122 - High Weald : Natural Capital and Key Ecosystem Services

Introduction

The High Weald NCA provides a wide range of benefits to society. Each is derived from the attributes and processes (both natural and cultural features) within the area. These benefits are known collectively as ‘ecosystem services’. The predominant services are summarised below. Further information on ecosystem services provided in the High Weald NCA is contained in the ‘Analysis’ section of this website.

What is Natural Capital?

Natural capital means “the elements of nature that directly or indirectly produce value to people, including ecosystems, species, freshwater, land, minerals, the air and oceans, as well as natural processes and functions” (Natural Capital Committee, 2017).

It is helpful to consider natural capital in the form of a logic chain that represents the links between ecosystem assets, services, benefits and value to people. The figure below displays that logic chain. The quantity and quality of ecosystem assets (woodland, bogs, etc) support different types of ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration or water filtration. These ecosystem services then provide different benefits to society, providing value for people. The figure also shows how management interventions, as well as pressures and drivers of change, influence this chain. Other capital inputs are also often needed for people to obtain the benefits from ecosystem services (a simple example is the processing of trees to produce wood products).

As an example, an area of woodland (ecosystem asset) may reduce air pollution created by traffic on a nearby road. This woodland is therefore improving air quality (ecosystem service) in the local area which results in cleaner air and improved health in the adjacent residential street (benefit). This cleaner air has a value because we know it impacts the health and wellbeing of communities.

Sometimes for ease of understanding, economic framing is used to give these benefits a monetary value. The figure below shows how natural capital assets support the provision of ecosystem services, benefits and value. The roots of the tree show how aspects of asset quality are critical to the provision of ecosystem services. The roots also show that geodiversity underpins the ecosystem assets and therefore the ecosystem services and benefits they can provide. It is important to remember that this diagram, and natural capital frameworks more generally, are a simplification of how nature works in practice.

Natural Capital within this NCA

In 2018, Natural England published ‘Natural Capital Indicators: for defining and measuring change in natural capital’ (Lusardi et al., 2018). This report identified key properties of the natural environment vital for the long-term sustainability of benefits, which can act as indicators of change.

These indicators are designed to inform our understanding of the state of our natural assets. The indicators highlight the importance of our natural assets for delivering which ecosystem service and the benefits they provide for society. The indicators and datasets identified in Natural England’s Natural Capital Indicators Project provide the foundation for the Natural Capital Atlas Profiles.

Natural England’s Natural Capital Atlas Profiles provide an “off the shelf” natural capital evidence base for each county or city region. They have a wide variety of uses with more information in the How to Start Using Your Natural Capital Atlas.

The Natural Capital indicators are presented on the map below by broad asset theme, displaying the natural capital within the NCA.

It is noted that not all indicators listed within the Natural Capital Atlas Profiles are included within the map as data is not yet available to measure them. Refer to the “Indicator Gaps and Limitations” of the Natural Capital Atlas Profiles for further information.

Natural Capital Atlas Profiles

The following Natural Capital Atlas Profiles cover counties within this NCA:
 

• 12: East Sussex
• 20: Kent
• 37: Surrey
• 41: West Sussex

Provisioning services (food, fibre and water supply)

Food provision: This NCA produces some cereals, vegetables, soft fruit, lamb, game and some beef for local consumption. Despite growing interest in specialist and local breeds, numbers of livestock continue to decline.

Timber provision: Despite the High Weald’s long history of woodmanship, most timber is considered to be of low quality and only 15 per cent of the area of woodland is actively managed. . The area continues to provide oak for local construction, chestnut for fencing and other species such as ash and hornbeam for wood fuel.

Water availability: The largest reservoir in south-east England, Bewl Water, is situated in this NCA, providing drinking water to Maidstone and the Medway Towns. Local villages and Hastings are supplied from Darwell Reservoir. Water is also supplied from aquifers in the Ashdown Beds. For information regarding the current state of water availability within this NCA, refer to the Environment Agency (Abstraction Licensing Strategy).

Regulating services (water purification, air quality maintenance and climate regulation)

Climate regulation: The high level of woodland cover and large extent of undisturbed soils under ancient woodlands and permanent grassland mean that the High Weald NCA has a significant role to play in carbon storage and sequestration and subsequently climate regulation, which could be further enhanced by using more timber than other materials in construction.

Regulating soil erosion: More than two-thirds of the NCA is susceptible to some form of soil erosion. The main soil type (loamy/clayey soils with impeded drainage, covering 62 per cent of the NCA) is prone to compaction and capping and slaking, leading to increased risk of soil erosion by surface water run-off, especially on steeper slopes. The freely draining, slightly acid loamy soils (4 per cent of the area) are at enhanced risk of soil erosion on moderately or steeply sloping ground exacerbated where organic matter levels are low and where soils are compacted.

Regulating soil quality: Soils of the High Weald are highly variable over short distances, making it easy to locally overdose with inorganic fertiliser and leading to damage through poaching or using heavy machinery at inappropriate times.

Regulating water flow: There is a risk of fluvial flooding along the lower reaches of the rivers, but important for the High Weald NCA is appropriate management of the numerous gill streams and upper and middle reaches of rivers to mitigate flooding further downstream in adjacent NCAs. There are further opportunities in the valley bottoms to look at pushing flood flows out of eroded water courses onto grassland and woodland to help slow flood flows.

Cultural services (inspiration, education and wellbeing)

Sense of place/inspiration: The harmonious mosaic of small mixed farms and woodland that makes up the High Weald is now considered to be a quintessentially English landscape, yet for many years, until the advent of turnpikes, it was better know for the poor state of its roads and less advanced agriculture. Its mix of wilder elements, reminiscent of the former forest, surviving amid a beautiful, small-scale landscape shaped by man has inspired many people such as the architect Norman Shaw, the artist William Hunt, William Robinson, who pioneered the English natural garden style, and writers such as Rudyard Kipling and AA Milne.

Sense of history: As one of the best preserved medieval landscapes in north-west Europe, the High Weald has a strong sense of history, and this is enhanced by the many individual features such as Battle Abbey, numerous churches and chapels, an abundance of traditional buildings and the remains of the former iron industry. The High Weald is extraordinarily well documented through old maps but these and the great extent of undisturbed ancient woodland which has preserved features from many different time periods still remain relatively unstudied.

Tranquillity: Buildings, tracks and the remains of industrial activities concealed by the High Weald’s extensive woodland cover and overgrown hedgerows make the experience of this landscape today feel relatively tranquil, especially due to the close proximity of London and the busy coastal towns.

Recreation: There is a dense network of public rights of way supplemented by many areas of accessible natural greenspace, mostly provided by the Forestry Commission and bodies such as the National Trust and the Woodland Trust. Ashdown Forest provides an extensive area of open access at the heart of the High Weald. Outdoor sports are well catered for with off-road cycling at Bedgebury Forest, watersports at Bewl Water and soft rock climbing around Tunbridge Wells.

Biodiversity: The human scale of the High Weald’s landscape allows everyone to experience a variety of habitats and wildlife at first hand. The sheer quantity of semi-natural habitat such as ancient woodland is not adequately represented in the extent of Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Although the High Weald’s cold soils may not support the biodiversity hotspots found on the nearby Downs, its ancient countryside and small, mixed farms continue to be home to resilient populations and a high biomass of typical lowland species.

Geodiversity: The High Weald’s sandrock outcrops are important geological features and support nationally rare ferns, mosses, liverworts and lichens, a living legacy from the climate most of Britain experienced around 4000 bc. The 6-kilometre section of eroding sea cliffs at Hastings provides one of the finest exposures of Lower Cretaceous, Wealden sediments in Britain. Their fossil plant material and non-marine animal fossils are some of the best examples of their type worldwide.