Welcome to Essex Biodiversity Project
This website has something for everyone who has an interest in the wildlife of Essex; from the professional nature conservationist to the amateur enthusiast; from the managing director of a local business to the chief executive of a borough council.
You can use this site to find out about biodiversity in Essex, learn about the species and habitats in the Essex Biodiversity Action Plan, discover how you can get involved in projects and who to contact about wildlife issues.
The Essex Biodiversity Project has just celebrated its tenth birthday and you can Click here for quick link to the 2009 Ten year celebration page and the 2008 Annual Report
The Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 came into force on 1 October 2006. Under Section 40 of the Act, all public bodies now have a legal duty to consider biodiversity in their work. More than 900 public bodies will be affected, including local authorities, police, BBC, museums and transport bodies. You can use this site to find out how your organisation could play a key role in enhancing and conserving biodiversity.
Emphasis is now shifting to focus on whole landscapes as the way to conserve biodiversity and the Essex Biodiversity Project is now working with the County and District Councils, Essex Wildlife Trust and other partners on two major projects over the next 2 years to benefit habitats and species across Essex.
The Living Landscapes project seeks to produce a vision statement for 40 of the 80 identified Living Landscape Areas to restore areas for the benefit of wildlife people and the local economy, and the Local Wildlife Sites project seeks to achieve Positive Conservation Management for 34% of the identified LoWS in Essex so they have a written and implemented management plan. Both of these projects are part of the Essex Local Area Agreement (LAA) which is being steered by the County Council, with funding from national government, and with work being contributed by all partners. This will help to safeguard and improve the Biodiversity Action Plan species and habitats.
Further information on these projects and the other work of the Essex Biodiversity Project can be followed up by clicking on the green buttons and their flyout links on the left side of this page.
The Biologue Spring 2009 Newsletter - now available. Click
here to go to the Newsletter page.
Biodiversity is Life
International Year of Biodiversity 2010
The United Nations General Assembly has declared that 2010 will be the
International Year of Biodiversity (IYB), and will help raise awareness of the
importance of biodiversity all over the world. It is an opportunity to:
• Stress the importance of biodiversity for our well-being.
• Reflect on our achievements to safeguard biodiversity so far.
• Encourage a redoubling of our efforts to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss.
Saving biodiversity requires effort from everyone. Through activities around
the world, the global community will work together to ensure a sustainable
future for us all.
Goals of the International Year of Biodiversity 2010
Through the International Year of Biodiversity 2010 we hope to reflect the
goals of organisations working all over the world to safeguard biodiversity. As
such, the objectives of the International Year of Biodiversity 2010 are as
follows:
• Enhance public awareness of the importance of safeguarding biodiversity
and of the underlying threats to biodiversity.
• Raise awareness of the accomplishments to save biodiversity that have
already been realized by communities and governments.
• Encourage individuals, organisations and governments to take the
immediate steps needed to halt the loss of biodiversity.
• Promote innovative solutions to reduce the threats to biodiversity.
• Start dialogue between stakeholders for the steps to be taken in the post-
2010 period.
IYB-UK www.iyb-uk.net has been formed as a part of the response. IYB-UK is an informal partnership of many organisations from diverse sectors who share a common concern to conserve our biodiversity, and who wish to raise awareness and encourage active participation around the issues that affect biodiversity loss. The secretariat is hosted by the Natural History Museum in London, and supported in England by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the department responsible for biodiversity, and by the Museum’s sponsoring department the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS).
|Natural Engalnd are also featuring information about IYB 2010 on their website at http://www.natural-england.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/biodiversity/biodiversityislife/default.aspx
Website developed through the
financial support of the Environment Agency