Bodmin Moor is one of the twelve sections of the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty - a nationally designated and protected landscape.
AONB designation means an area is protected by national legislation that "seeks to protect and enhance natural beauty whilst recognising the needs of the local community and economy". This includes the protection of flora, fauna and geological as well as landscape features and the moor is home to a plethora of plants and wildlife, some rare and protected such as otters, bats, Marsh Fritillary butterflies, and songbirds such as the Stonechat and Wheatear. Bodmin Moor is also the only place in the world where a rare moss, the Cornish Path Moss, grows.
The conservation of the landscape and archaeological and architectural features within it is also important in an AONB. On Bodmin Moor this includes the high granite tors, prehistoric hut circles and standing stones and some more modern historical areas of mining and quarrying.