So I work for an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB for short), which is a mouthful especially when combined with its full name of the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs AONB.
But what does AONB mean? Well, it is a landscape who's quality in terms of natural, cultural and built heritage and visual character is so high that the government decided it needed to be looked after using legislation.
An AONB is very similar to national parks, such as the Lake District, which many more people have heard of, and in fact it has an equivalent status in planning. National Parks however are their own Local Authority (or council) while AONB's are run as partnerships of existing councils. In the piece of law in which they were created (the Access to the Countryside Act 1949), the primary purpose of an AONB was defined as 'conserving and enhancing National Beauty, this is important because you will notice that the word 'preserving' is not mentioned.
These are living landscapes which will continue to change but which we need to work a little bit harder to look after because they are so special. One final factoid National Parks have a duty to provide for access and recreation while AONBs don't. My AONB has its own management plan and you can find out about this and much more besides at the AONB website.
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