Environment Home Page and Highlights

Air quality is generally good in the South West, although 24 Air Quality Management Areas have been declared in 12 local authority areas. These are primarily in urban areas to monitor and reduce air pollution mainly resulting from traffic.

Almost all of the region’s rivers were of good or fair quality in 2004. There have been significant improvements since 1990, as a result of a major clean up of discharges from sewage treatment works and industry in recent years, rigorous enforcement of discharge consents and more focus on pollution prevention.

Both farmland and woodland bird populations have fallen significantly in the South West, due to the loss of habitat diversity and quality caused by increasing specialisation of agricultural activity, the loss of hedgerows and other uncropped habitats and the use of pesticides.

The South West has just under a quarter of England’s Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), the condition of which have improved significantly in recent years with over half in favourable condition in 2005 compared to 44% in 2002.

A total of 62,525 items of litter were found on 50 beaches in the South West in 2004 an increase of 21% on 2003. With an average of 4,277 items found per km, litter found on the region’s beaches was around 50% higher than the average for England and significantly higher than any English region.

Mounts Bay (Cornwall), Whitsand Bay and Looe (Cornwall), Gerran’s Bay & Veryan Bay (Cornwall) and Thurlestone (Devon) have the highest number of strandings in England and feature in the top 10 stranding areas in the UK.

Four fifths of the region's land area is classified as agricultural land although the industry accounts for less than 2% of regional output. The region has the second highest number of people employed in farming of all the English regions but full-time employment in agriculture continues to decline.

Renewable energy is currently generated in 102 locations throughout the South West, supplying over 109 megawatts or approximately 3% of the region’s total electricity consumption. This is enough to power the equivalent of 130,875 homes, which is already preventing the creation of 313,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.

Total municipal waste (all waste collected by or on behalf of local authorities) has increased by 26% since 1996/97, from around 2.3 million tonnes to over 2.8 million tonnes in 2003/04. However, this reduced for the first time in 2003/04, by just over 1%. The amount of waste being sent for disposal in landfill in the region also declined by 6% between 2001/02 and 2003/04.

The State of the South West report is part of the South West Observatory, a regional partnership of public sector bodies. Chapter copyright remains with the chapter authors. See the terms and conditions for more infomation.