Introduction: improving habitats for insects

The discussions in previous chapters provide some of the perspective underpinning what might be considered ‘good management’, by helping to define clear objectives of a conservation programme and the actions needed to accomplish them, either on particular sites or more widely. Considerations of habitat extent and quality are integral to this, with enhancement (sometimes, reinforcement) and restoration of sites and resources the central issues for both short term and longer term conservation. In addition to the intrinsic features of any single site, the place of that site within the wider landscape must be considered in relation to implications of isolation, with the maintenance or restoration of connectivity between populations (through sites) sought at almost every opportunity. Agricultural landscapes, for example, are a prime focus for conservation of some insects, and may present very complex mosaics of natural remnant patches across and within a wide variety of highly modified habitat and resource conditions. They provide many opportunities for manipulation for conservation of individual species (New 2005a; Ouin et al. 2004), because many of their structural and compositional features may be modifiable without compromising their primary purpose of providing commodities for humanity. Indeed, emphasising the roles of insects in promoting ecosystem processes seen as beneficial by landowners may facilitate conservation measures for species of lesser direct interest to them.

Particularly in Europe, so-called ‘brownfield sites’ have attracted considerable interest for insect conservation, and have also provided many opportunities for restoration. These are sites used previously for development but now abandoned.