Farmed Landscapes

Agriculture defines Suffolk’s landscape. Over 75% of the county is under some form of agricultural management, a proportion that reflects the quality of Suffolk’s soils – particularly the heavy boulder clays of the central and northern plateau and the lighter, more tractable soils of the sandier south and east. This long history of cultivation has shaped the county’s biodiversity, either by driving species to the margins or, where traditional practices persist, by sustaining habitats and species that have nowhere else to go.

Arable field margins, hedgerows, grass buffer strips and farm woodland edges are the structural features that determine how much wildlife a farmed landscape can support. In a county where the field centres have been largely emptied of biodiversity through the intensification of the mid-twentieth century, these marginal habitats carry disproportionate ecological weight. They provide nesting cover, foraging habitat, movement corridors and overwintering refuges for a wide range of farmland birds, small mammals, invertebrates and plants. Their loss – through hedge removal, margin cultivation or the drift of agrochemicals – has been one of the principal drivers of the catastrophic declines in farmland wildlife recorded since the 1970s.

The turtle dove (Streptopelia turtur) is the flagship species for this assemblage and one of Britain’s most urgent conservation priorities. The UK breeding population has declined by over 98% since 1970, and East Anglia, including Suffolk, now represents the last substantial stronghold. The turtle dove’s requirements are specific: dense hedgerow cover for nesting, open ground with a supply of small seeds for foraging, and shallow water for drinking. Operation Turtle Dove, operating across Suffolk and neighbouring counties, has demonstrated that targeted habitat management can slow and locally reverse declines, but recovery at a meaningful scale requires a landscape-level commitment to wildlife-friendly farming across the county.