The Use of Species-decline Statistics to Help Target Conservation Policy for Set-aside Arable Land

The set-aside scheme of the E.C. is a way of dealing with the socio-economic problem of food surpluses, but it also presents opportunities for environmental benefits. To help target set-aside policies, three groups of species (scarce plants, butterflies and grasshoppers) were analysed by present and past distribution and by habitat. In those biotopes which could be restored using set-aside land, chalk grassland has shown the greatest decline of scarce plants, and the two insect groups have declined the most in heathland, water-fringe vegetation and woodland edges. However, declines were also observed for other biotopes. These and other data suggest that conservation efforts on a set-aside land should not be concentrated on a particular kind of habitat, but should address a diversity of habitats in a diversity of locations. This conclusions has been used to help defined the 1993 set-aside schemes for the U.K.