Making space for nature in the Dark Peak
Ross Frazer.
A major new conservation partnership project in the Peak District has appointed a countryside landscape professional to help make more space for wildlife and people in the Dark Peak.
Ross Frazer has been recruited to manage the Dark Peak: Public and Private Lands Nature Improvement Area Partnership (Dark Peak NIA), a three-year landscape-scale conservation initiative, which aims to improve, expand and link up existing wildlife-rich areas within the Dark Peak.
The Dark Peak NIA is one of a growing number of projects taking a landscape-scale approach to meet the challenges facing our wildlife.
Ross explains: “In the Dark Peak we have some brilliant areas for wildlife, such as Dove Stone, the High Peak and Stanage Edge which are managed by conservation organisations. But, both here and beyond the borders of such sites, the NIA brings a wonderful opportunity to make more areas of land even better for wildlife.
This is why I will be working with public and private land owners to help deliver a programme of habitat restoration, creation and enhancement, extending beyond these special places to create a diverse and thriving nature network across the Dark Peak.
“The project is not just great news for nature, but for people too. We are also delivering a range of public goods including the provision of better-linked bridleways and footpaths so people can enjoy these special landscapes to the full.
“Having the opportunity to protect and enhance this landscape in one of our most valued and accessible national parks, is a dream come true.”
One of 12 projects awarded a share of £7.5million of new government funding; the Dark Peak NIA builds on successful and well established existing partnerships, which have a strong track record of delivering landscape-scale nature conservation in the area. It includes nine partners in total: the RSPB, National Trust, Peak District National Park Authority, United Utilities, British Mountaineering Council, Sheffield City Council, Sheffield Wildlife Trust, Moors for the Future Partnership and Natural England.
For Ross and the partners, the three-year lifespan of the Dark Peak NIA is hopefully just the beginning.
He continues: “I want the Government to see the NIA as a success, so that we are able to secure funding beyond the current three-year timescale and even to be able to create new NIAs in the White Peak and the Staffordshire Moors, so that we can carry out landscape conservation across the whole of the Peak District.”
Author: Jude Gidney - Editor
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