South East England Biodiversity Forum

Biodiversity Opportunity Areas Description

These Biodiversity Opportunity Areas are the regional priority areas of opportunity for restoration and creation of Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) habitats. However, the BOAs:

  • do not include all the BAP habitat in the region and therefore do not include all the areas where maintenance of this resource is necessary
  • do not represent any level of constraint due to biodiversity, although they will contain designated sites and BAP habitat that do give rise to constraints
  • do not include all the areas where creation and restoration of BAP habitat will be possible. Within the South East, there will be other local opportunities, and more diffuse opportunities. For this reason local opportunity maps may differ from this regional map
  • do not include all the opportunities for creating BAP habitat of potentially regional importance in the urban and marine environments. Please see the link to the left for the first step in the thinking on marine areas of importance for biodiversity. Methodologies for identifying areas in the urban environment are under development and will be included as soon as is practicable.
 
It is not the aim for the whole of each BOA identified to be restored to UK BAP quality habitat. Rather the map identifies the areas of greatest potential for restoration and creation. Certain habitat types and species are not well represented within the Biodiversity Opportunity Areas, such as wildlife associated with arable farmland. In order to address this, regional projects will be set up to support delivery across a wider area. Update and review Where there are improvements in the biodiversity data the BOA map will be reviewed and, where appropriate, updated by the South East England Biodiversity Forum.  

Click on this link to view the Biodiversity Opportunity Areas 

 

Using the BOAs

If you would like to use the BOA map to inform you work you can down load an image and the area statements here. Please note that bydownloading the image or the statement document in will be assumed that you agree to the terms of use also available for download below:

Please contact Tom Butterworthfor a copy of the GIS layer of the BOA map.

 

Relationship to national and local priority areas

As the BOAs are the regional priorities they will encompass the national priorities. This work is being developed at the moment with the creation of Integrated Biodiversity Delivery Areas at a national level. More information will be available on this work shortly.

Local (generally county level) areas will encompass the regional BOAs but may also include other areas that are a priority for action at the local level. 


Identifying BOAs

The Biodiversity Opportunity Areas have been identified using the following data and information: 

  • Presence of key BAP habitats
  • Designated Sites including international/ European Sites, SSSIs
  • Underlying soils 
  • Underlying geology
  • Topography (aspect and slope)
  • Hydrology
  • Landscape Descriptive Units where present 
  • Local expert knowledge backed up by data on habitats and/or species

 

For more information on the method used to identify the BOAs please see the attached document. 

Please follow this link for a briefreport on the BOAs and the proportion of BAP habitats they cover.

 

Update and review

Where there are improvements in the biodiversity data the BOA map will be reviewed and, where appropriate, updated by the South East England Biodiversity Forum.