Biodiversity: Why is habitat connectivity important?

28 March 2025

Scottish farmland supports a wide array of semi-natural habitats for wildlife, including hedgerows, water margins and woodlands. These features can also provide ecological stepping stones and corridors, enhancing habitat connectivity. This connectivity helps species move through our countryside, allowing them to escape harm or find the right mix of resources to survive and thrive.

What is habitat connectivity?

Connected habitats allow a range of wildlife to move more freely from place to place. Expansive and wild landscapes allow species to roam unobstructed, while human developments and infrastructure can create barriers to their movement.

Most species require a mix of several key resources to survive and thrive. This may include food sources, access to water, areas suitable to make their homes, protection from predators or disturbance and areas where they can find mates. Each of these resources may only be available in spatially separated habitats and this availability may change over the course of the seasons, making it necessary for animals to traverse the landscape to find what they need. For example, bumblebees require rough, tussocky vegetation to nest, hedgerows and trees such as willow to provide early season forage, and flower-rich field margins and pastures later in the season.

Creating or maintaining high-quality habitats is the most important way to support Scotland’s biodiversity. Farmers can play a key role in this – Applying for a biodiversity, habitat and landscape management survey through Farm Advisory Service Specialist Advice is a great place to start. However, farmers looking to deliver additional benefits to nature could explore how to make their on-farm habitats more accessible to local species, allowing these habitats to better contribute to wider networks across the landscape.

Beyond basic survival, giving species the freedom to move has several other benefits:

Large and connected populations of species are more resistant and adaptable to external shocks such as disease, changing conditions, or other pressures.
As climate change impacts become more severe, habitat corridors will allow species to migrate to new ranges as conditions change in their existing habitats.
Increasing habitat connectivity within and around your farm will allow more wildlife to access it, bringing with them a wide range of ecosystem services with farm productivity benefits (e.g. natural pest control, pollination).

How can farmers support habitat connectivity?

The distribution of habitats across a landscape can be described as “patches,” “corridors,” and “matrix.” Patches are areas of habitat important for a particular species; Corridors are areas of habitat which connect isolated patches and provide a channel for movement through the landscape; Matrix is the background or wider landscape context, areas which are not suitable habitat for that species (Figure 1).

Figure 1: An illustrative landscape with patches, corridors, and mosaics of habitats, situated amongst non-habitat matrix. Source: International Association for Landscape Ecology.

Farmers can help wildlife by increasing the area or improving the quality of the patches of semi-natural habitats that they manage. However, it is also crucial to achieve better connections between these patches through building nature corridors across landscapes. There are several ways farmers can promote and expand these corridors:

Rivers and burns are inherently connected, acting as key nature corridors flowing across different landholdings. Increasing the width of buffer zones and considering riparian (riverbank) tree planting can make these watercourses more useful to a wider range of species, in addition to reducing diffuse pollution, flood prevention, river shading, and carbon sequestration.
Tree corridors and hedgerows create wildlife paths across the landscape, especially when targeted to connect larger areas of woodland. Expanding these habitats (on top of existing best practice hedgerow management) can increase their value as habitats in their own right, while also creating benefits for productivity, erosion control, water regulation, and carbon sequestration.
Removing barriers to movement such as fences, walls, weirs and culverts, where these are not necessary, will make land and watercourses more accessible for wildlife. There are many ways to build gaps into these barriers and/or make them less dangerous to certain species, such as fences which are low enough to jump over, high enough to crawl under, or more visible (i.e. such that animals do not run into them).

Working in partnership

The first step towards improving connectivity is to look beyond your farm boundary to consider what habitats neighbours have on their land and what other natural assets exist in the wider landscape. Does your neighbour have a woodland or hedgerow that dead-ends at your farm boundary? Is your farm within a national park or UNESCO Biosphere? Does it adjoin a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) or National Nature Reserve (NNR)? Then, consider what habitats could be introduced or expanded to create a larger or better-connected network for local species.

If none of these options are readily available or suitable for your farm, creating or expanding areas of habitat is still a key action. Just because there are no larger areas of habitat to connect in your vicinity doesn’t mean you cannot provide a useful habitat – On the contrary, “islands” of habitat isolated within a relatively nature-poor landscape can form important oases for local species. These isolated habitats can also contribute to connectivity by providing “stepping stones” of habitat for species crossing a landscape, for example migratory birds.

Well-connected habitats are the gold standard but increasing the diversity of land cover and habitat types creates a “mosaic” of different habitats, important for supporting a corresponding diversity of species within landscapes (Figure 1).

What support is available for these actions?

Habitat connectivity is a key driver of biodiversity recovery, and this is reflected in targeted efforts to support that recovery, including public support and private sector initiatives. The Scottish Government has committed to mainstreaming biodiversity uplift throughout their policies and to deliver connectivity by establishing Nature Networks across the landscape.

Scottish Government support for biodiversity on farms has historically been delivered through the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS). This competitive scheme supports targeted actions for priority species. Applications which deliver new habitat linkages (both within individual, and across collaborating landholdings) receive higher scores, incentivising increased connectivity.
New agricultural support under the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Act 2024 (which may be phased in to replace AECS from 2027) is structured around tiered payments for delivering nature and climate benefits. Many of the measures available for support under enhanced tiers include interventions which support connectivity and nature networks, such as enhancing field margins, hedgerows, and small scale tree planting.

As we look to the future, we are likely to see an increase in collaborative approaches to nature restoration, with farming clusters securing funding for bigger more ambitious projects that deliver at scale. Scottish Government has also made clear their intention to support nature markets in Scotland, which could present additional opportunities for farmers.

Key takeaways

Habitat connectivity is crucial to support nature. Farmers who are looking to increase their land’s value for nature can consider the following steps:

Take stock of existing habitat types and their condition to determine which areas of a farm which have the potential to deliver more for nature. A FAS Specialist Advice biodiversity, habitat and landscape management survey can help with this. Examine whether farm infrastructure may pose obstacles to wildlife and determine whether barriers could be modified or removed.
Look at neighbouring landholdings, local habitat networks, and the wider landscape. Discuss opportunities to collaborate with neighbouring farms to deliver larger and more ambitious projects. Remember that landholdings situated in relatively nature-depleted areas can still host key resources for wildlife.
Stay up to date with existing and new opportunities to fund these actions. Seek advice about what actions might be suitable to integrate with your farm enterprises.