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.
Agricultural habitats

Agricultural grasslands
The vast majority of grassland habitats in Wales are agriculturally-improved and support little of biodiversity interest for either the fauna or flora. The loss of species-rich hay meadows from the Welsh landscape is well documented, with more than 95% being lost, primarily through conversion to silage and permanent pasture, since the 1950s. Of those that…

Arable habitats
Arable habitats cover about 25% of the European land area and c.30% of the most rapidly declining species in Europe are strongly associated with, or dependent on, arable habitats. Despite this, the habitat remains virtually unprotected at both the national and international levels. Arable habitats have been part of the UK landscape for more than…

Hedgerows and hedgebanks
It is estimated that some 50% of hedgrows in the UK have been removed since the early 1950s, primarily to maximise food production in the aftermath of World War II. The main hedgerow components in Wales are blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) and European gorse (Ulex europaeus), though a wide variety of other trees…