Friends of the Ochils Newsletter 20: Spring 2002

A few diverse biodiversity notes:

Clackmannanshire local action plan

AS THE COUNTRYSIDE comes alive again, greening trees and birdsong tempt us once more into the great outdoors. To help us all make sense of our surroundings, and appreciate its beauty and value, the local authority in Clackmannanshire has appointed a new official. Lynn Campbell, a young Canadian woman from British Columbia, is the council's local biodiversity action plan coordinator. She is heading a partnership comprising a wide variety of local and national environmental organisations, farming groups, local landowners, Scottish Natural Heritage, Clackmannanshire Heritage Trust, Fenton and Sons Ltd, contractors, and the local council itself.

The partnership's task is the production of a plan which will eventually ensure conservation and enhancement of locally important species and habitats. At the Rio Earth Summit me ting in 1992, the UK signed the Convention on Biological Diversity along with over 150 other countries. This means we are now committed to conserving and where possible enhancing biodiversity. By 1994 the UK Biodiversity Action Plan was written to achieve the objectives of the Convention. Here, the uplands make up one of five important habitat areas on which attention is being focused.

Lynn is also involving local schoolchildren in the biodiversity action plan. Emphasising the need for everyone's involvement, she points out that human developments are threatening plants and animals on a global scale. Within the UK over the last 100 years, 100 species have become extinct, and in Scotland biodiversity is under threat from development, habitat destruction, pollution, intensive grazing, over-exploitation and other human-induced pressures. Deforestation has led to the loss of species, including the disappearance of the wild boar from the Muckhart area.

The FotO project for regeneration of natural woodland (see page 6 for the latest on this) will contribute to improving biodiversity in the Ochil glens. Clackmannanshire has 18% of the Scottish population of a rare small pink flower called sticky catchfly - a listed UK priority species - and 17% of the UK population. This summer it is hoped to organise a reptile survey. Not a case of see you later alligator, but perhaps a slow-worm or two, or an adder.

By the end of June this year it is hoped that a consultation draft biodiversity plan will be ready, followed in mid-2003 by a glossy version. The appointment - soon, hopefully - of an access officer by the Clackmannanshire authority will speed the preparation of the local action plan. Lynn Campell sees a real link between access and biodiversity. The countryside ranger service will also play an important role in the biodiversity action plan's contribution to the population's health, education, and recreational facilities. "I think the majority of those people who enjoy the Ochils are interested in the countryside and want to learn more about it," said Lynn.

David Robertson

Newsletter 20 Index