside services have been delivered. Increased population mobility, leisure time, conservation organisations, have created more frequent and better informed users of countryside and countryside services. In 2001, the Millennium Biodiversity Report Sustaining the Variety of Life: 5 Years of the UK Biodiversity Action Plan was published, assessing if and how the aim of conserving, protecting, and enhancing biodiversity was being achieved. The World Conservation Strategy had been clearly shown how conservation could contribute to development objectives of governments, industry, commerce, organised labour, and the professions. Agenda 21 not only raised awareness of environmental issues but also more specifically addressed global problems such as climate change.