Guidance

The High Weald AONB Partnership produces a wide range of guidance and evidence-based research.

Developed over more than three decades and informed by leading experts, our guidance includes:

  • Practical habitat management for farmers and land managers
  • Guidance on recognising, surveying and conserving historic landscape features
  • Planning policy advice for local authorities and communities
  • Advice for community groups, schools and charities on how to manage green spaces for wildlife.

Our guidance helps us work together to deliver the objectives of the High Weald AONB Management Plan.

How is the High Weald AONB managed?

The High Weald AONB Partnership does not own or manage any land.

Instead, we work closely with a wide range of partners in an advisory capacity, including farmers and land managers, conservation bodies, community groups, businesses, and local and national government.

The High Weald AONB Management Plan is the single most important document for the area. It sets out long-term objectives for conserving this nationally-important landscape and the local authorities’ ambitions for how the High Weald will be looked after for the next five years.

The Management Plan sets the benchmark for AONB conservation, as well as guiding residents, businesses and visitors on what they can do to help safeguard this special area.

What does landscape mean?

An obvious question you might think, but landscapes are far more than nice views of the land around you.

Landscapes evolve over time due to natural forces but more importantly due to the generations of human beings living and working in them.

The landscape is not just nice scenery, it’s an expression of human history, culture and identity. A place of distinct ecological, biological and cultural character that deserves to be conserved and protected.

Our Evidence

From pilot projects to ground-breaking scientific and social research; historical study to geospatial data analysis, we study every aspect of the landscape to map it, understand it, and ask questions about it.

Everything we do is underpinned by solid evidence. Whether we commission or carry out our own research, we gather evidence that supports the delivery of our High Weald AONB Management Plan.

We use this evidence to advise and support everyone involved in the day to day management of the High Weald.

Talk to us

Can’t find the information you need? Find details for the High Weald AONB team and other organisations who might be able to help: