Avon Wildlife Trust. Our Vision 2015-2020.

Our Vision 2015 – 2020 A plan for protecting nature and inspiring people across the West of England

The Big Picture1Our vision is to enable nature to ‘recover on a grand scale’1, and over the next five years we will be working towards three goals that will make our vision a reality.

We will deliver our goals at two levels.

First, we will focus most of our effort within five landscape-scale areas prioritised for their conservation need and their potential for community engagement. Each area also offers valuable ‘ecosystem services’, such as: the provision of clean drinking water; flood alleviation; absorption of greenhouse gases; pollination services and health and wellbeing.

Second, we will work to create connecting corridors for wildlife across the region.

Both will be supported by generic work at an Avon-wide scale, such as reserve management and education.

Our five priority areas.

Gordano Valley and ridges1.

Avon Gorge and Downs2.

North Somerset Levels3.

Cotswolds4.

Chew Valley5.

Our goals for 2015 to 2020.

Create ecological networks 1. through landscape-scale habitat management and enhancement.

Inspire people and communities to 2. care for nature.

Champion the value of nature.3.

AUTUMN 2014 Wildlife 3736 Wildlife AUTUMN 2014

Avon Gorge and Downs – Bennett’s Patch and White’s Paddock – ‘a people’s nature reserve’, engaging local volunteers in creating a demonstration site for species-rich grassland habitat creation.

North Somerset Levels – we will continue to work with landowners to restore the ditch system and their related wildlife habitats, to buffer and connect existing areas important for wildlife.

Gordano Valley and ridges – our Portbury Wharf reserve provides a critical link through from the Severn to the Valley’s wetlands. We will continue to work to restore grazing marsh and ditches for breeding wader populations.

Cotswolds – the city of Bath and its surrounding countryside offer us great opportunities for enabling communities to act for wildlife and to safeguard the unique character of its grassland habitat.

Chew Valley – we will be part of pioneering work in this river catchment area to explore alternative land uses that deal with flooding and water quality issues. We will continue our outstanding education work at the Folly Farm Centre.

AUTUMN 2014 Wildlife 3736 Wildlife AUTUMN 2014

Avon Gorge and Downs – Bennett’s Patch and White’s Paddock – ‘a people’s nature reserve’, engaging local volunteers in creating a demonstration site for species-rich grassland habitat creation.

North Somerset Levels – we will continue to work with landowners to restore the ditch system and their related wildlife habitats, to buffer and connect existing areas important for wildlife.

Gordano Valley and ridges – our Portbury Wharf reserve provides a critical link through from the Severn to the Valley’s wetlands. We will continue to work to restore grazing marsh and ditches for breeding wader populations.

Cotswolds – the city of Bath and its surrounding countryside offer us great opportunities for enabling communities to act for wildlife and to safeguard the unique character of its grassland habitat.

Chew Valley – we will be part of pioneering work in this river catchment area to explore alternative land uses that deal with flooding and water quality issues. We will continue our outstanding education work at the Folly Farm Centre.

Our Vision2

Our vision is to enable Nature to ‘recover on a grand-scale’1. We will start to put this into practice by working at a landscape-scale in five priority areas that offer the best opportunities for creating ‘resilient ecological networks’ for nature across the West of England. We will work to reverse the decline in wildlife by looking after and improving our existing key wildlife sites; increasing space for nature by securing new sites; working with landowners to build biodiversity into their businesses; and identifying where we can thread wildlife corridors through our cities and towns.

We will also increase our impact by working more closely with our partners to join up our efforts and ambition. For example, the Trust will continue to play a leading role in The West of England Nature Partnership (WENP), and to work closely across the UK with our fellow Wildlife Trusts.

Our vision is also about inspiring and empowering people, and benefiting their communities and immediate environment. As part of the legacy from Bristol Green Capital 2015, we will inspire people street-by-street and across the shared spaces of estates and community land to turn the city into a nature-rich, connected landscape.

Nature not only provides our everyday needs but is also important for our mental health. Research shows that just five minutes spent in nature can improve people’s sense of self-esteem and mood3. Building on our Communities and Nature project, we will extend the reach of our work, offering time out in nature to people needing a boost to their physical and mental wellbeing.

We know that our vision will take longer than five years to achieve, but this document focuses on the goals until 2020. We also recognise the considerable financial challenges – hence this strategy will be underpinned by a business plan with measurable targets.

“We need a step-change in our approach to wildlife conservation, from trying to hang on to what we have, to one

of large-scale habitat restoration and recreation, underpinned by the reestablishment of ecological processes and ecosystem

services, for the benefits of both people and wildlife.”

Sir John Lawton, Making Space for Nature 2

members

800volunteers

17,00040 staff,supported by over

and more than

800 volunteers’ input equated to £400,000 of time. The value of volunteer input into reserves alone was £288,000.

Delivering landscape-scale change We manage over 1,100 hectares of land in this region.

Our wildflower-grassland restoration team has:surveyed land on 178 farms since 2008;• provided advice and practical support for the management and restoration • of 200 hectares of grassland; andhelped landowners secure 12 Higher Level Stewardship payments, worth a • total of £762,474.

The North Somerset Wetland Programme has:worked with 59 landowners since 2011; assessing the condition of the • wetland system across the North Somerset Levels and Moors.

The Wildlife and Special Places We Are Working to Protect3

Formerly the County of Avon, now defined as the West of England (Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire), our area has exceptional biodiversity for its size (514 square miles/1,332 square kilometres). There are a wide range of habitats, from the species-rich calcareous grasslands of the Cotswold and Mendip Hills and the ancient woodlands of the ridges, steep slopes and scarp faces, to the network of rhynes of the North Somerset Levels and Moors and the coastal saltmarshes of the Severn Estuary.

The Avon Biodiversity Action Plan4 documented 28 priority habitats in Avon (out of a total of 65) and 47 priority species (out of a total of 1,149), including dormice, water voles, white-clawed crayfish, otters, barn owls and horseshoe bats.

Otters are recovering across much of Avon, and • polecats are also making a recovery, spreading south from Gloucestershire.

There are a significant number of butterfly species, • including brown hairstreak, chalkhill blue and various fritillaries.

Rare plant species include round-headed leek • (Bristol onion), Bristol rock-cress, Bristol whitebeam and nationally notable plants such as lizard orchid, adder’s-tongue spearwort (found in only two sites in the UK) and Bath asparagus.

Avon contains numerous designated and legally protected wildlife and geological areas (more details can be found at avonwildlifetrust.org.uk/wildlife).

Faced by the continued dramatic overall decline in biodiversity as recorded in the State of Nature report 5 and landscape-scale human development pressures, we need a step-change from traditional conservation methods focused on protecting single sites or species.An independent review of England’s wildlife sites and ecological networks, chaired by Professor Sir John Lawton, provides the policy context and supporting rationale for such a step-change. The review’s report, Making Space for Nature, published in 2010,2 concluded that England’s wildlife areas do not currently comprise a coherent and resilient ecological network capable of coping with the challenge of climate-change and other pressures.

Lawton summarised what needed to be done as, ‘More, bigger, better and joined’. That recommended approach fits with our own and has a natural logic:

“The idea of joining together existing sites by creating totally new linear corridors across an inhospitable landscape has intuitive appeal.”

Our Response – Making Connections at the Landscape Scale 4

Saving speciesThe South West Crayfish Project, led by Buglife, Avon Wildlife Trust, Bristol Zoological Society and the Environment Agency moved over 4,000 endangered White-clawed crayfish to safe haven ‘Ark sites’ across the South West between 2008 and 2013

Wild Schools programme delivers

outdoor learning to more than

10,000

schoolchildren each year

Our

The Trust’s wildlife-friendly food growing project ‘Feed Bristol’ • engaged over 26,000 people in less than three years.

More than 14,000 people from vulnerable groups and deprived • areas across Bristol, Bath and Weston-super-Mare have been connected to nature during two years of our Communities and Nature programme – with 80% of those participating reporting improved physical health and mental wellbeing.

The Value of Nature – Why Protecting Nature Benefits Us5

Despite the well-recognised value of nature, the decades of effort and many local and specific successes, our UK wildlife and natural ecosystems have been declining on a significant scale. The Government’s UK National Ecosystem Assessment 6 showed that:

nature is consistently undervalued in decision-• making and that many of the services we get from nature are in decline;

more than 40% of priority habitats and 30% of • priority species were declining; and

30% of the ecosystems we depend on for providing • clean drinking water, helping curb floods and locking away climate-changing carbon dioxide are under stress.

This national context, along with the continuing challenges of climate change, population growth and associated development pressures, are reflected locally: Bristol, the eighth largest city in England, is projected to expand by a further 50,000 people by 2021 – with all the infrastructure impacts consequent on that growth 7.

The natural world and its ecosystems are central to our wellbeing and economic prosperity. Our environment plays a critical role in our lives, providing food, water and air that are essential for life, as well as the raw materials that underpin our economy. Nature also provides us with the processes (ecosystem services) that purify our water and air, as well as giving us the space for our recreation, wellbeing and culture. The beauty of our natural environment attracts people to live and work in our region, and businesses to invest here.

Create ecological networks through landscape-scale habitat management and enhancement

Over the next five years and beyond, we will create coherent and resilient ecological networks at a landscape scale for people and wildlife so that threatened species can flourish and degraded ecosystems can be restored. In each of our priority areas we will deliver five practical actions.

Maintain and improve our current wildlife 1. habitats and sites.

Increase their size where possible.2.

Restore and create new areas for wildlife.3.

Join them up – through continuous corridors or 4. via green ‘stepping stones’.

Increase the wildlife value of the wider 5. landscape.

Goal 1

Outcome 9: Delivering landscape-scale habitat restoration through partnership work and a multi-agency approach where the Trust can add value such as the Forgotten Landscape project in South Gloucestershire, and sustainable restoration of coastal and floodplain grazing-marsh habitat on the North Somerset Levels and Moors.

Outcome 1: Delivering multiple land-management benefits in the Chew Valley such as resource protection, improvement to water quality and flood-risk management while also restoring and connecting species-rich grassland.

Outcome 2: Restoring coastal and floodplain grazing-marsh habitat across the North Somerset Levels and Moors to buffer and connect existing areas that are important for wildlife. For example, ditch restoration across the area will be targeted (more than 50% of ditches surveyed by Avon Wildlife Trust need conservation management).

Outcome 3: Protecting, expanding and connecting core areas of calcareous grassland in the Cotswolds through landowner engagement, where building good relationships with landowners is key to success.

Outcome 4: Managing Trust reserves Clapton Moor and Weston Moor in the Gordano Valley, along with the Gordano Valley National Nature Reserve, to create an exemplar of raised water level management – where conditions are ideal for breeding waders to return.

Outcome 5: Enhancing the condition of habitats in the Avon Gorge and Downs, including opening a new nature reserve – Bennett’s Patch & White’s Paddock.

Outcome 6: Implementing targeted action for the recovery of Section 41 species (England’s rarest and most threatened species) within the five priority areas where habitat conservation alone does not protect populations. For example, recovery of breeding waders in the Gordano Valley may require further intervention such as electric fencing to exclude predators once wetland habitat is restored.

Outcome 7: Identifying opportunities for innovative funding mechanisms such as Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes and biodiversity offsetting. For example, the results of a Defra-funded PES pilot study in the Chew Valley will be published in 2015.

My Wild CityHelp make Bristol a nature reserve

BristolPlease download your neighbourhood map for more detail.

Using the My Wild City mapsAvon Wildlife Trust has created the My Wild City maps using existing data to show the best opportunities for enhancing nature across the city. Crossing our cities can be challenging for wildlife as green spaces are often separated by human infrastructure, such as buildings and roads. This map shows you the areas in your neighbourhood where you can improve woodland and grassland habitat for wildlife. It shows you the best places to reconnect habitats by linking gardens and other passageways, helping to create wildlife corridors across Bristol.

We are asking people to identify the areas in their neighbourhood where they can take action for wildlife, working with neighbours and the wider community.

Take action for wildlifeTaking action for wildlife can be easy, especially if you make it part of your everyday life. Remember, it doesn’t matter the size of your garden, or if you live in a flat, there are still lots of small changes you can make that will benefit wildlife. Find out how you can take action for birds, bees, butterflies and all wildlife at: www.avonwildlifetrust.org.uk/mywildcity

More details can be found on the back of this map.

Better for people, better for wildlifeMaking wildlife part of our everyday life is not just better for nature but better for us too. Humans are as much part of nature as any other species – our mental and physical wellbeing is boosted by contact with the natural world. Research shows that just five minutes spent in nature improves people’s sense of self-esteem and mood.

Our vision is to turn Bristol into a nature reserve. Working with communities across Bristol to transform our gardens and open spaces, together we can create a nature-rich city that attracts wildlife right up to our doorsteps. By connecting habitats and green spaces, we can create wildlife corridors or ‘green highways’ so that wildlife can move easily around the city. This city-wide nature reserve will give everyone the opportunity to experience wildlife every day, for their own health and wellbeing.

Buildings and roads

Water

Areas with sealed surfaces, for example carparks

Gardens with opportunity for tree, shrub and wildflower planting

Gardens with opportunity for tree planting

Gardens with opportunity for wildflower planting

Gardens without green space, opportunity for bird boxes, planters etc

Existing semi-natural habitat, for example woodland and hedges

Green space with opportunity for further wildlife enhancement

Other green space, for example sports pitches

Agricultural land which can be enhanced for wildlife

0 5 10

Kilometres

Do something amazing for wildlifeTalk to your neighbours and community about what action you can take for wildlife as part of Bristol 2015.

www.avonwildlifetrust.org.uk/mywildcity

Outcome 8:Improving quality and connectivity of wildlife habitat across the West of England that contributes to Biodiversity 2020 targets 8 through mechanisms such as B-Lines and the My Wild City project.

Inspire people and communities to care for nature

Securing a future rich in wildlife is Avon Wildlife Trust’s vision, one which also brings huge benefits to society. Central to our strategy for achieving that vision is engaging people in our work.

The Trust’s work and presence in urban areas has been vital in communicating what we are working to achieve in the surrounding countryside, and for securing the resources to do so. We also need to engage rural communities and enable them to take local action to enable nature to recover on a grand scale. Convincing everyone of the relevance of our work and of nature’s value to their everyday lives and the communities in which they live is key.

Goal 2

Outcome 10: Increasing and improving our network of community hubs, replicating the success of our Folly Farm Centre – so anchoring the Trust in communities across our region, enabling more people to experience, be inspired by and participate in nature and our work.

Outcome 11: Increasing opportunities for the public to engage with nature and learn new skills. For example, by delivering innovative school engagement programmes such as ‘Spawn To Be Wild’ (raising awareness of the challenges facing key migratory species such as eels) and by enabling people to take part in citizen-science projects to survey wildlife, collate records and produce habitat and species maps for their local area.

Outcome 12: Mobilising people to take action for wildlife, particularly in the five priority areas, and delivering connectivity projects. For example, empowering volunteers from schools, universities, businesses and therapeutic-care providers to restore our new nature reserve, Bennett’s Patch and White’s Paddock, situated at the gateway to the Avon Gorge.

“No one will protect what they don’t care about, and no one will care about what they have never experienced.”Sir David Attenborough

Our Portbury Wharf reserve provides a critical direct link between the Gordano Valley and the Severn Estuary – with the potential for creating the right conditions to attract breeding lapwing (which have suffered an 88% decline in recent years 9) back into the Valley. Created as part of the planning requirements for the adjacent Village Quarter development of 2,500 homes, the reserve provides good opportunities for community engagement and for communicating the concept of ‘ecosystem services’ – as it absorbs run-off from the estate; provides green space for residents; offers an outdoor classroom for local schools; and adds financial value to their property.

Champion the value of nature

Avon Wildlife Trust will work with partners to champion the value of nature and provide evidence to show that investing in our natural capital can help to create a strong and sustainable economy and society. Our goal is to ensure that consideration of nature is embedded in all political, economic and planning processes, and the value of nature to society is widely understood and accounted for.

Goal 3

Outcome 13: Maintaining and building cross-sector partnership working to secure direct benefits for the environment, local people and the economy. For example, we will play a leading role in delivering the strategic aims of the West of England Partnership and will work with partners to identify opportunities for Nature Improvement Areas (NIAs).

Outcome 14: Improving environmental evidence to enable informed decisions to be made relating to the natural environment, such as influencing planners and developers to protect the best areas for nature.

Outcome 15: Championing the value of nature and improving environmental awareness at the public and policy levels. As part of the wider Wildlife Trusts movement, the Trust supports the call for a new Nature and Wellbeing Bill, which would set targets for the Government ‘to restore nature in a generation’.

Health and wellbeingSir Michael Marmot’s 2010 10 review of social inequality and poor health, ‘Fair Society, Healthy Lives’, made a clear link between unfavourable environmental conditions and people’s poor health and reduced life opportunities, itemising poor river water and air quality, lack of green spaces and an absence of habitat favourable to biodiversity as key factors. It is a shocking fact that people living in the most deprived areas, which also tend to be those poorest in nature, die on average seven years earlier than those living in areas where incomes are higher and wildlife more plentiful.

Building on our leading work that connects people to nature, we will seek to extend the reach of that work to benefit people’s health and wellbeing.

This potential area of work is supported by evidence gained from the ‘Ecominds’ project, run by mental-health charity Mind in collaboration with several Wildlife Trusts. Mind evaluated the improvements people affected by mental-health issues can gain through access to and engagement with nature: 70% of the 3,500 participants surveyed said they ‘experienced significant increases in mental wellbeing by the time they left the project’ 11.

Our strategy will be underpinned with a robust and long-term business plan and will deliver the following outcomes:

Outcome 16: Developing robust measures of success to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of our work. For example, in partnership with Bristol University, we will look at how to measure when our priority areas are restored and an ecological network is connected.

Outcome 17: Securing sufficient investment from a number of different sources, maximising core, revenue and project funding to deliver our goals and aims.

ReferencesRoyal Society Wildlife Trusts, (2011) ‘Valuing Nature/1. Future Nature’, internal analysis

Lawton, J.H., Brotherton, P.N.M., Brown, V.K., Elphick, 2. C., Fitter, A.H., Forshaw, J., Haddow, R.W., Hilborne, S., Leafe, R.N., Mace, G.M., Southgate, M.P., Sutherland, W.J., Tew, T.E., Varley, J., and Wynne, G.R. (2010). Making Space for Nature: A review of England’s wildlife sites and ecological network. Report to Defra

Barton, J., Pretty, J. 2010 What is the best dose of nature 3. and green exercise for improving mental health? A multi-study analysis, Environmental Science and Technology, 44(10): 3947-3955

Avon Biodiversity Partnership (2004) Avon Biodiversity 4. Action Plan

RSPB et al. (2013) State of Nature5.

UK National Ecosystem Assessment (2011) The UK 6. National Ecosystem Assessment Technical Report.

UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge

Office of National Statistics (2014) www.statistics.gov.uk7.

Defra (2011) Biodiversity 2020: A strategy for England’s 8. wildlife and ecosystem services

Nature in Avon: 68 (2008)9.

Marmot, M (2010) Fair Society, Healthy Lives. 10. The Marmot Review

Mind (2013) Feel better outside, Feel better inside: 11. Ecotherapy for mental well-being, resilience and recovery

Health and wellbeingReversing the decline in biodiversity is a huge challenge, given the scale and pace of loss of nature and wild spaces – even more so for our region, which has one of the fastest-growing human populations in the UK, with the consequent development pressures 7. Notwithstanding the scale of the problem, safeguarding our natural environment is a challenge we must meet. As well as having its own intrinsic value, nature provides us with everything we need for our own

survival, wellbeing and economic prosperity. This is why Avon Wildlife Trust individually, and collectively as part of the wider Wildlife Trusts movement, is stepping up our response and adopting new ways of working to increase our impact.We look forward to working with all our supporters and partners in taking this strategy forward and delivering on our vision, ‘to enable Nature to recover on a grand scale.’

In Conclusion

Images:With thanks to Pete Blanchard, Richard Bowler, Ed Drewitt, Margaret Holland, Paul House, Oliver Smart (smartimages.co.uk), Bevis Watts

nature reserves cover

1,100 hectaresfrom ancient bluebell woods

to Iron Age forts,

nationally important wetlands and

wildflower meadows

37

Avon Wildlife Trust is one of 47 Trusts across the UK, delivering on the ground and reflecting local priorities and character. Collectively they form the federation of The Wildlife Trusts – a national network with a coherent, collective voice and policy overview.

Formed in 1980, Avon Wildlife Trust is the largest local charity working to protect wildlife and inspire people in the West of England area.

www.avonwildlifetrust.org.uk

Avon Wildlife Trust Office32 Jacobs Wells RoadBristol BR8 1DR

Registered charity no. 280422Registered comapny no. 1495108