Not all cultures embrace nature and landscape myths with equal ardor. What the myths of ancient forest mean for one European national tradition may translate into something entirely different in another. In Germany, for example, the forest primeval was the site of tribal self- assertion against the Roman empire of stone and law. In England the greenwood was the place where the king disported his power in the royal hunt yet redressed the injustices of his officers. However, a trans- national principle is that concepts of nature are linked with concepts of rurality to embody notions of national identity.

It is clear that inherited memories and myths attached to a particular place share two common characteristics, their surprising endurance through the centuries and their power to shape institutions that we still live with. National identity would lose much of its ferocious enchantment without the mystique of a particular landscape tradition its topography mapped, elaborated, and enriched as a homeland. The poetic tradition of la douce France "sweet France" describes a geography as much as a history, the sweetness of a classically well-ordered place where rivers, cultivated fields, orchards, vineyards, and woods are all in harmonious balance with each other. The famous eulogy of the "sceptred isle," which Shakespeare puts in the mouth of the dying John of Gaunt, invokes cliff-girt insularity as patriotic identity, whereas the heroic destiny of the New World is identified as continental expansiveness in the landscape lyrics of "America the Beautiful." These images bring nature and rurality together in one conservation value system. However, management of rurality and nature do not yet have a common management system.

In all these senses, lines on a map are containers of rurality and nature.

Many commentators conclude that there is no unambiguous way of defining rural. However, the distinction between "urban" and "rural" areas is deeply rooted in human psychology and from this perspective it is important to make positive attempts to specify important elements of rurality to be included in a conservation managment sytem. Nowhere in Britain can this analysis be done better than in the swathe of Suffolk from the coast between Aldeburgh and Southwold, inland to the western county boundary at Bury St Edmunds (Fig 1).

Fig 1 Pattern of rurality in England and Wales

It is important to have a working definition of countryside that considers all its major interacting elements together as an integrated conservation management system. The plans refer to areas dominated (either currently or recently) by extensive land uses, such as agriculture and forestry, or large open spaces of undeveloped land. They focus on small, low- order settlements which demonstrate a strong relationship between buildings and surrounding extensive landscape, and which are thought of as rural by most of their residents. The features to be conserved are those that engender a way of life characterised by a cohesive identity based on respect for the environmental and behavioural qualities of living as part of an extensive landscape.

Using these terms of reference for the concept of 'countryside', three fundamental aspects of rural areas should be stressed. First, the countryside is composed of a complex mosaic of landscape elements, and rural areas function through processes of interaction, change and conflict between these elements. Furthermore, the countryside is a palimpsest of components from different periods in time. It is part of a long evolution which is still occurring, and should therefore be viewed very much as a dynamic system. Finally, the countryside is a working environment rather than simply an area of escape for town dwellers. These issues reinforce the point that countryside (and the rurality it represents) is a dynamic phenomenon whose definition should be adaptable and open to frequent re-evaluation.

Fig 1 The county of Suffolk as a composite of six Natural Areas and two Character Areas

Natural Areas

37 = The Fens; 46 = Breckland; 48 = The Broads; 49 = Suffolk Coast and Heaths; 50 = East Anglian Plain; 51 = East Anglian Chalk.

Character Areas

SN&HS = South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands; SS&NE = South Suffolk and North Essex Claylands.

Much of our biodiversity depends upon the broad character of whole landscapes, rather than the isolated ecosystems of a small number of closely defined and protected sites. Wildlife is not restricted to designated and protected sites such as nature reserves or SSSIs; it occurs throughout the countryside, coast and built up areas. Administrative boundaries, such as County boundaries, are irrelevant to wildlife and natural features. No part of the country is without some wildlife interest. To translate this reality into an appropriate knowledge framework for comprehensive local action a key component of England’s nature conservation strategy for the 1990s was the ‘Natural Areas’ approach. The countryside was divided up according to the characteristic wildlife and natural features. These 120 areas of local distinctiveness defined a series of Natural Areas with boundaries based on the distribution of wildlife and natural features, and on the land use pattern and human history of each area. The viewpoint was that the uniformity these areas offered was a more effective knowledge framework for the integrated top-down and bottom-up planning and achievement of nature conservation objectives than do areas contained within administrative boundaries. In particular the Natural Areas approach appeared to give a new way of determining priorities for nature conservation in areas with ecological and landscape integrity, and to set objectives which reflect these priorities across administrative boundaries and organisations.

The East Anglian Plain occupies the centre of East Anglia, and is an example of a natural area defined by its uniform cover of glacial clays, which until now has received little recognition. Adjacent natural areas, such as Broadland or Breckland, have long had public recognition. The natural areas concept encourages a focus on all parts of the country because all natural areas have their own characteristic wildlife features, even though some natural areas are richer in wildlife than others.

Area Profiles

After a wide range of local consultations on the boundaries of the Natural Areas themselves and what should be used to define their distinctive character, a profile of each area was published. A profile describes the wildlife and natural features of a Natural Area, and what makes it special and distinctive. It therefore includes nature conservation objectives that are particular to the area. Essentially, a natural area is a part of the country that has a unique combination of natural features and land-use, mainly influenced by landform, climate and soils.

Using natural areas, we can more easily identify common processes, issues and trends affecting each aspect of the natural resource and decide how we want to conserve it. The natural area framework helps us to strive towards conservation within the whole landscape, moving outwards from the current focus on small areas with high concentrations of wildlife. At a practical level, management know how about a particular feature should be more easily transferrable from site to site within a Natural Area.

The Natural Area System in Strategic Planning

The practical aims of a profile are to influence nature conservation actions for the foreseeable future by:

Character areas

The Natural Area concept includes local people's recognition of the area. People are stakeholders in local wildlife because plants, animals and natural features have developed within their community’s culture and history. Although generally the wildlife and natural features of Natural Areas are elements that people recognise as being distinctive, sometimes the local recognition of the impact of history and culture require Natural Areas to be subdivided or combined to make them socially meaningful. These areas with a particular cultural unity are described as Character Areas. For example, the London Basin is a Natural Area divided into seven Character Areas; the East Anglian Plain is also a Natural Area divided into three Character Areas.

The Local Heritage Resource

With regard to conservation action plans, the operational component of a Character Area is a landscape that can be identified by local people as a heritage resource. This is usually their local community, but larger socially meaningful landscape heritage units may emerge based on river valleys or watersheds that contain parts of more than one Natural Area. The Blything Hundred is an example of the latter, being a well documented ancient tribal settlement area of East Suffolk. It is contained within the watershed of the River Blyth, and some smaller streams, draining the eastern edge of the High Suffolk Claylands Character Area. This distinct drainage system reaches the sea through the Suffolk Coasts and Heaths Natural Area

Therefore, a Natural Area profile does not set precise targets for any parts of the conservation resource. It prescribes no actions, contains no work programmes, nor has timescales for achievement. It simply sets a uniform knowledge framework for current and future action. New action plans or programmes, for particular species, habitats or organisations, may be drawn up as a result of the analyses in a profile, but they will not become part of that profile. They will be management plans for specific places within a Natural Area. The local targets will be ecologically relevant, by being based on an understanding of the Natural Area's resource and objectives. However, the administrative framework for action remains based on Local Authority areas, as many other organisations use those boundaries (e.g. County Wildlife Trusts, FWAG). For example, the Suffolk Biodiversity Action Plan will include elements from the natural area-based targets for all the natural areas in Suffolk, to be worked upon using Suffolk as the implementation unit.