| Tayside Biodiversity 3 Year Review |
The broad aim of the Tayside Biodiversity
Action Plan is:
To co-ordinate existing actions, as well as initiating and co-ordinating new
actions.
To preserve and enhance the region's biodiversity, taking into account both local
and national priorities. |
Report to SITA Environmental Trust
Chairman’s Introduction
This report shows the great strides that have been taken in
Tayside to protect and enhance its rich biodiversity over the
last three years. A major step forward has been in producing
the Action Plan for which all partners, group leaders, authors
and our biodiversity co-ordinator must be congratulated. Our
challenge now, that we gladly take on, is to implement our plans
on the ground and make the difference that Tayside’s biodiversity
so richly deserves.
Merrill Smith
Chairman
Tayside Biodiversity Partnership
Dundee City Council |
| Past Chairman’s Message The
Tayside Biodiversity Partnership provides a vital link between
public, private and voluntary
groups and the general
community in making plans to protect the various habitats and
wonderful variety of Tayside’s fauna and flora. The support
of the SITA Environmental Trust in providing financial assistance
to the TBP has been vital in the compilation of the Tayside
Biodiversity Action Plan. Perth and Kinross Council, along
with our Tayside neighbours of Angus Council and Dundee City
Council and all the other Partners involved, are very grateful
for the SITA Environmental Trust support for the whole project,
as it is with this assistance that such progress has been made
in the last three years in promoting biodiversity in the whole
of the Tayside area.
John B Milne
Executive Director
Environment Services
Perth and Kinross Council |
| Note from the Biodiversity Co-ordinator
The past three years have seen many
changes in the people making up the Partnership and the different
degrees of commitment
owing to people’s own very heavy workloads. But without
this hard-working Partnership we would not have the Tayside
Biodiversity Action Plan (TBAP) published, nor would there
be any dialogue with the wider biodiversity partnership of
businesses, local authorities, schools and the local community.
The
title of the Review is deliberate—we have just achieved “the
first three years”. Much of the hard work of getting
everything down on paper has passed and the First Tranche of
the TBAP is now in circulation. There is still a Second Tranche
to come, but we will be older and wiser when attention turns
to this.
The report that follows gives an extremely
brief outline of what the Partnerhip has achieved so far.
Fuller details of
some of the projects/initiatives mentioned are found in the
TBAP, together with the concerns we have regarding our local
habitats and species—and the opportunities we have highlighted
to improve or enhance them.
Now, however, we are in a position
to put the ‘action’ into
our “Every Action Counts” logo. The real work is
well under way, but only in the fourth and subsequent years
will we see our vision becoming a reality.
Catherine Lloyd |
|
| INTRODUCTION TO “THE FIRST THREE YEARS” REVIEW
November 2000 - October 2003
Tayside’s
Rich Biodiversity
Biodiversity encompasses the rare and the commonplace. In Tayside
we can therefore be proud of our garden birds, town parks,
and mature hedgerow trees, but equally we can be proud of
an exceptionally rich biodiversity of national importance.
For instance, 89 of the 391 UK Priority Species (22.7%) occur
in Tayside as do 407 of the 1,250 UK Species of Conservation
Concern (32.5%) including:
• Ospreys - a third of the UK’s
breeding population nest in Tayside;
• Atlantic Salmon -
we are responsible for one of the most important regions for
this species in
the UK;
• Pink-footed geese - we provide winter quarters for
half the world’s population;
• Barn Owls (a UKBAP
species) are present on our farmland;
• Red Squirrel, Pearl-bordered
Fritillary, Narrow-headed Wood Ant and Bluebell are found
in our woodlands;
• The only UK sites for the
Alpine fleabane and Alpine gentian are in Angus;
• Britain’s
smallest butterfly, the Small Blue, is found on our coast;
• Greater Yellow Rattle – Scotland’s
only site is on an Angus dune;
• The
Fortingall Yew (the oldest tree in Europe) is an international
icon.
There are many (often unique) threats causing loss or decline.
Partnership working and targeted actions within the Tayside
Local Biodiversity Action Plan (LBAP) will highlight opportunities
and potential projects to turn these challenges into positive
ones.
Economic Value
Much of Scotland’s economy relies on our
natural resources—from
the provision of pure water and good quality barley for our
whisky industry, to the supply of aggregates to the construction
industry. In Tayside we are particularly fortunate in the quality
of our diverse environment. It is vital that this, and the
biodiversity it sustains, is recognised as an integral aspect
of the local economy which supports tourism, agriculture and
forestry, as well as community well-being. |
A New Way of Working Together
The
strength of the LBAP process is that local priority habitats
and species can also be highlighted – we do not need
to focus wholly on national priorities. In Tayside, therefore,
a ‘Golf Course’ Habitat Action Plan (HAP) and a ‘Businesses
with Land’ HAP have been included. Both these Plans were
at the time unique to Scotland - and possibly the UK; they
have opened up opportunities to work with sectors not normally
considered part of the biodiversity partnership.
In
the same way, HAPs – currently
at their draft stage - will highlight further local priorities: ‘Burial Grounds (including kirkyards and cemeteries)’,
‘
Hospitals, Sheltered Housing and Nursing Homes’,
Roads and Paths’,
‘
Cropped Areas’,
‘ Private Gardens and Allotments’
‘ Planted Coniferous Woodland’
Both the published and draft Plans
have provided opportunities to reach new sectors (especially local communities).
Links
are being made with many new partners: a wide variety of landowners
and land managers, housing associations, businesses and schools,
and small community-based environment groups (Appendix 2).
The
Local Biodiversity Action Plan is directly helping to deliver social and economic
benefits
such as greenspace for
different types of communities, as well as helping to deliver
government priorities such as Community Planning. It is also
encouraging active citizenship and lifelong learning opportunities
for all backgrounds and ages. The Local Patch Survey Project
is helping people discover the wildlife on their own doorsteps,
proving that biodiversity does not have to focus on the ‘rare’,
but that well-known species are just as important.
The LBAP
is successfully working with local communities. The Barn Owl
Interest Group and the Swift
and Swallow Interest
Group arose from a willingness to work in partnership with
a common aim. We are now seeing pilot projects being set up
right across Tayside that involve landowners, local authorities
and community groups all keen to make a difference (see pages
11 and 17). Individual members within the Education Sub Group
are beginning to forge their own joint ventures—for instance,
the Broughty Ferry Environmental Project is now making links
with the John Muir Trust Award Scheme.
Other sub-groups, including the Urban and Water & Wetland
Sub Groups, are forming partnerships within their membership.
Concerns in the increase of invasive plant species along the
Dighty Burn have spurred Angus and Dundee City Councils’ joint
plans for an Invasive Plant Survey. Likewise, Angus and Perth
and Kinross Councils are considering pilot projects for the
proposed Green Graveyard Initiative which will also involve
the local community in environmental enhancement in a number
of rural and urban churchyards.
The Partnership’s “Guide
to Incorporating Biodiversity into Local Services” has
encouraged the introduction of a programme of ‘Building
Better Biodiversity’ lunch-time
seminars for local authority staff and guests. These are proving
to be both popular and much-needed and are widening out to
encompass half-day workshops, site visits and conferences.
The
Partnership (Appendix 1) has achieved a great deal from its
small beginnings three years ago. It is a working
partnership and all the networking and information-sharing
is now paying off with many ideas coming out of the published
Biodiversity Action Plan and its associated booklets and
leaflets. The Partnership has been afforded a baseline
from which to grow; the resulting action ‘on the
ground’ is now coming to fruition. |
Annual Report: November 2000
- October 2001
A Year of Progress
Back at the Beginning
In August 1998 the new Partnership’s membership was agreed.
Dundee City Council was invited to join Angus and Perth & Kinross
Councils in forming a Tayside regional LBAP area (Appendix 3).
Perth & Kinross Council Environment Services took the lead
in setting up the Partnership. The Scottish Wildlife Trust was
instrumental in helping the Partnership to secure funding from
SITA through the Landfill Tax Credits Scheme. When SITA funding
was granted in late 2000 the Scottish Wildlife Trust and Angus
Council took on the financial management of the Partnership and
agreed to Chair the group. A Biodiversity Co-ordinator was employed
in November 2000.
Establishing the Working Groups
The Partnership itself consists of a Steering Group and a Management
Group (Appendix 1). To ensure existing targets within the
UKBAP, as well as local needs were taken into account, six
Habitat Sub-groups were set up: Coasts & Estuaries; Farmland;
Upland; Urban and Built Environment; Water and Wetlands;
Woodland. The membership of each of these sub-groups has
been purposely diverse to ensure that many organisations
and individuals have been involved in the local biodiversity
process.
With the many changes of Action Plan authors, progress was
initially hampered, but this led to a re-evaluation of the
timescale chosen for publishing the LBAP. A Species sub-group
was later formed to discuss how best to integrate species information
into the LBAP – Tayside has led the way in its unique
layout of species vignettes within each of the Habitat Action
Plans and the case studies showing work already underway within
the region. It was also decided to publish the lists of UK ‘Priority
Species’ and ‘Species of Conservation Concern’ in
their entirety as this would help clarify the information available
for planners and developers.
The Action Plan was split into two parts - the first tranche
consisting of Habitat Action Plans only. In hindsight this
enabled the implementation of the first actions at an early
stage and this format has, in fact, become common practice
in other LBAP areas.
Liaison with Funder
In September 2001 the Partnership hosted a biodiversity tour for John Leaver,
the Chairman of SITA’s Environmental Trust. The visit started at the RSPB’s
Vane Farm Reserve and continued on to Errol where the work of the Tay Reedbed
Company was demonstrated. As part of the Scottish Biodiversity Week celebrations
Mr Leaver then joined children at the Library, Broughty Ferry making kites in
the shape of swallows and swifts.
Tayside Biodiversity Seminar - September 2001
Over a hundred people attended the Partnership’s first seminar which was
hosted by SNH. Each sub-group set up a ‘Habitat Corner’ featuring
individual projects and information. Delegates included councillors, local authority
heads of department, businesspeople and landowners, representatives from local
environment and community organisations and many statutory and non-governmental
bodies.
 The Game Conservancy Trust highlighted their role as the UK Lead Partner for
Brown Hare and Grey Partridge. The Partnership Chairman, Alex Anderson, and the
Biodiversity Co-ordinator introduced the Scottish Executive’s new “Flying
Start” report and gave an overview of biodiversity issues throughout Scotland.
The butterfly that flitted in front of the overhead projector seemed highly appropriate
at the time of the Scottish Executive’s new “Do a Little, Change
a Lot” butterfly logo.
|
CASE STUDY 1
Awareness-raising
With the Local Biodiversity Action Plan to prepare, much of the
Partnership’s work in the first 18 months would be predominately ‘behind
the scenes’. It was decided at the outset that two sets
of exhibition boards would be the ‘public face’ during
this period. These high-quality display boards have consequently
toured the area extensively – including libraries, Country
Parks, local authority offices, museums and tourist information
centres as well as at the Dundee Botanic Gardens and the Birnam
Institute. The need to have a display to lend to schools and
businesses, as well as occasional use at agricultural shows and
flower festivals, led to a third, much lighter banner-type set
also being funded. (Appendix 5) |
CASE STUDY 2
Partnership Working
Worldwide, there appears to be a general decline in the Swift
population and the focus on swift nest site conservation is now
an international one. In Tayside renovation or demolition of
older buildings can lead to whole colonies being lost, but as
there has been no integrated survey our knowledge base is poor.
A number of Partners therefore launched small ‘Swifts,
Swallow and House Martin Pilot Surveys’ throughout Tayside – the
NTS worked with the Highland Perthshire Community Partnership
to distribute survey forms, a Dundee Tenement Swift Survey got
underway and the Broughty Ferry Environmental Project (BFEP)
set up a similar pilot survey in their area. They supplemented
this with nestbox-making workshops and identification walks.
The British Trust for Ornithology’s ‘National Nestbox
Week’ around St. Valentine’s Day was celebrated when
the Angus Ranger Service, BFEP and RSPB Vane Farm ran nestbox-making
events in a variety of venues.
Ultimately all this work led to the launch of the Swift Interest
Group which draws a wide membership from a large number of interested
parties. The group is overseeing specific projects in Tayside
(including putting up nestboxes), plus the preparation of the
Swift Species Action Plan. |
CASE STUDY 3
An Innovative Idea Launches the Consultation Draft – September
2001
In making the Consultation papers available to as wide an audience
as possible, the Partnership pioneered a paper-saving idea by
offering a mini CD-ROM version of the Draft; there was also a
limited print run of the Consultative Drafts. The local press
featured the Tayside company that undertook the mini CD work
for its part in saving resources. Many LBAPs (including Tayside)
have since been published in CD format.
To coincide with the publication of the Consultative Draft, a
summary document “From Summit to Sand” was also produced;
its integral “What You Can Do To Help” poster proved
popular with local schools.
The Consultative Draft was launched at the Scottish Wildlife & Countryside
Fair, Vane Farm, Kinross with over 60 paper copies being requested,
together with a very large number of CD-ROMs and summary documents.
A simultaneous launch of the Draft took place at the Dundee Flower
Show. |
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