News

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:49:46 GMT

Concreting the countryside, a 21st Century Challenges event at the Royal Geographical Society
Tuesday, 13 May at 19:00

Simon Jenkins (Guardian columnist) will chair a discussion with Sir Peter Hall (Urban geographer & Chairman of TCPA) and Martin Crookston (Director of Llewellyn Davies Yeang, urban economist and town planner), discussing 'how to accomodate the housing expansion in South East England'.

Issues being discussed will include brownfield vs greenfield site, eco-towns, community cohesion, adapting existing housing stock and planning policies vs architecture.

Tickets: RGS-IBG Members £10, non-members £15

Book tickets online:www.rgs.org/whatson/21cc
Contact the Events Office
+44 (0) 20 7591 3100
events@rgs.org

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:10:00 GMT

Ecominds programme (run by Mind) - New funding for environmental projects linked to mental health

Launch due spring/summer 2008. This programme will have an open grant scheme to fund projects around England over the next 5 years. These projects will integrate mental health service users into the community via the delivery of environmental projects conducive to good mental and physical health, such as improving open spaces and wildlife habitats, designing public art and recycling. For more information visit www.ecominds.org.uk

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:06:04 GMT

Protection for water voles

The water vole together with the angel shark, roman snail, spiny seahorse, and short-snouted seahorse gained protection against being killed, injured, or taken from the wild from 6 April. They will join the list of wildlife species such as the otter and grass snake that already enjoy protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

In addition, the possession or selling of the water vole, short-snouted seahorse, spiny seahorse and roman snail will become an offence. It will also become an offence to damage or obstruct the short-snouted and spiny seahorses’ place of shelter or disturb them in their place of shelter.

Stephanie Hilborne, chief executive for The Wildlife Trusts, said:

“We’re absolutely delighted water voles have finally been given this life line. Water voles have been lost from many parts of the UK, including significant areas such as Cornwall, but this excellent news will undoubtedly help our efforts to bring the water vole back from the brink.

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:08:00 GMT

Pond Conservation is running pond survey training courses, held at Oxford Brookes University in Oxford. One-day courses Tuesday 22 July, Thursday 24 July, Tuesday 19 August, Thursday 21 August 2008.

The course covers use of national standard methods for surveying ponds for plants and invertebrates, including methods for assessing pond priority status under the Draft UK Pond Habitat Action Plan.

Click here for further details.

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 08:18:07 GMT

Froglife

The BBC’s One Show this week salutes the UK’s toad patrollers, highlighting their commitment each spring in helping thousands of toads cross busy roads, whilst contributing their data to important national monitoring initiatives.

The show will provide a unique insight into the life of a patroller, and give tips on how you can get involved.

The One Show featuring Toads on Roads will likely be aired on Wednesday 16th or Thursday 17th April.

You can register toad crossing sites online at: www.froglife.org/ToadsOnRoads/ToR.htm

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:28:09 GMT

Keeping up with non-native species - A workshop

10th - 11th June Leicester University

A UK-wide workshop on current issues in ecology, identification and management of invasive plant and animal species. Bringing together a wide range of individuals involved in non-native species to share and benefit from each others experience.

With important Government initiatives in the pipeline, the key themes of the 2008 workshop will be recording and risk assessment for non-native species, with presentations and workshop sessions from key speakers.

Click here for details (396 KB)

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:02:02 GMT

Grazing Animals Projects (GAP) news available (no. 41).

Click here to open (1894 KB)

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:44:03 GMT

Colonies of rare short-snouted seahorses are living and breeding in the River Thames!

This species is endangered and normally lives around the Canary Islands and Italy.

Experts at London Zoo said the seahorses were found at Dagenham in east London and Tilbury and Southend in Essex, over the last 18 months.

The seahorses are now protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

They are usually found in shallow muddy waters, estuaries or seagrass beds and conservationists said their presence in the Thames is another good sign that the water quality of the river was improving.

Link to BBC website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7333980.stm

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 13:16:38 GMT

In 2007, the EBP Steering Group recognised the need for a strategic plan to identify the intended direction of the Project’s work over the medium and longer term. This plan will help EBP to achieve appreciable and significant gains for biodiversity in Essex.

The plan was finalised in early March 2008 with 5 major themes. Click here to go to the webpage.

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:34:26 GMT

The International Day for Biological Diversity:
Biodiversity and Agriculture

22 May 2008

From the Convention on Biological Diversity website (http://www.cbd.int/ibd/2008/)

"Agriculture is a key example of how human activities have profound impacts on the ecosystems and biodiversity of our planet. This is why this year’s theme for the International Day for Biological Diversity (IBD) is “Biodiversity and Agriculture.”

Celebration of the International Biodiversity Day in 2008 will highlight the importance of sustainable agriculture, not only to preserve biodiversity, but also to ensure that we will be able to feed the world into the 21st century and beyond. At the same time it will highlight how agriculture is so dependant on biological diversity,and thus how important it is that we protect our biological resources for the future.