I am pleased to present to you the Isle of Wight Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Management Plan for 2025 – 2030.
The plan is published in an uncertain time for the future of agriculture, the pressures on land use, and climate and biodiversity crises. To address these issues there is an emerging national Land Use Framework and Environmental Land Management Scheme, national biodiversity targets enshrined in the Environment Act 2021 and local action including both an Island Planning Strategy and a Local Nature Recovery Strategy. This plan is an important contribution to all these strategic documents that will steer the future of land use for the next few years.
The plan is the result of extensive work, involving consultation with the public and partners, as well as a detailed review of our previous management plan to create a comprehensive new document examining all aspects of the Isle of Wight AONB’s landscapes and seascapes.
The Isle of Wight AONB partnership is funded by DEFRA and supported by the Isle of Wight Council. It is made up of representatives from a range of organisations, covering a vast array of backgrounds and interests. This diversity has always been the partnership’s greatest strength. The management plan brings together the partnership by outlining our common objectives and stating our policies to ensure these special landscapes and seascapes of the island are conserved and enhanced for future generations.
I would like to thank all those who have helped to bring the Isle of Wight AONB Management Plan 2025-2030 together; from those on the Steering Committee representing partner interests, to the advisory members, to volunteers on various project groups and everyone who took part in the consultation process.
This document follows the Review of Protected Landscapes in England (the Glover Review) and the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 both of which increase the influence of the Isle of Wight National Landscape partnership on the management of the land but this can only come about with many people working together around the common goal of conserving and enhancing the complex and diverse range of landscapes that make up the Isle of Wight AONB. These landscapes provide a whole range of benefits, economic, health and well-being, nature recovery and ecosystem services or just pure enjoyment, for those who live, work or visit the island.
We hope you find the plan useful and informative, but we also hope you find a degree of comfort in the Isle of Wight National Landscape partnership’s commitment to the continuing conservation and enhancement of this nationally designated landscape for the benefit of the whole island.
Mike Greenslade Chair Isle of Wight National Landscape Steering Committee
Statement of Significance
The special qualities of the Isle of Wight AONB are many, contrasting, varied and inspiring. They contribute greatly to the quality of life and well-being of local communities and visitors.
From majestic sea cliffs and sweeping beaches to the quiet solitude of ancient woodland; the ever changing patchwork of worked fields to the timeless and enduring presence of the downs; the intricate inlets of tranquil creeks to the long distance views from coastal heath and downland; the planned and manicured gardens of former Royal Estates and Victorian villas to the irregular undulating hedged fields of pasture; the dark starlit skies to the bustle and colour of festivals and events; the winding paths, shutes and hollow ways in the countryside to chines and steps down cliffs to the beach; place names and dialect to poetry, literature and art; isolated houses, hamlets and rural villages to harbour towns, castles and tumuli; plants and animals to fossilised trees and dinosaur footprints. 1
Vision
The Isle of Wight AONB will remain a beautiful, thriving landscape cared for and appreciated by all.
The Isle of Wight AONB remains nationally recognised as an important and biodiverse landscape. People, who live, work and visit the area value, appreciate and understand its special qualities and support its continued conservation and enhancement. People can experience ‘Dark Skies’ and peace and tranquillity as part of the experience of living and working in or visiting the AONB. Seascapes remain an important part of the character of the AONB and its Heritage Coasts.
Policies and the decisions taken, based on sound evidence around the natural and historic environment and landscape, have conserved and enhanced the special characteristics of the Island’s finest landscapes, giving the AONB a strong identity and ‘sense of place’.
Anthropogenic climate change has, and continues, to take place in a way which threatens the conservation and enhancement the natural beauty of the area as well as the needs of local communities, rural businesses and the land use sector. Mitigation of these influences are an important part of this Plan.
Farming and woodland management remain central to the continued conservation and enhancement of the beauty of the landscape. Local processing facilities and markets provide essential incomes and allow sustainable approaches to farming and land management that conserve and enhance the AONB.
New technologies have been appropriately accommodated through careful consideration and mitigation for their impact upon the AONB, bringing economic and social benefits and retaining the intrinsic special qualities of the environment.
Economic benefit has been brought directly to local communities through sustainable tourism and business activities.
International Context
Although In 2013, the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) UK Committee reaffirmed the Category V status for AONBs, a review in 20232 said that AONB’s no longer qualify for this status but designations within them (Sites/Areas of Special Scientific Interest; marine protected area designations; Ramsar Sites, Special Protection Areas, and Special Areas of Conservation) would qualify.
The European Landscape Convention (ELC) is a treaty for the protection, conservation, management and planning of all the landscapes in Europe. It also encourages the integration of landscape into all relevant areas of policy including cultural, economic and social policies.
In the ELC, landscape is defined as ‘an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors.’ The Convention also places particular emphasis on the need for co-operation for landscape management across administrative boundaries making the role of AONBs particularly relevant.
