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THE ESSEX BIODIVERSITY ACTION PLAN
- a major opportunity for the Field Club.
Essex, although a densely-populated county which has seen much destruction of natural
habitats, remains a varied and special place for wildlife. The variety of life, or
biodiversity, is influenced by some important features of the county such as its
unsurpassed length of coastline, its large and ancient pollarded Forests and the ancient-
ness of its farming landscape, with its old hedge-banks, meandering green lanes and
straggling commons. The Essex Biodiversity Action Plan, to be published later this year,
sets out a bold agenda not only to preserve what we have left but to try to reverse the
losses. It also aims to involve the public in the action far more than has been managed up
to now.
The Essex Biodiversity Action Plan has arisen in direct response to the UK Government's
commitment that it entered into at the 'Earth Summit' in Rio in 1992, when it signed up to
the Convention on Biological Diversity. Following this the Government produced a UK
Action Plan in 1993 to which the voluntary agencies (RSPB, Wildlife Trusts) responded
and this dialogue resulted in the production of a large number of action plans for both
species and habitats in 1995. These national action plans detailed the measures required
to protect sustain and, importantly, increase the threatened species and habitats.
The measures in these national action plans, to be successful, require "ownership" and
action at a very local level. It was with this in mind that local authorities have been
encouraged, and in the case of Essex been very keen, to develop their own county a
nd district biodiversity action plans. Work was begun in June 1997 on preparing the Essex
Biodiversity Action Plan. A steering group was set up that included a wide range of
organisations and individuals and, as you'd expect, this included a number of Essex
Field Club members and recorders. The resulting Plan includes a host of individual plans
for species and habitats of national significance but also many that are important locally
as a characteristic, but increasingly threatened, part of the county scene. Habitats covered
so far include features as diverse as cereal field margins, saline lagoons, ancient
woodlands and green lanes. Species covered range across many taxonomic groups from
plants to molluscs and mammals. Examples of species include the Shining Ram's-horn
Snail, Shrill Carder Bee, Heath Fritillary, Great Crested Newt, Song Thrush and Skylark,
Dormouse and even the Harbour Porpoise.
The future and towards a county Red Data list
The Plan is not a finished document (it's actually to be published in loose-leaf format), as
many more habitats and species remain to be included. Also, as sponsors and land-owners
begin to make commitments to action, current plans will need updating and reviewing. As
part of this development English Nature has asked the Field Club to help to compile a
Red Data list for Essex.
Red Data books exist for a number of different groups of species. The idea behind the
books is to list those species considered threatened or vulnerable to extinction and others
subject to severe declines. You may have read recently about the sharp declines in many
farmland bird species and this has led to publications by the RSPB and the BTO of new
Red Data lists that now, shockingly, include species such as Skylark, Grey Partridge and
Song Thrash amongst the species of high conservation concern.
The Essex list will include all species threatened nationally and, in addition, those species
considered by the Club Recorders to be threatened, vulnerable or declining rapidly in the
county. This involves a lot of work by our Recorders putting together lists for each of
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 28, February 1999