BRENT BIODIVERSITY ACTION PLAN 2001 Brent Parks Service Brent Environmental Services Contents: 1.0 Introduction 2.0 Biodiversity in Brent: our vision 3.0 Brent’s Biodiversity Assets 4.0 Action Plan Priorities 5.0 Conclusion Appendix 1: The Brent Biodiversity team/ Partnership Action Plans Bibliography and Reference lists Brent Council Brent Parks Service: Head of Parks Service Shaun Faulkner Service Development Manager Jill Connolly Contact: Leslie Williams Barham Park Office, 660 Harrow Road, Wembley, Sudbury, Middlesex HA0 2HB Tel: 020 8937 5619 Fax: 020 8903 3799 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Web site: www.brent.gov.uk/services Brent Environmental Services: Contact: Des O’Grady Brent web site: www.brent.gov.uk/brain Greater London Authority: officer shadowing the Brent BAP: Dr Meg Game 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Why does biodiversity matter? Biodiversity is the word we use to describe the incredible variety of living things on the Earth. It includes both plants and animals, and extends from the largest species down to the smallest micro-organisms. This variety has taken millions of years to evolve. It is also very fragile. Animals, plants and their habitats depend on each other in ways that we do not always understand and interact in the complex ecological cycles developed since life evolved on earth; they constitute our ‘ecological stock’ or ‘capital’ which must be preserved for generations to come. Changes that we have made to the natural environment through using land, polluting air and water, and exploiting plants and animals have killed off some species, and threaten others. Many rich habitats that were once plentiful are now scarce. We do not even understand the value of what we have lost and what we are about to lose. We depend on this wonderful variety of plants, animals and micro-organisms for food, raw materials, medicines and to maintain the environment that we need for survival. Every species that is lost impoverishes us and threatens our long- term future. 1.2 Biodiversity Action Plans It is now nearly ten years since governments from across the world met in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 at what became known as “the Earth Summit”. One of the important agreements that they reached is called the Biodiversity Convention. Through this convention, each government, including our own, agreed to prepare detailed plans to protect the biodiversity of their own country. These plans set out what is to be done to protect important habitats and individual species. In the UK, a National Action Plan has identified hundreds of species and habitats and which need special attention. Every local authority area has been asked to set up a partnership to prepare detailed local plans that reflect local as well as national priorities. In Brent the first Biodiversity Action Plan was agreed in 1999. We are now revising it, and proposing detailed Action Plans for important local habitats and some species. The Brent Biodiversity Team will review the overall Plan each year into the future since the National Action Plan does not set a time scale or a set target date for overall implementation: rather the National Action Plan is perceived as an evolving process with ongoing in-built review. The Mayor of London has a statutory duty to prepare a Biodiversity Strategy for London. This is the first ever statutory biodiversity strategy at the regional level, and will provide a broad framework for biodiversity in the capital. It is not restricted to priority habitats or species. When preparing this strategy, the Mayor must have regard to the local Biodiversity Action Plans of the London Boroughs and the City of London. The Biodiversity Strategy will be available for public consultation from September 20th 2001 and January 4th 2002. The final version will be published in 2002. In implementing the Strategy, the Mayor will work with many organisations, including the London Biodiversity Partnership. This consortium was formed in 1996 and includes a wide spectrum of organisations, including representatives from the London Boroughs, Association of London Government, Thames Water, British Waterways, English Nature, London Wildlife Trust, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, British Trust for Conservation Volunteers and Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. The Partnership is preparing a Biodiversity Action Plan for London, and published its first volume of plans in January 2001. When complete, the Action Plan will cover all important wildlife habitats and a number of priority species. The Mayor’s involvement as a member of the London Biodiversity Partnership provides an opportunity to ensure the delivery of many of the proposals in the Biodiversity Strategy. 2.0 Biodiversity in Brent: our vision 2.1 Preserving our Biodiversity Our aim is to preserve and enhance the biodiversity of the London Borough of Brent by taking a more long-term view towards the management of local habitats. We regard this aim as a duty on us because of the intrinsic importance of maintaining biodiversity. We also believe that it will improve the quality of life for our residents and visitors. ♦ Brent is largely urban and little of its natural habitat and wildlife remains. We will identify such remnants and other valuable or unusual habitats and seek to manage them to increase their value. ♦ There is huge potential for increasing biodiversity in private gardens, parks, roadside verges, street trees and other elements of ‘the urban nature reserve’. We will plan to exploit this potential. ♦ Where individual species have a local population which is significant at a regional or national level, the relevant species action plans prepared by the Greater London Authority to protect and promote those species, will be implemented by the Council. ♦ We will work towards an overall long-term strategy which will attempt to draw more financial resources to maintain and enhance our ecological stock and ensure more long-term investment to protect our ecological assets. 2.2 Engaging the Community The 24 individual Action Plans in this document form the Biodiversity Action Plan ‘work programme’ for the coming year and subsequent years. Many of these individual Action Plans rely on the invaluable contribution of local residents and volunteers, and on local organisations. This participation is one of the pillars of Local Agenda 21 which aims to promote social and environmental sustainability, and help local people shape their local physical and social environment. Local residents help in many ways. They carry out practical hands on work in the Borough. They monitor our local biodiversity and the progress we are making. They offer valuable ides and opinions when consulted about local projects and regeneration initiatives. In Brent, local volunteers in one organisation alone, Barn Hill Conservation Group, contribute 600 working days a year in hands-on work such as planting, gardening and coppicing. Volunteers also help monitor target habitats and species, with the benefit of periodic training and assistance from the Parks Service. The volunteer-led Ecological Monitoring Team has rationalised the biodiversity monitoring process over the past years and developed an effective methodology, which focuses on target areas and their aggregate species. Local voluntary organisations have taken advantage of their charitable status to bid for funding used for conservation projects, and as such are essential partners for the Council. This approach ensures that the organisation has ownership of the project’s design and implementation. Many of the site-specific projects outlined in the Action Plans are environmental regeneration projects which are shaped through extensive consultation processes. 3.0 Brent’s Biodiversity Assets 3.1 Brent is an urban borough which is part of the London Basin natural area. Its geology and habitats were influenced by the predominant London clay and by the River Brent. By the early 1930s, it had become urbanised. Brent has 366 hectares of semi-natural habitat, 8% of the borough – less than half that of Camden (17%) and Harrow (21%). Brent is fortunate in possessing two extensive semi-natural habitat areas: Fryent Country Park (103 hectares (ha)) and Brent Reservoir (102 ha) of which 49 ha are in Brent. Also known as the Welsh Harp, the Brent Reservoir, with its seemingly natural and large lake enclosed in greenery, is one of the best places in London to watch birds. The Grand Union Canal (12 ha in Brent), should also be noted. These three sites are classified as ‘Sites of Metropolitan Importance’. 3.2 The most important sites are Sites of Metropolitan Importance because they contain the best examples of London’s habitats and wildlife. ‘Borough Sites’ are the next most important conservation areas. The third group are ‘Local Sites’, of importance to local communities. Two of our best sites, Fryent Country Park, and Brent Reservoir, have additional designations. The Brent Reservoir is designated a ‘Site of Special Scientific Interest’ (SSSI). Fryent Country Park is a ‘Local Nature Reserve’. There are 21 sites of Borough Importance such as Gladstone Park, Roundwood Park, and Old St Andrew’s churchyard at Kingsbury. In addition, there are 17 Sites of Local Importance; they include for example, Alperton Cemetery, the Pimple and the Orchard of Malorees Infant and Junior School. These sites have been reviewed in the Nature Conservation in Brent, published in March 2000 by the London Ecology Unit; it is the result of an audit which forms an integral part of the Biodiversity Action Plan. 3.4 Brent is endowed with distinct wildlife habitats that are home to particular species of plants and animals. The following habitats feature a variety of species, of which but a few have been selected for the purpose of this report. These habitats can be found in a range of sites including Fryent Country Park, Brent Reservoir, Grand Union Canal and parks such as Gladstone Park.