Extensive work carried out in 2009 by staff at ERCCIS, has enabled Cornwall Wildlife Trust and its key partner Cornwall Council to gain a comprehensive view of how the landscape of Cornwall has changed in the decade 1995-2005 and the impacts the changes may be having on the county’s biodiversity.
The Cornwall Land Cover change project required a detailed analysis of aerial photographs 
taken in 1995 and in 2005, enabling ERCCIS to determine the changes in Cornwall’s land cover.The study has found that in the decade 1995 to 2005, losses of important wildlife habitat were relatively small in comparison to losses that occurred in previous years.However, there has been a continued loss of important areas.For example an area equivalent to just over 100 football pitches of heathland and wetland habitat has been lost.
The project finds are good news for Cornwall’s wildlife and landscape character. Overall there was a decline in the rate of loss of Cornish hedges in the decade 1995 to 2005, likely to have been due to the introduction of legislation that protects Hedgerows in 1997.However, there were still significant losses of Cornish hedges due to urban expansion and hedges with mature trees were lost in connection with the development of industrial estates at Bodmin and Falmouth together with the creation of housing estates at Launceston and St Austell.
Between 1995 and 2005, the largest land cover changes occurred in enclosed farmland.The rate of loss of agricultural land to built development has increased from 600 ha (1482 acres) between 1988 and 1995 to 1900 ha (4693 acres) between 1995 and 2005, this is an area nearly twice the size of the city of Truro. Enclosed farmland is a hugely important habitat for threatened wildlife species such as skylark, barn owl, bats, dormice and the marsh fritillary butterfly.
It is very good news that conservation programmes have worked towards the re-establishment of considerable areas wildlife habitat such as over 180 ha of heathland in the St Austell China Clay area as part of the Tomorrow’s Heathland Heritage Project.Such areas will have increasing value for wildlife as they become fully established.
