ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on areas of high-value nature conservation that are also multifunctional sites and highlights the different approach needed for their effective management. Such areas of land have relatively weak ties to agriculture but are increasingly important for other land-based interests such as nature conservation, recreation, heritage and landscape. The chapter looks at reasons behind the gradual detachment from agriculture of these parcels of land and how this impacts on productivst and post-productivist discussions within the rural studies literature. The nature conservationists' ability to have a dialogue with other users is crucial and tests their ability to see sustainability as a process of consensus building rather than optimum nature conservation management. The chapter also looks at the discourse associated with this process and the techniques used by conservationists to obtain their 'goal'. The development of techniques such as conservation grazing, which seeks to imitate extensive agricultural grazing but without the need to link into the food production perspective.
