Friends of the Ochils Newsletter 18: Spring 2001
Biodiversity Action Plans: BAP to the future
Friends of the Ochils sees itself as playing a major role in co-operating and collaborating with officials appointed, or about to be appointed, in the Ochils fringe local authorities and who will be responsible for producing Local Biodiversity Action Plans. Stirling Council's LBAP officer, Jonathan Willet, has kindly contributed this article in which he explains the importance of our knowledge of the world around us.
What is biodiversity?
Biodiversity is the variety of life around us. It is all living things from trees to flowering plants, from birds to butterflies, from the commonplace to the greatly endangered. It is the multitude of all living things on Earth, and the places where they live. The word was first coined in 1985, but biodiversity itself has been around for a lot longer than that.
Why bother about biodiversity now?
In the last 100 years, more species have become extinct worldwide than in any other period of human history. There is an alarming downward trend in the abundance of many plants and animals found in the UK. We now realise that our health and wealth is inextricably linked with the state of the environment. Biodiversity is a prime indicator of environmental quality, so if it is declining then it is likely that our health and wealth will likewise suffer in the long run.
What do we need to do?
We need to improve the quality of the low biodiversity areas (most of Scotland) as well as to expand the high biodiversity areas (nature reserves, semi-natural habitats). Local Biodiversity Action Plans (LBAPs) will provide the advice on how to start doing this. LBAPs differ from previous conservation plans as they look at all areas of land, not just the "best bits".
So what has Stirling been up to?
Well, in April 2000 they employed me, Jonathan Willet, as their LBAP officer to co-ordinate the whole process. We have also now launched our biodiversity audit. This has identified what species and habitats can be found in Stirling, and their present status. From this we can compare what we have in Stirling with the UK-wide biodiversity priorities. This then gives an idea of the species and habitats for which the first biodiversity action plans need to be written. Species and habitats of local concern have also been included in the audit.
The plans will be written by working groups consisting of local experts along with interested members of the public who have volunteered to join. There will be seven groups: bogs, woodland, freshwater, upland, farmland, urban and communities, and biological recording. We will be launching the first set of habitat and species action plans in June this year.
More plans ... great. Will they be any use?
The writing of an action plan is not the end of the biodiversity process, rather the beginning. We intend the plans to be of practical help to those people on the ground who want to do something. In the past we didn't really know what effect our actions were having. Now we certainly do. It is down to all of us to change our habits to include biodiversity in our lives, and not to exclude it as we have done in the modern age.
Are the Ochils important for biodiversity?
The most important species found on the Ochils is a plant called sticky catchfly. This red/purple-flowered plant is nationally rare and has a strong hold in the western Ochils. It is found on rock outcrops with thin nutrient-poor soils, facing in a southerly direction. Threats to this species include too much or too little grazing, as well as woodland establishment. The remnants of native woodland in the gorges also represent a very important habitat that is nationally rare.
To see a copy of the audit, visit your nearest library. Summary copies are available from libraries, or from community centres, or on request from Stirling Council. For more information, call:
Jonathan Willet
01786 442768
willetj@stirling.gov.uk
A Tayside Biodiversity Partnership has also been set up, and here the co-ordinator Catherine Lloyd has six groups preparing to take forward habitat action plans (HAPs) under the headings: woodland, estuarine and coastal, water and wetlands, farmland, montane and upland, and urban. A steering group is already examining first drafts of a number of the HAPs, and the final draft from all the HAPs is expected to be made widely available for public consultation in August, with the final published document officially launched in December.
Publication in a ring-binder format will permit later inclusion of further HAPs and their associated action schedules, thus aiding the creation of a working document leading on into the 21st century.
In Clackmannanshire, the council expects to have its LBAP officer in post by early this summer.
FotO intends to co-operate fully with the LBAP officers appointed by the fringe authorities. As has hopefully been demonstrated by this article, we have already established contact and have laid the base for future close relations.