Ecologists are calling for the Government to amend its forthcoming Countryside Bill to give extra protection to important habitats like farm ponds and urban green spaces.

Conservation group Wildlife Trusts wants the Bill, soon to be debated in Parliament, to reflect fears that thousands of small sites may be under threat.

It says that although the Bill offers more safeguards for Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), it is not helping unlisted yet locally important sites.

Many of these sites enjoy some protection from locally administered policies but, according to Wildlife Trusts, more could be done financially and practically to aid landowners in managing them.

Sensitive sites

The Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions has already proposed that local authorities identify sensitive sites and encourage positive management - a move welcomed by Wildlife Trusts.

But, says the group's Dr Simon Lyster, more can be done.

"So much of our wildlife depends on the pockets of habitat which occur outside the SSSIs," he said.

"They are being damaged at an alarming rate and we need better systems of encouragement and advice so that they are better looked after in the future.

"In the county of Shropshire alone a survey of wildlife sites revealed a 44% loss in meadowland between 1978 and 1991 and a quarter of the wildlife sites in Suffolk remain under threat from inappropriate management or neglect.

"Without common standards and a co-ordinated approach the systems can never reach their full potential. The Wildlife Trusts want to see wildlife site systems giving legal standing with local authorities running the system to common standards."