Biodiversity

What is biodiversity?

Biodiversity simply means the range of all living things, from the tiny garden ant to the giant redwood tree. You will find biodiversity everywhere, in window boxes and wild woods, roadsides and rainforests, snowfields and seashore. Your garden, village pond, school field or hedgerow can be a refuge for wildlife and a home to rare wildflowers.

Without plants and animals, we would not be able to survive. When species that have taken millions of years to evolve are destroyed, they are lost forever. The common frog you find in your garden pond is just as important as rare species such as the water vole.

What is the Local Biodiversity Action Plan (LBAP)?

Biodiversity Action Plans form a national framework for nature conservation. They provide specific objectives and targets against which progress is measured. The LBAP for our district was designed to help translate national and regional targets for biodiversity and sustainability into local action. It was established in 2000, revised in 2007 and again in 2011. It explains how biodiversity will be enhanced and protected for the future.

The revised action plan features a number of key areas including creating an accurate picture of the wildlife in the district, developing local partnerships, raising public awareness of the need for action and maintaining, restoring and creating habitats for the benefit of biodiversity on both a regional and local scale.