The Broads National Park
The Broad National Park is just over 300km2. Its landscape includes marsh, woodland, farmland and open water, situated in East Norfolk and North Suffolk. It has 190km of navigable waterways and 63 expanses of water called Broads. The Broads are former peat cuttings, which was dried and used as fuel. The rivers were used for transporting the peat. The dominant land-use of the Broadland catchments is agriculture: intensive arable and pockets of cattle and pigs. Trinity Broad is also used to supply drinking water.
The Broads has National Park status, which was designated in 1989. The Broad Authority manages the park. Tourism is a large industry for the Broads, with activities such as boating, canoeing and sailing. 7.2 million visitors per year visit the Broads, inputting £419 million to the local economy (in 2009). In itself, it has a population of 5,721.
The Broads is ecologically important: there are 28 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) covering 24% of the area, a third of which are National Nature Reserves (NNRs) too. This is because there is high biodiversity: 250 species of fenland plant and 200 invertebrate species. 45% of land is protected grazing marsh, which is important for waders and waterfowl. This is because a lot of marsh has been drained for agriculture, so protected marshes are important. The Broads has Ramsar recognition of wetland importance. If it was left unmanaged, succession would lead to the climatic climax in Britain: Temperate Woodland, with the catastrophic loss of these wetlands.