7687 Developing an ecosystems approach - dry stone walls

The natural environmental sector is increasingly framing the approach to managing the environment in terms of public and environmental benefits or 'ecosystem services'. While it is tacitly acknowledged that in many places the 'natural environment' is itself the result of human activity, the public and environmental benefits of heritage assets and historic landscape features has not been explicitly explored. This project will look at one landscape feature that is clearly humanly constructed - dry stone walls - and will set out the public benefits that result from this in language that is compatible with the ecosystem services framework. It will focus on the field boundaries of the Peak District National Park as an area characterised by dry stone walling and where the cultural and economic benefits of the walls can be explored. In doing so it will develop a methodology that could be applied to other categories of heritage assets and facilitate the inclusion of heritage assets and the historic environment in natural environment led land management strategies and policies. One example, with particular relevance to the historic environment, would be the replacement of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) following the UK exit from the European Union, early indications are that any payment to farmers following this will be framed, largely, in terms of public benefits.