AESME Lot 9: Assessment of the impact of agri-environment schemes on SSSI recovery

Undertake an evidence review to establish what the existing literature tells us about the relationship between AES and SSSIs, and owner/manager attitude towards and motivation for managing protected sites.

The objectives of this project are: - To assess the impact of AES on SSSI condition by reviewing the existing literature to: o assess the extent to which there is evidence of change in condition, across the range of SSSI features and AES options. o assess the extent to which there is evidence of a causal relationship between AES and changes in SSSI condition - To understand what motivates owners and occupiers to manage their SSSIs appropriately for the interest features, and what factors encourage pro-environmental behaviour change. - Based on the findings from objectives 1) and 2), to identify which factors influence the success or failure of current AES on SSSIs (tenderers are encouraged to consider a wide range of factors including, but not limited to, environmental, economic and social), providing evidence to feed in to scheme improvements. - To use these findings to draw conclusions about the extent to which AES is leading to changes in SSSI condition, and where possible, evaluate what sort of effect AES is having, e.g. negative, neutral, conserving or enhancing. It is recognised that there may be more evidence for some habitats/interest features than others and findings may be best reported at the habitat/interest feature rather than whole scheme level. Evidence gaps should be explicitly identified and recommendations made about the evidence required to address those gaps.

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