The West Pennine Moors landscape contains a rich variety of natural and industrial heritage which is highly accessible to the surrounding towns and cities and which sustains its ecological and cultural wealth. Despite the lack of an official landscape designation, the area provides an opportunity to test different approaches to achieve a sustainable landscape for the future, which conserves the landscape character and its natural and historic assets, sustains rural communities and contributes to the well-being and healthy lifestyles of the adjoining urban communities.

This natural and built heritage is under pressure from a variety of sources including:

• changes to traditional farm practices and communities and agricultural intensification which are impacting on the resources for and integrity of the landscape structure and character;
• recreational pressures from the adjacent urban communities including demands for open access and the incidence of anti-social uses such as off road motorbike use; and
• the need to adapt to and combat climate change including the maintenance of effective carbon sinks and the use of renewable energy technologies.

Despite this lack of an official landscape designation, the West Pennine Moors partners have been guided by a series of management framework documents since 1975:

• West Pennine Moors Conservation Subjects Plan (1975)
• West Pennine Moors Recreation and Conservation Subjects Plan (1986)
• West Pennine Moors Statement of Intent 2000-2010 (2000)

These documents have provided the management structures and plans for the implementation of projects and actions to further the aims and objectives of the partnership.

During 2008/09, the partnership intends to review the West Pennine Moors Statement of Intent and develop a new West Pennine Moors Management Plan for the next 10 years. Check the News section of this website for further details.