ABSTRACT
The conclusion from the forgoing chapter is that reform of agricultural support may lead to lessening of the relentless intensification of arable land and grass cropping, but the signs are that for eastern Britain, this will do no more than halt the decline at what is now a very low level of abundance and diversity, and that if we are to reverse this decline, a programme of targeted habitat creation on a landscape scale is required. In the uplands of western and northern Britain, whole-farm support schemes with environmental criteria, such as Tir Gofal in Wales, may regenerate degraded moor and heath and create small areas of new habitat, but in an ad hoc manner. A strategy of targeted habitat creation using Forest Habitat Networks and river corridors could provide a focus for landscape-scale wilding projects. Such a programme of creative re-wilding, rather than protective conservation, may also have a wider public appeal.
