ABSTRACT
The protection of wildlife habitats has been a central feature of nature conservation law in the UK for the last fifty years ever since the adoption of the recommendations of the Huxley Report in 1947. Conferring protection on wildlife habitats has necessitated the imposition of legal controls on land use, and this has inevitably brought about conflict between the exploitative rights of individual property' owners and the wider public interest in nature conservation. The law has sought to accommodate these competing interests by adopting a largely "voluntary" approach to the promotion of nature conservation, stressing the need for farmers, landowners and the government agencies charged with implementing conservation policy to work in partnership. The balance between property rights and the public interest in nature conservation needs to be redrawn, and a new approach adopted which adequately balances the competing interests involved.
