South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty or South Devon AONB is an area of land covering a large extent of the South Hams district of Devon, England between Plymouth and Brixham, surrounding the latter. It includes the district's coastline and the Dart and Avon valleys. It is home to about 34,000 people in an area of 130 square miles.
[edit] Importance
It has several Sites of Special Scientific Interest, including two National Nature Reserves and three Special Areas of Conservation. It contains nationally important populations of greater horseshoe bat, cirl bunting, shore dock and great green bush cricket[1].
[edit] Establishment
The purpose of an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is to preserve and enhance the beauty of certain areas of countryside. South Devon AONB was established in 1960. However since then, accurate records were not kept, so the history of the AONB is incomplete [2].
