MORE than three quarters of Dorset’s important wildlife and geological conservation sites have been lost over the past nine years.

This shocking statistic is revealed in a new report Natural Value: The State of Dorset’s Environment, which explores what Poole, Bournemouth and Dorset are doing to protect and manage their natural habitats.

“Very few people set out to deliberately destroy nature, and in fact lack of management has been a major cause of losses of some habitats in recent years,” says the report, published by Dorset’s Local Nature Partnership and launched in Poole.

Of the 76 Sites of Nature Conservation Interest covering more than 452 acres, 34 were recorded as destroyed or part destroyed and 44 as having declined in quality to such an extent that they no longer qualified.

And 2.8 per cent of Dorset’s 11,000 irreplaceable heritage assets are at risk. However, the Dorset Monument Management Scheme is supporting landowners in clearing scrub and improving public access.

On the plus side, otters have recolonised almost all of the county’s rivers, tourism is worth around £1.44billion each year and supplies 12 per cent of jobs, residents recycle more than the national average waste and more than 25.8 per cent of coastal waters are protected in some way.

Dr Simon Cripps, pictured left, chief executive of Dorset Wildlife Trust and chairman of Dorset’s LNP, said: “This report is long overdue but it has taken a huge amount of work by the many partners which go to form the LNP.

“It shows, as you might expect, that Dorset has an unparalleled natural heritage that is worth billions of pounds each year in income, but it is very fragile and has been badly damaged in the past.

“We must better learn how to look after this goose that lays the golden eggs so that we can achieve valuable growth and development, but not at the cost of the very environment which sustains it.”

The report can be downloaded from dorsetwildlife trust.org.uk/naturalvaluereport.