Three hundred endangered water voles are to be re-homed from DP World’s London Gateway new deep sea container port at Thurrock to the peaceful riverbanks of the winding River Colne, in Essex. The port project includes clearing the 1,500acre site of animals and mammals including snakes, lizards, water voles, newts and many others. Over 50,000 animals have been relocated to date. Trapping water voles started in March 2010 under licence from Natural England, with voles weighed, sexed, and placed in holding cages with bedding and food before being transported to temporary homes, including the Wildwood wildlife sanctuary in Kent.

Essex has lost 90% of its water voles But with the help of action by conservation groups, this translocation will help to strengthen local populations. The vole translocation programme is the brainchild of Darren Tansley, Essex Wildlife Trust’s Water for Wildlife officer who will oversee their release, providing advice to DP World, developers of the London Gateway and one of the world’s largest marine terminal operators. One of the main vole release sites is Fordham Hall Estate, a 500-acre Woodland Trust woodland creation site ideally situated on the River Colne where enhancement work to improve the river habitat has already been undertaken in conjunction with the Environment Agency. One in ten of the water voles will be radio-tracked by Essex Wildlife Trust and Thomson Ecology to establish in which locations they choose to settle, providing important information for future translocations around the UK.

Full story at http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/index.php?section=news&id=3378

An international meeting has given the green light to the formation of a global "science policy" panel on biodiversity and ecosystem services to "bridge the gulf" between scientific research and urgent political action needed to halt biodiversity loss. The Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) will carry out peer reviews of scientific literature in order to provide governments with "gold standard" reports. It is expected that the IPBES will be modelled on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which plays a major role in shaping global climate policy, and is expected to be formally endorsed in 2011.

More than 230 delegates from 85 nations backed the proposals at a five-day UN meeting in Busan, South Korea. The meeting's chairman Chan-Woo Kim, director-general of South Korea's environment ministry, said the "historic agreement" laid the foundations for a full scientific assessment of the challenges facing the world.

"The essence of this vision is to ensure environmental sustainability while pursuing development," he explained. For this to be realised, it is crucial to have a credible, legitimate and policy-relevant understanding of biodiversity and ecosystem services."

The idea to establish the IPBES followed the publication of the UN's Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in 2005, which concluded that human activities threatened the Earth's ability to sustain future generations.

Abridged from BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/science_and_environment/10307761.stm

Evidence of Pine Martens in England and Wales 1996-2007
Analysis of Reported Sightings and Foundations for the Future

By Johnny Birks and John Messenger

This new and highly-anticipated report from The Vincent Wildlife Trust presents an analysis of evidence of pine martens gathered from England and Wales over a 12-year period (1996-2007); this evidence mainly comprised sightings reported by naturalists, land managers and members of the public.

Analysis of the data suggests that pine martens are still present in broadly the same parts of England and Wales from which they were recorded in earlier decades, including Snowdonia and Carmarthenshire in Wales and the Lake District, Northumbria, the North York Moors and parts of the Midlands in England. This synthesis of the Trust’s long-term pine marten work contains various analyses and discussions, a county by county breakdown of the evidence and suggests future conservation plans for the species. It’s a must have!

Reports are priced at £14.95 including P&P. To order a copy, please send a cheque made payable to The Vincent Wildlife Trust to: The Vincent Wildlife Trust, 3&4 Bronsil Courtyard, Eastnor, Ledbury, Herefordshire, HR8 1EP. Invoice requests can be made by phone or email. To pay by credit or debit card, please order through the NHBS Environment Bookstore at http://www.nhbs.com/ - available from next week onwards.

The Vincent Wildlife Trust
3&4 Bronsil Courtyard
Eastnor
Ledbury
Herefordshire
HR8 1EP
tel. 0044 (0)1531 636441
fax 0044 (0)1531 636442
web: www.vwt.org.uk / www.pinemarten.info
 

Of the 34 component measures within the indicators, over the long-term 10 have shown deterioration, 9 have shown improvement, 2 have shown little or no overall change, 12 had insufficient data for an assessment, and 1 is provided for contextual information and is therefore not assessed.

To see a summary of the results go to 

http://ww2.defra.gov.uk/files/2010/05/1905biodiversity.pdf

and for the full report go to

www.jncc.gov.uk/biyp

It is disappointing to see that the results are not more positive, despite the considerable efforts that have been put in by projects like the Essex Biodiversity Project and similar organisations across the nation, and shows that there is a need to do even more in future years.

With the kind permission of  Essex County Council Country Parks, Duncan Fisher and Graham Hart ( as members of Essex Bat Group) will be carrying out regular surveys of Weald Country Park in Brentwood, Essex this year. The dates are listed below. These may be of interest to you if you want to gain practical experience of bat surveying, recording and sound analysis. We hope it will be good learning experience for all.
The dates are

Each year, the Essex Biodiversity Project (EBP) presents its Quality of Life award and we are looking for nominations for this years winner.

This award is open to any individual, group or organisation active within Essex who in the opinion of the EBP steering group deserves to be recognised for their outstanding contribution to enhancing and promoting biodiversity.

In 2009 the Essex Biodiversity Project were delighted to present the award to the Friends of Tiptree Heath for their tireless work

Last year, what so impressed the EBP Steering Group is how the Friends harnessed the professional conservation community – Natural England, The Essex Biodiversity Project, Essex Wildlife Trust, Colchester Borough Council and others to help them deliver their vision for the heath as a thriving area for wildlife and the people of Tiptree. The Friends took on the very difficult project of introducing grazing to the heath (a SSSI and a registered common) and explained and educated users of the heath over several years. The Friends have a very long standing commitment to the site and have worked tirelessly on the heath for many years with weekly work parties – clearing paths and scrub, working with and connecting everyone to ‘their’ heath and celebrating the site with the annual heath fair.

With the Quality of Life Award trophy comes £500 as a contribution to support the recipients ongoing work.

The deadline for entries is Friday 16^th of July. The EBP steering group meets on 5^th of August to consider the nominations and the 2010 winner will be informed shortly afterwards.

The award will be presented at the Essex Biodiversity Celebration meeting held at the Wat Tyler Environment Centre, Basildon on Friday the 12^th of November 2010 with an invited audience from the Essex nature conservation community.

We will publicise the winners of the award widely and will get good promotion during this ~ 2010 International Year of Biodiversity.

If you wish to put forward a nomination simply contact Mark Iley – Coordinator Essex Biodiversity Project

01621 862975

marki@essexwt.org.uk

Sue More, Chair of the Friends of Tiptree Heath receives the 2009 Quality of Life Award and a cheque for £500 from Councillor Tracey Chapman, Cabinet Member for Environment & Waste, Essex County Council

The Foresight Project on Land Use Futures has just published its report on the future of land use in the UK. The project produced an evidence base which will help government and other policy makers understand whether existing land use patterns and practice are fit for the future.

The project explored

• What land use challenges could the UK face over the next 50 years?

• Will existing structures and mechanisms help us to meet those challenges?

• What opportunities are there to use and manage land differently now so that UK society continues to enjoy a good quality of life in the future?

The reports can be downloaded from http://www.foresight.gov.uk/OurWork/ActiveProjects/LandUse/lufoutputs.asp

The report sets out the key role of land in meeting our needs and shows that a reappraisal is vital to help address major challenges ahead – for example, relating to demographic shifts, climate change, and rising demand for commercial and residential development in areas such as the South East of England. The challenge is to meet the rising expectations which will come with rising incomes; and to deliver a wider range of sustainable benefits from land. In particular, a more coherent and consistent approach is needed for managing the growing demands on land – at different levels of Government, and across the wider community of stakeholders involved in the many land use sectors.

By way of contrast, another analysis from the Global Footprint Network at http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/footprint_for_nations/ looks at the current demands that we make on the land in terms of the area used per person and the area actually available per person. The 2009 data tables show the United Kingdom as using 6.1 global hectares per person, but there are only 1.6 global hectares per person actually available.

Whereas the Foresight report seems to assume that we have no current problems in terms of sustainable land use, and can avoid future problems by more careful management of land use, the Footprint analysis shows we are already consuming far more than the planet can provide. Clearly both reports cannot be correct; only one can emerge to be proved more nearly right than the other. It will be interesting to see how things develop, but let us hope that we are not in for some nasty surprises.