An ESA has no planning status and therefore cannot be used as a reason for refusing planning applications. These features are highly valued, both for their scenic beauty and for the habitats they provide for plants and wildlife. Incentives to increase food production in the past have led to changes in farming practices. There has been a shift from mixed farming and traditional stock-farming to more intensive methods of livestock production and crop farming. This has resulted in a loss of wildlife habitats and landscape features.
Farmers too are keen to conserve the countryside in which they live and work.
The ESA scheme is the corner-stone of this policy. Traditionally, cattle had been taken there to graze during the summer months from as far afield as Scotland. By the late 1970s and early 1980s, however, it had become less profitable to farm stock and many farmers changed to arable farming. As a result, marshland was drained, ploughed and cropped. But the changes in the appearance of the area and the loss of a variety of plants and wildlife in the grasslands and dykes caused great local concern.