Idea for a project proposal to discuss with SALs at UKCEH (sent to RP 19-MAR-21):
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THE PROBLEM:
There are many resources available online for people who might want to establish a wildlife garden or some other wildlife-friendly zone on their land, e.g. advice (and a sequence of 11 videos) from Gardeners' World, advice on wildlife-friendly gardening from ZSL or this advice from the Wildlife Trust of South & West Wales. I have personally known people who have engaged in this sort of thing and my opinion is that these initiatives fall short on three main counts: (1) Most people who start on this do it on their own (they could have a neighbour two streets away doing something similar, but they have no way of knowing this), which could easily be redressed nowadays using social media tools. (2) Despite the generally good advice on those resources, the advice is not specific to particular circumstances and homeowners are not generally able to make the best decisions. For example, I had a friend in Buckinghamshire who bought a house that came with an area of rough ground. That rough ground had a small pond in it, a wide area of bricks and debris and a small fragment of woodland (that looked in reasonable condition with established trees). When I visited, he told me of his wish to restore the environment 'for the butterflies and birds' and was on the point of cutting down a couple of those large trees because he had found a Butterfly Conservation webpage that advised that open habitats are needed to encourage a good selection of butterflies. I pointed out that he had plenty of open space (!) and to leave the trees alone, but I thought to myself: why isn't there some way for this man to access that sort of advice in a more formal way through an institute like UKCEH? (3) These wildlife gardens often do not last very long, I believe because there is really nothing gained from it in a social sense (no recognition in the community, no award for having helped the birds for 5 years, etc.). We rely on homeowners being satisfied because of improvements in their personal health and because they see the wildlife coming back (Widows & Drake 2014), but it occurs to me that it would cost very little to offer a little more and have some sort of reward scheme (similar to how people are enticed to support projects on Petridish). |
THE SOLUTION:
My idea is that I could put in place an app-based system at UKCEH that would redress all 3 of these deficits. This would be modelled closely on the US National Wildlife Federation's Certified Wildlife Habitat program (Widows & Drake 2014), but with more emphasis on the advice given (more bespoke) and with a greater use of modern social media tools to create a greater sense of community. At the same time, UKCEH would gain by accessing a new community of potential citizen scientists, and becoming the lead and coordinating institution of a new national network of Mini Nature Reserves.
People like my friend above would sign up and would receive
(a) A starter-pack containing UKCEH-approved advice on how to set up a Mini Nature Reserve (MNR), applying a minimum size of 10 sq m (approx. the size of a standard UK car parking space).
(b) Inscription on an app and online web portal where they can see their own MNR and all others on Google Maps (similar to the yardmap online tool of The Habitat Network in the US, see here; for comparison see Kabir Kaul's map of small nature reserves in London).
(c) If they are willing to subscribe for a small sum £ per year, then they get further benefits:
(i) An assigned UKCEH scientist who will be their contact for any queries related to the MNR,
(ii) They will receive a free sign (with the UKCEH logo) and a free carbon assessment of their land (that's easy to do and we would probably want those data anyway),
(iii) They will receive updates on wildlife events via a quarterly newsletter,
(iv) They can set targets for themselves for managing their own land (following the inspirational approach of the Yardmap planning tool, which allows you to log actions you have done - e.g. avoiding insecticides - and others you undertake to do - e.g. no more than 50% non-native plantings, or following the Miyawaki method; these actions could be linked to those already listed in CEH's Biodiversity Toolkit)
and (v) They can engage with other MNR owners on the database in various ways, e.g. post for volunteering opportunities (e.g. if they want to do some tree planting and have a flyer about it then we will post it to other MNR members and also on UKCEH's virtual notice board) or community requests (e.g. to swap bags of tadpoles in spring, or offer surplus fencing that is being removed).
(d) If they are willing to actually enclose or restrict access to the MNR they have, then this becomes a real reserve rather than just a wildlife garden. At UKCEH we might then be able to provide support for initiatives to restore the environment completely on that patch of land and consider asking to use that land for more science (e.g. installing a Met station).
UKCEH would, I believe, benefit greatly from this fundamentally bottom-up and homeowner-led network. Firstly, I believe members would be very willing to undertake bird/spider surveys (citizen science) and we could easily collect that data via the app (linking in with existing UKCEH apps and iRecord). Secondly, UKCEH would be at the heart of a new set of (mini) nature reserves for the UK, with all the benefits that would flow from engagement with a new and extensive set of stakeholders concerned about the environment. For example, the Habitat Network in the US held enough data for researchers to map bird houses in New Mexico (see here) and I believe there would be many more opportunities like this if UKCEH could lead on a system like this.
It is worth emphasising that this is not an attempt to create a set of mini-SSSIs. In South England we have a lot of local nature reserves and SSSIs, but they are declared with specific intentions for either science or conservation (Lumbreras 2001). The objective of the MNRs is wholly people-based: it is to create and sustain a network of people who are concerned about these issues. Most likely, a lot of science and conservation will happen along the way (e.g. Widows & Drake 2014 showed this happened in the US), but the key success criterion here is engagement rather than conservation science.
In the UK we are surrounded by well-meaning people who want to 'do their bit' for the environment, but lack the time, means or knowledge to seek out appropriate information and put it into practice. Through this project, we simply facilitate this and UKCEH gains immensely though becoming a first port of call for ecological information for the public. My friend in the first example above had never heard of UKCEH (he is a tax lawyer) and I found that quite telling: UKCEH's overall ambition is "to understand our environment ... so that together, people and nature can prosper" and I believe that to achieve this we increasingly need to engage not only with government and business, but also with the people directly. This project would be a perfect way to do that.
My idea is that I could put in place an app-based system at UKCEH that would redress all 3 of these deficits. This would be modelled closely on the US National Wildlife Federation's Certified Wildlife Habitat program (Widows & Drake 2014), but with more emphasis on the advice given (more bespoke) and with a greater use of modern social media tools to create a greater sense of community. At the same time, UKCEH would gain by accessing a new community of potential citizen scientists, and becoming the lead and coordinating institution of a new national network of Mini Nature Reserves.
People like my friend above would sign up and would receive
(a) A starter-pack containing UKCEH-approved advice on how to set up a Mini Nature Reserve (MNR), applying a minimum size of 10 sq m (approx. the size of a standard UK car parking space).
(b) Inscription on an app and online web portal where they can see their own MNR and all others on Google Maps (similar to the yardmap online tool of The Habitat Network in the US, see here; for comparison see Kabir Kaul's map of small nature reserves in London).
(c) If they are willing to subscribe for a small sum £ per year, then they get further benefits:
(i) An assigned UKCEH scientist who will be their contact for any queries related to the MNR,
(ii) They will receive a free sign (with the UKCEH logo) and a free carbon assessment of their land (that's easy to do and we would probably want those data anyway),
(iii) They will receive updates on wildlife events via a quarterly newsletter,
(iv) They can set targets for themselves for managing their own land (following the inspirational approach of the Yardmap planning tool, which allows you to log actions you have done - e.g. avoiding insecticides - and others you undertake to do - e.g. no more than 50% non-native plantings, or following the Miyawaki method; these actions could be linked to those already listed in CEH's Biodiversity Toolkit)
and (v) They can engage with other MNR owners on the database in various ways, e.g. post for volunteering opportunities (e.g. if they want to do some tree planting and have a flyer about it then we will post it to other MNR members and also on UKCEH's virtual notice board) or community requests (e.g. to swap bags of tadpoles in spring, or offer surplus fencing that is being removed).
(d) If they are willing to actually enclose or restrict access to the MNR they have, then this becomes a real reserve rather than just a wildlife garden. At UKCEH we might then be able to provide support for initiatives to restore the environment completely on that patch of land and consider asking to use that land for more science (e.g. installing a Met station).
UKCEH would, I believe, benefit greatly from this fundamentally bottom-up and homeowner-led network. Firstly, I believe members would be very willing to undertake bird/spider surveys (citizen science) and we could easily collect that data via the app (linking in with existing UKCEH apps and iRecord). Secondly, UKCEH would be at the heart of a new set of (mini) nature reserves for the UK, with all the benefits that would flow from engagement with a new and extensive set of stakeholders concerned about the environment. For example, the Habitat Network in the US held enough data for researchers to map bird houses in New Mexico (see here) and I believe there would be many more opportunities like this if UKCEH could lead on a system like this.
It is worth emphasising that this is not an attempt to create a set of mini-SSSIs. In South England we have a lot of local nature reserves and SSSIs, but they are declared with specific intentions for either science or conservation (Lumbreras 2001). The objective of the MNRs is wholly people-based: it is to create and sustain a network of people who are concerned about these issues. Most likely, a lot of science and conservation will happen along the way (e.g. Widows & Drake 2014 showed this happened in the US), but the key success criterion here is engagement rather than conservation science.
In the UK we are surrounded by well-meaning people who want to 'do their bit' for the environment, but lack the time, means or knowledge to seek out appropriate information and put it into practice. Through this project, we simply facilitate this and UKCEH gains immensely though becoming a first port of call for ecological information for the public. My friend in the first example above had never heard of UKCEH (he is a tax lawyer) and I found that quite telling: UKCEH's overall ambition is "to understand our environment ... so that together, people and nature can prosper" and I believe that to achieve this we increasingly need to engage not only with government and business, but also with the people directly. This project would be a perfect way to do that.
This project is envisaged as a collaboration between UKCEH, Natural England, RSPB and Oxfordshire County Council initially (for a pilot based on Oxfordshire only). In the future, if this works and is popular in the UK, this approach could be rolled out first to the rest of the UK (e.g. I have good contacts at the Scottish Wildlife Trust I would like to work with).
This could also link in to UKCEH's many current efforts in the area of Environmental Management, especially SHG/UKCEH's Biodiversity Toolkit (although the emphasis is to reach out to householders directly rather than developers and planners).
Idea first formulated and sent to R. Pywell 19-MAR-21.
References:
Lumbreras (2001). The micro-reserves as a tool for conservation of threatened plants in Europe. Nature and Environment 121, Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France.
The Habitat Network (discontinued end of January 2019), a partnership between Cornell Lab of Ornithology and The Nature Conservancy in the US. See here.
Widows, SA & Drake D (2014). Evaluating the National Wildlife Federation's certified wildlife habitatTM program. Landscape and Urban Planning 129:32-43.
This could also link in to UKCEH's many current efforts in the area of Environmental Management, especially SHG/UKCEH's Biodiversity Toolkit (although the emphasis is to reach out to householders directly rather than developers and planners).
Idea first formulated and sent to R. Pywell 19-MAR-21.
References:
Lumbreras (2001). The micro-reserves as a tool for conservation of threatened plants in Europe. Nature and Environment 121, Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France.
The Habitat Network (discontinued end of January 2019), a partnership between Cornell Lab of Ornithology and The Nature Conservancy in the US. See here.
Widows, SA & Drake D (2014). Evaluating the National Wildlife Federation's certified wildlife habitatTM program. Landscape and Urban Planning 129:32-43.