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 and revised in 2007. It explains how biodiversity will be enhanced and protected for the future. The areas covered include:

• The Low Weald habitat is of particular importance with ancient woodland, wood pasture sites, hedgerows and grassland.
• The Wealden Greensand is home to a mosaic of habitat types including lowland heath which has been recognised both nationally and internationally as rare and threatened.
• The South Downs has an impressive array of species living in the chalk grassland, chalk heath, scrub and woodland habitats.
• The majority of the Coastal Plain is protected because of its conservation value. Habitats found along the coast include sand dunes, vegetated shingle and saltmarsh, all of which are rare and special.