Natural England

Much of Northern Europe’s already fragmented habitats face a grim future due to climate change, according to new research published by BRANCH.

Hampshire’s coastline will be squeezed by rising sea levels whilst butterflies like the Adonis blue will run out of space in Kent and may become extinct.

The BRANCH project (Biodiversity, Spatial Planning and Climate Change) is an EU-funded partnership between England, France and the Netherlands, led by Natural England. Project partners are reporting on three years of research into the impact of climate change on biodiversity in the north-western triangle of coast facing the English Channel.

Much of the climate change debate focuses on how to cut carbon emissions, but BRANCH researchers and spatial planners have instead been concentrating on practical measures to increase the resilience of threatened wildlife and habitats and on what measures are needed to adapt to climate change.

By launching their conclusions in Brussels, BRANCH partners hope to stimulate cross-border co-operation amongst member states to create ecological networks and linkages for wildlife to colonise in transit to the nearest Sites of Special Scientific Interest and larger Natura 2000 sites.

David Young, Natural England’s Executive Director Strategy and Performance, said: “Europe’s fragmented habitats face a grim future unless we do something now to help the natural environment adapt to the long term impacts of climate change.”

He continued: “BRANCH is a great example of collaboration that points the way to how we can plan a landscape-scale response to climate change across Europe. We need strong European leadership to climate proof the Common Agricultural Policy and maximise the role of sustainable land management for both adaptation and mitigation.”

Planning for biodiversity as climate changes: BRANCH project final report [2.9 mb]