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| 1. LOCATION AND STATUS |
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The land owned and managed by the Malvern Hills Conservators is
diverse in terms of land-use and habitat type and is dispersed geographically, because of its elongated north-south axis. The bulk of the land lies on the boundary between the counties of Worcestershire and Herefordshire (Figure 1; this figure is not available in this Web site version) and is predominantly registered as common land. The area of land under the Conservators' jurisdiction is approximately 1200 ha, of which they own about 1000 ha. There are some small areas of land enclosed by Conservators' land and currently managed by the Conservators where proof of ownership has not been established. Throughout this document the phrase the Conservators' land refers to the land owned or managed by the Conservators.
Present common rights are enshrined through the Commons Registration Act of 1965. The only rights registered on the land are rights of common of pasture. Details are held in the Conservators' office or can be obtained from the Commons Rights Registers held by the county councils. Management Zones The Conservators' land is extensive, geographically dispersed and varied in its under-lying geology and its landscape quality, land-use and ecology. It is considered necessary, therefore, to sub- divide it into smaller, convenient geographical parcels, or zones, for management purposes. It is likely that detailed management prescriptions and operational management plans will be needed for each of the zones eventually. The zones are briefly described in Table 1 and are used, where appropriate, as the basis for dividing the plan into manageable sections. The location of each of the zones is shown in Figure 2. Existing Management Schemes The land has been managed following the prescriptions of the management plan produced in 1989 (Malvern Hills Conservators 1989). The implementation of this plan was evaluated, in its greatest part, in a report entitled An evaluation of the Implementation of the 1989 Management Plan Nature Conservation Policies (Alma 1998a). Parts of the Conservators' land which have been notified by English Nature as Sites of Scientific Interest (SSSI) (i.e. most of the Main Hills; Zones 1, 2 and 3) and part of Castlemorton Common (within Zone 5) are the subjects of English Nature's Site Management Statements (SMSs). These documents were prepared for the land owners and some areas of the Malvern Hills SSSI are without the Conservators' ownership or management control. The Main Hills Zones managed by the Conservators are covered, therefore, by a number of SMSs, prepared for the Conservators themselves and for land managed by the Conservators and owned by Severn Trent Water, The Little Malvern Estate, and the Eastnor Estate. The prescriptions for the management of the areas covered by each SMS have been adopted by the Conservators for the land under their control. The SMSs form the main part of the management prescriptions given in Section B, Proposed Management Actions. Licences and Way-leaves A register of grazing licences and permitted way-leaves is held at the Conservators' office and is continually updated. |
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