The Countryside and Rights of Way (CROW) Act 2000 (Part 1) came into effect across England in 2005. The National Open Access Monitoring Programme was set up to evaluate the long-term impact of implementing the new access rights.
In 2005 the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) was commissioned to carry out a pilot to explore how the existing breeding bird survey (BBS) developed by BTO/RSPB/JNCC could be used to inform the approach for a full scale monitoring project. The aim was to be able to detect significant changes in bird trends at the population level across newly mapped Open Access Land. In preparation for the full scale monitoring contract BTO carried out this pilot study to develop a method to monitor the impact of any change in access use on breeding bird populations prior to and after the implementation of the new access rights over the long-term.
The Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) was identified as the ideal tool for this purpose, being an extensive annual survey organised by the BTO since 1994. The Upland Breeding Bird Survey (UBBS) was originally set up as an annual integrated monitoring project to monitor long-term bird trends at the upland landscape scale across England to inform the impact of Natura 2000 designated sites (both SPAs and SACs) in protecting cited species and to understand the impact of Open Access on upland bird populations. Elements of this programme are being integrated into Natural England’s Integrated Monitoring Programme and Species Surveillance Strategy.
This report is being published as part of a package which includes:
- Executive Summary, Communications and Access Management Commissioned Reports of the National Open Access Visitor Survey (NOAVS) 2006 to 2008, published in three parts NECR036a, NECR036b and NECR036c; and
- Upland Breeding Bird Survey (UBBS) (2007) NECR041.