We are all aware that across the world many habitats and species are under threat from man's activities. Rain forests and pandas are well-known examples, but in Northern Ireland too elements of our local biodiversity are in local decline - many of our bogs have been destroyed or reduced in size and corncrakes have disappeared altogether.

The threats to world biodiversity resulted in 156 countries, including the UK, signing the Biodiversity Convention in 1992. As a result, there is now a UK Biodiversity Action Plan, a Northern Ireland Biodiversity Strategy (download the PDF summary) and the National Trust has launched its own Biodiversity Strategy for 2004-2009. The strategy includes lists of priority habitats and species that require special action to ensure their long-term future survival and increase.

Much of the National Trust effort in managing the sites it owns is focused on actively managing these priority habitats and species.