Agricultural habitats have been part of the UK landscape for more than 8000 years and are an integral component of Welsh ecosystems. Farmland hedgerows are key to any programme designed to facilitate the movement of species through the Welsh landscape. Welsh hay meadows and pastures which, although also included under semi-natural habitat components, are essentially agricultural habitats and would not exist without the appropriate management regimes. However, the most threatened of the UK agricultural habitats are the arable systems, and the segetal ecosystems that have developed alongside them. Although these host c.30% of the most rapidly declining plant species in the UK, they are offered little or no protection by a nature conservation community that can appear disinterested, primarily because the habitat is not considered ‘natural’. The reality is that, with the right measures in place, these habitats are important sources of biodiversity and can support large pollinator populations, as well as important farmland bird populations. It would be a natural history disaster to dismiss arable habitats as unimportant, as they account for c.25% of the European land area. The challenge is to develop coherent biodiversity strategies that recognise the importance of these habitats and integrate them alongside the ‘semi-natural’ habitats.