Landscape ecological planning and the future countryside: a research note

Strategies for the conservation of biodiversity have historically tended to focus on key sites rather than the wider countryside. It is now widely accepted that both are important for effective countryside management. Landscape ecology offers an organising framework for the integrated study of patches within their surrounding land use matrix, and offers opportunities for the planning and management of large tracts of countryside. An area of proposed substantial land use change in western England is studied in terms of its landscape ecological properties. Preliminary results are reviewed in terms of their potential land use implications.