Mark Iley

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Mark Iley Biodiversity Coordinator 01621
862975 marki_at_essexwt.org.uk www.essexbiodiversity.
org.uk
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How it all fits togetherthe Essex Biodiversity
Action Plan
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• The Essex Biodiversity Action plan is reaching
  the end of its 10 year life.
• We need our next 10 year plan to take us to 2020
• This is a good time to be re writing because so
  much is changing

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• Over the past ten years there has been a huge
  amount of fantastic work to safeguard and enhance
  BAP species and habitats in Essex delivered by a
  wide range of partners.
• The profile of BAP species and habitats has been
  raised as has the BAP process
• The profile and brand of the Essex
  Biodiversity Project and its partner
  organisations is very strong

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• What didnt work
• Some work for BAP species and habitats in Essex
  and nationally has proceeded without reference to
  the BAP and would have happened anyway
• The Essex BAP
• poorly defined targets and actions
• ownership and responsibility for actions not
  clearly defined
• included species and habitats for which we could
  do little at the county level
• not costed
• This is true of most of the original County BAPs

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• The context nationally
• Collectively we will fail to meet the UK 2010
  biodiversity target
• The BAP structure had shortcomings
• poor connection to local BAPs this is being
  addressed and a new structure is in place
• Recognition of previous complexity and future
  focus is on habitats
• BARS is to be revised and ideally incorporate a
  spatial element with a mapping interface.

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• The context within Essex has changed
• through the LAA process and the progress of the
  indicators 197 Wildlife Sites and 1.10 Living
  Landscapes
• The NERC Act and our need to support public
  bodies and raise awareness
• The deficiencies in ANGST (access to natural
  greenspace) provision in Essex

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• Securing biodiversity A new framework for
  delivering priority habitats and species in
  England has been published.
• This identifies what changes are needed and the
  importance of LBAPs - ie us! as delivery
  mechanisms.
• The key message from this document is the shift
  to working on habitats and the emphasis on the
  concept of landscape scale work what we are
  calling in Essex, Living Landscapes.

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•  
• The knowledge of what other counties are doing
  how they have evolved their plans and
  partnerships some of them very radically from
  the original starting point over ten years ago.

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• What people are doing in other counties as they
  revise their plans
• Maintaining the previous structure writing
  species and habitat plans
• Writing habitat plans only
• Some progressive counties embracing the Living
  Landscapes initiative fully and the BAP becomes a
  delivery plan for those big projects

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The EBAP will consist of habitat plans drawn from
the UK Priority list as follows Arable field
margins Hedgerows Traditional orchards Lowland
dry acid grassland Lowland meadows Lowland
heathland Ponds Rivers Coastal and floodplain
grazing marsh Lowland fens Lowland raised
bog Reedbeds Coastal saltmarsh Intertidal
mudflats Saline lagoons (tbc marine
habitats) Open mosaic habitats on previously
developed land (ie Brownfield) Lowland mixed
deciduous woodland Wet woodland Wood pasture and
parkland
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• Species will be nested into these habitat plans
  as attributes of a habitat these species will
  be drawn from the UK Priority Species list.
• Species specific projects can progress as they
  do already under and contributing to a habitat
  plan
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• Invasive species will be given a much higher
  priority with actions relevant to each habitat.

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• We will focus our work on the Essex Living
  Landscape areas, treating each Living Landscape
  area as a super site. In parallel also
  focussing on Wildlife Sites which lie outside
  Living Landscape areas.
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• Identify which UK BAP Priority habitats occur in
  these areas their extent and condition both
  attributes we can measure and quantify.
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• Identify and locate projects which safeguard or
  improve extent /condition of habitats (and
  species specific projects as appropriate)
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• Identify education and awareness raising projects
  within these areas
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• The Essex BAP will be in effect an aggregation of
  these actions.
• The plan will remain open to opportunities and
  partners across the county where actions fit with
  the EBAP habitat plans so no area or partner is
  excluded

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• County wide actions that are not site or habitat
  specific but we know are needed to deliver Essex
  biodiversity enhancements, for example
• Grazing project conservation grazing for whole
  county that all partners can draw on
• A biodiversity audit of Essex and a Biological
  Record Centre
• Maintenance and funding for EBP to drive the plan
  with the ongoing work of EBP and other partners
  to be written into the BAP as actions

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• The EBP strategy identifies the 10 year plan to
  be completed by the end of this year
• I will continue to draft this and will circulate
• Do you have comments?
• Can you identify the key sites in your area for
  these habitats?

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• I believe that this approach meets many of the
  needs we have of our Essex BAP, it must
• be simple and be realistic
• capture actions and activities of all partners
  engaged in delivery that need to be counted and
  acknowledged
• be progressive - integrating other developments
  and initiatives as they evolve locally,
  regionally and nationally
• meet the needs of our partners who are concerned
  with the process of the LBAP delivery ie Natural
  England
• provide concise information and sign posts

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• I think the majority of our partners are not
  overly concerned at the detail of plan delivery,
  but rather the actions we achieve on the ground
  and the success of our facilitation and support
  that is our great strength!

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Mark Iley Biodiversity Coordinator 01621
862975 marki_at_essexwt.org.uk www.essexbiodiversity.
org.uk