‘Brownfield and Urban Issues’

Increased and competing pressures on our use of land: - for wildlife, water supply and management, food production, biofuels and biomass, carbon stewardship, transport, housing and recreation – pose an escalating environmental challenge at every level. What is our long term vision for land use in the UK, and how can we achieve this?

‘The Big Brownfield Biodiversity Botch’by Matt Shardlow, Chief Executive Officer, Buglife – The Invertebrate Conservation Trust and ‘Sustainable cities - a space for nature?’ by Pete Massini, Future London Programme Manager, Natural England

Matt Shardlow is Chief Executive Officer of Buglife – The Invertebrate Conservation Trust. Matt worked at the RSPB for nine years, completing an MPhil in the restoration of invertebrate populations in a mixed arable and grazing farming system and overseeing the management and monitoring of non-avian biodiversity on the RSPB’s 115,000ha of nature reserves. In 2002 Matt helped to set up a new charity ‘Buglife – The Invertebrate Conservation Trust’ of which he is now the Chief Executive Officer. Buglife is the only organisation in Europe committed to saving all invertebrates; the charity has eight members of staff and a growing portfolio of conservation projects. Priority work areas include the sustainable management of brownfield sites; saving endangered Biodiversity Action Plan Priority species; and improving the health of freshwater ecosystems. Matt has been a Management Committee member of Wildlife and Countryside Link (WCL) and is an active member of the WCL Biodiversity Working Group, representing the partnership on Biodiversity Reporting and Information Group (BRIG).

His lecture will cover the following themes: Government policy is forcing an unprecedented level of development onto Brownfield land as this is perceived to be much more acceptable to the public than building on greenfields. But it has become increasingly obvious that the current definition of Brownfield (previously developed land) includes a great many sites that are of high importance to rare and endangered species, while many ‘greenfields’ are just ploughed fields, barren of life. Recent work by Buglife has shown over half of brownfield land in the Thames Gateway is likely to be of high importance to biodiversity, but at current rates of development it will all be lost in 20 years. The combination of a new BAP priority habitat (Open Mosaic Habitats on Previously Developed Land) and rare BAP priority species on sites that are otherwise prioritised for development creates a unique biodiversity conservation dilemma that enables us to explore how biodiversity conservation and the planning system are, and should be, working, as well as our perceptions of what wildlife needs and the how this compares to what wildlife really needs.

Pete Massini is Future London Programme Manager, Natural England Despite completing a degree in Rural Environment Studies at Wye College in the heart of rural Kent, Pete has spent 20 years working in nature conservation in London. Initially employed as a conservation officer by the London Wildlife Trust, he went on to work for the London Ecology Unit and helped establish the London Biodiversity Partnership, before joining English Nature’s London team in 2000. As Manager of Natural England’s Future London programme he leads a small team responsible for spatial planning and promotion of green infrastructure. He is Natural England’s representative on the Towns and Cities workstream of the England Biodiversity Strategy and has been a long-serving Council member of the British Association of Nature Conservation (BANC) – publishers of ECOS.

His lecture will cover the following themes: For many, the urban environment is the very antithesis of the natural environment. The aspiration to form more sustainable cities is likely to result in urban densification, a greater demand for outdoor space for people and the creation of a green infrastructure which is designed and managed primarily for practical functions such as flood management. So is there space for nature in the urban environment? If so, can we rely on the traditional approach to nature conservation as new urban landscapes are formed? The lecture will explore whether we need to think about nature conservation in urban areas differently. Whether we can make nature part of the city - not apart from the city.

For free tickets and venue details, contact 020 7679 1069 or email environment@fce.bbk.ac.uk