Vital benefits for millions of people that flow beyond the landscape boundary
Photo: Chris Gilbert.
It is clear that people who visit, live or work in the Peak District National Park directly benefit from it. Yet many of its benefits go beyond its boundary to positively impact the UK and the rest of the world, including people who may never visit the area or may be unaware of its existence.
Protecting national park landscapes on a large scale enhances natural resources and allows vital benefits such as flood prevention, clean water provision and food production to function more naturally. Scale enhances the benefits that can be provided by an area, enabling them to flow beyond its boundaries. Such public benefits originate in the landscape, but many have been shaped by people through industry, land management and farming.
The Peak District National Park is a refuge for many species that used to be widespread, like the small heath butterfly, water vole, curlew and a range of hay meadow plants. Climate change will make this role ever more important. Increasing temperatures, changing habitats and unpredictable weather will force wildlife to move in search of suitable homes. Protected areas like the Peak District National Park where wildlife can thrive are vital to sustaining resilient habitats, particularly as they may then repopulate other areas in the future.
Being surrounded by urban areas makes the Peak District National Park’s protected space of even greater significance as a breathing lung and green oasis for the millions of people who live in close proximity. The landscape character flows beyond the Peak District National Park’s boundary, creating a valued setting and positively impacting the surrounding areas. Turn on a tap in Sheffield and drink water that originated in the Peak District National Park’s hills and was filtered by its uplands. Take a deep breath in Buxton and breathe clean air produced by the Peak District National Park’s vegetation. Live downstream and benefit from a reduced risk of flooding due to the Peak District National Park’s upstream habitats, which store and slow the flow of water.
These positive impacts also flow beyond the UK. Climate change is predicted to affect the everyday lives of billions of people, but by absorbing and storing millions of tonnes of carbon, especially in the peat on our moorlands, the Peak District National Park’s habitats can help to lessen these future impacts by increasing climate change resilience. As part of a global network of protected landscapes, the Peak District National Park plays a crucial role in protecting the vital ecosystems that will sustain life into the future. By contributing to visions of sustainable biodiversity and social and economic wellbeing at local, regional, national and international levels, the Peak District National Park provides
# Key data trends
The Peak District National Park has a direct impact on the quality of life of those living within and outside its boundary. Its natural environment provides people with many important benefits, such as clean air and water, food, fuel and raw materials. Through its landscapes, the National Park helps to regulate our climate, store flood waters and filter pollution. It also provides opportunities for people to improve their health and wellbeing and enjoy cultural experiences.
The PDNP’s vital benefits largely comprise ecosystem services. Ecosystem services cover a wide variety of services, from flood reduction, to climate regulation, tranquillity and food provision. Therefore, overall trends are difficult to summarise. Following are some trends in specific ecosystem services; however, it should be noted that trend data was not available for all ecosystem services.
Positive ecosystem service trends in the PDNP:
- Climate regulation may be increasing due to habitat restoration, particularly on the moorlands Negative ecosystem service trends in the PDNP
- Food provision may be declining due to declining livestock numbers
- Perceived tranquillity has reduced
Data gaps that remain
- Ecosystem services cover a broad range of information, not all of which is available, readily updated or easy to analyse.
- The ecosystem services information in the NCA documents is out of date and this data needs updating.
- Trend data is not always available for ecosystem services.
# Drivers for change
Ecosystem services are affected by a wide range of drivers, some of which are summarised below. Many of the drivers for change within other State of the Park chapters also apply to ecosystem services and, therefore, the vital benefits of the PDNP.
# Climate change
Climate change is already altering some ecosystem services in the Peak District. To date, climate change impacts include increased temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, increased frequency of extreme events such as flooding, displacement of species and changes to the start and length of seasons.
Climate change could have a particularly serious impact on food production on the limestone plateau if it does result in hotter, drier summers, due to its high vulnerability to drought and scarce water sources for livestock drinking water. Springs and dew ponds are still used to water livestock and these could be under threat from drier hotter summers in future, rendering some areas unsuitable for production of livestock without new sources of water [1].
Additionally, human responses to climate change, particularly changes to agricultural practices, could have profound effects on some PDNP ecosystem services.
# Agricultural practices and land management
Agricultural practices and land management impact PDNP ecosystem services. Unsustainable or inappropriate land management affects all habitats in the Peak District. Many natural and semi-natural habitats have been lost or degraded and are now small and fragmented. This means they can no longer provide a full range of ecosystem services.
Additionally, inappropriate stocking regimes (such as too many, or too few, livestock at periods within the grazing calendar), with insufficient management and husbandry may have a significant detrimental effect on many key environmental services including biodiversity, soil erosion, water quality and climate regulation [2].
Pressure to maintain or increase food production and continued development pressure may increase demand for water abstraction [1:1].
# Economic pressures
Ongoing economic pressures affect the ability of the PDNP to produce food. For instance, there was a 42% decrease in the number of dairy farms between 1990 and 2003, particularly due to smaller farms ceasing milk production [^4].
# Development
Despite being a national park, the Peak District is not immune from development pressure. Although the population is relatively small at around 38,000 residents, there is continual demand for additional housing, especially affordable housing to support local communities, large agricultural buildings, retail and other business premises.
Other development pressures include upgrades to road infrastructure to accommodate increasing road traffic, renewable energy infrastructure and expansion of extractive industries to meet growing national demand.
Development could affect many of the ecosystem services that the PDNP provides if not carried out sensitively.
# Landscape restoration
A positive driver for change across the Peak District is landscape restoration. Landscape restoration can have a positive impact on ecosystem services such as flood prevention, clean water provision and recreation. A vast amount of restoration work has and continues to be delivered on the Dark Peak moorlands through landscape-scale projects such as the Moors for the Future Partnership and other landscape-scale projects such as the South West Peak Landscape Partnership and the White Peak Partnership are also carrying out landscape restoration in other parts of the Peak District.
# Policy and government
Landscapes Review The Landscapes Review, which reported to the UK government in 2019, reviewed UK protected landscapes (national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty) and set proposals for their improvement. Many of the proposals relate to ecosystem services such as biodiversity, including:
- “National landscapes should have a renewed mission to recover and enhance nature, and be supported and held to account for delivery by a new National Landscapes Service”
- “The state of nature and natural capital in our national landscapes should be regularly and robustly assessed, informing the priorities for action”
- “Strengthened Management Plans should set clear priorities and actions for nature recovery including, but not limited to, wilder areas and the response to climate change (notably tree planting and peatland restoration). Their implementation must be backed up by stronger status in law”
- “National landscapes should form the backbone of Nature Recovery Networks – joining things up within and beyond their boundaries”.
A formal response to the Landscapes Review is expected in the near future and the PDNPA is already working to implement some of the recommendations.
Both the Environment Bill and 25 Year Environment Plan will impact biodiversity in the Peak District. For instance, the Environment Bill will require all areas in England to establish Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRSs). The LNRSs will help bring a broad range of groups together – from farmers to businesses to local communities – to deliver priorities for nature recovery at a local and national level. The pilots will also help kick-start the creation of over a million acres of habitats for wildlife [3]. And a flagship element of the 25 Year Environment Plan will be a new Nature Recovery Network, which will benefit people and wildlife by increasing, improving and joining-up wildlife-rich places across England [3:1].
Brexit and ELMS: 87% of the Peak District is farmed and agriculture has a big impact on its biodiversity. With the UK leaving the EU, a new Environmental Land Management Scheme is being developed that will subsidise farmers for specific actions. Trials are currently underway to determine what the scheme will consist of and one of the trials is taking place in the White Peak part of the Peak District.