A HUGE amount of the region's countryside will be conserved and enhanced by a five-year management plan backed by the Countryside Agency.

Protecting beautiful scenery from the thousands of visitors it attracts is one of the aims of the strategy backed by nine local authorities committed to preserving the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB)

The blueprint sets out measures for promoting tourism, developing conservation projects, encouraging long-term land management, conserving geological features and extending grant schemes to support environmental initiatives.

The North Pennines AONB is the second largest of England's 41 protected zones. It stretches from Hexham to the Yorkshire Dales National Park in the south and Carlisle in the west.

Its habitats include bog, hay meadows and woodland.

As well as providing a home for 80 per cent of England's struggling black grouse population it hosts 20,000 pairs of breeding waders, 12 per cent of the UK's merlin population and ten per cent of the country's golden plovers.

The AONB incorporates parts of the Pennine Dales Environmentally Sensitive Area as well as three national nature reserves.

Last June it gained worldwide recognition when it became Britain's first European Geopark.

Three quarters of the scheme's development costs have come from the Countryside Agency.

North-East regional director Huw Davies said: "Pressure on all of our best loved countryside continues to increase, and in this, the North Pennines is no exception.

"Employment opportunities in our rural communities are limited, hence tourism and visitors have become increasingly important to the economy of the area, but achieving a balance between access and conservation is vital if we are to prevent the destruction of the very thing visitors come to see."