The Lizard has long been famed for its exceptional botanical interest and was the first subject of British Wildlife’s Classic Wildlife Sites series (Byfield 1991). In the decades since that article, the peninsula has maintained its status as a ‘Mecca’ for botanists, but also been the focus of pioneering work to restore and expand populations of some of its rarest plants. Here, Andy Byfield and David Pearman explore the efforts being made to preserve the assemblages that make the Lizard Peninsula so special.
It could be said that most conservation projects fall into one of two categories. On one hand, we have those that focus on habitat management while leaving individual species to take their chances, as perhaps best exemplified by the rewilding movement. On the other, we have single-species projects, which often place considerable effort in meeting the needs of just one, typically charismatic, species.