Nature Recovery

Nature is declining at an unprecedented rate. The 2020 Global Living Planet Index (LPI) showed an average 68% fall in monitored populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish between 1970 and 2016.

Around one million animal and plant species, almost a quarter of the world’s total, are believed to be threatened with extinction.

In the UK, the State of Nature Report 2019 confirms that “the abundance and distribution of the UK’s species has, on average, declined since 1970 [and] there has been no let-up in the net loss of nature.”  

The family of protected landscapes have not been excluded from this decline with coastal habitats, for example, experiencing an 85% loss of saltmarsh habitat.

The State of Nature Today

In February 2021, Natural England published the Condition Review of Chichester Harbour sites: intertidal, subtidal and bird features (NERR090). This Natural England report was based on a study conducted to assess whether the harbour’s special habitats and species (known as notified features) were flourishing.

The report reviewed the historic trends in populations and condition of notified features, discussed whether the existing conservation actions were appropriate, and identified interventions that would help to improve the site and its features.

The report showed that Chichester Harbour has seen a dramatic loss in saltmarsh habitat: a 58.8% reduction of saltmarsh since 1946 (46.5% of the saltmarsh was lost since the Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) was designated in 1970). Natural England estimated that on average 2.54 hectares of saltmarsh (the equivalent of more than 3 football pitches in area) is being lost incrementally every year across Chichester Harbour.

Furthermore, Native Oyster (Ostrea edulis) populations which were once abundant in the harbour and formed a vital local industry in the late 1800s to early 1900, have now declined to such low levels that they can no longer be harvested.

This loss of habitat is also impacting dramatically on some wetland bird populations, through loss of high tide roosting sites, nesting sites and changes to food supply and feeding conditions. This is highlighted in particular by the decline in nesting tern populations but affects other important bird species too.

Overall, the main intertidal habitats and bird features were assessed as unfavourable declining condition largely due to the continued loss of saltmarsh, the poor quality of saltmarsh and mudflat habitat, and the continued decline of several bird species (wintering and nesting).