A Manual of Nature Conservation Law

Edited by Michael Fry
2nd Edition

Reviews

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Stephen Tromans
Barrister, 39 Essex Street
Member of English Nature Council 1995-200

As Tom Huggon, Chair of the UK Environmental Law Association’s Nature Conservation Working Group, very aptly points out in his Introduction to the second edition of Michael Fry’s Manual, it was time for a new edition of this well-regarded and well-used work. The law on nature conservation has changed markedly over the past decade, in terms of the substantive law being strengthened, in terms of new institutional arrangements with Natural England and the Countryside Council for Wales, and with the growing realisation of the subtleties, complexities and demands of European Community legislation on natural habitats. This new edition has been supported by the environmental law team at Browne Jacobson, solicitors, who are recognised as having particular expertise and practical experience in the area.

As the introduction to the Manual points out, “The impact of the European Union on our wildlife law cannot be overstated” (page 6) and it is entirely appropriate that the starting point is an extensive section dealing with International and European law, containing the text of the UN Framework Convention on Biological Diversity, the Habitats and Wild Birds Directives and – importantly for the future – Directive 2004/35/CE on environmental liability. Part 2 contains the primary legislation, in particular the now extensively amended Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, but also invaluably the extracted many provisions of other legislation which impose duties and related provisions with regard to conservation. The Part concludes with the latest legislation, the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006. The other central piece of legislation is the Conservation (Natural Habitats & c.) Regulations 1994, printed in Part 3 together with its recent marine counterpart, the Offshore Marine (Natural Habitats & c.) Regulations 2007. The Manual is conveniently rounded off by reproducing Planning Policy Statement 9: Biodiversity and Geological Conservation (August 2005) and the List of Priority Habitats and Species, approved by all four national administrations and published on 28 August 2007. That List in itself reveals the fascinating and sometimes bizarre rich diversity of species of flora and fauna still to be found in the British Isles, with names as evocative as the Bog paw-wort, Scottish Beard-Moss, the Kitefin shark, Golden Lantern-Spider, the Minutest Diving Beetle, the Poplar Leaf-Rolling Weevil and the English Assassin Fly.

What is not covered is the law of Scotland. This is inevitable given the divergence of both secondary and primary legislation following Scottish devolution, the inclusion of all of which would render the Manual so long as to defeat the essential object of providing a portable compendium of the legislation. The EC Water Framework Directive, which will have important implications in this area, has also not been included, for reasons of space and because the issue is well covered in specialist publications on water law.

The Manual does not seek to provide a detailed commentary on the legislation, or a full synopsis of the growing number of cases. Instead it provides a short Introduction to the subject. This makes a number of very salient points as to the progressive development of the law, and some of the key landmarks such as the Dibden Bay Terminal proposal, the 1999 Greenpeace case in relation to oil exploration on the Atlantic frontier, and the current controversy over housing development in the Thames Basin Heaths. Similarly at some points footnotes are provided to the key legislative provisions such as section 28 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act on SSSIs, providing citations and a short synopsis of the leading cases. One cannot help but feel that, given the expertise of the author and supporting team, that a more detailed commentary on some of these issues would have been helpful, particularly in view of the complexity of the legislation’s implications. However, even without that added exegesis, the Second Edition is very much to be welcomed. The First Edition was well used, sometimes to the point of physical destruction. Given the centrality of nature conservation law in the coming decade, the same will inevitably be true of this new edition. May the Poplar Leaf-Rolling Weevil and its kin flourish!

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