Greenspace Information for Greater London CIC
GiGL mobilises, curates and shares data that underpin our knowledge of London’s natural environment. We enable our stakeholders to make informed decisions in policy and practice.
Based on the Ordnance Survey 1:10,000 map © Crown copyright and database rights 2015 Ordnance Survey Licence No. 100032216. GLA
last updated 04.05.2021
Our Services
GiGL's wide range of services fall into four categories.
Submit & Access Data
Send Us Your Records
If you have wildlife or habitat records, we encourage you to submit these here.
Explore Our Data Online
Explore selected GiGL data via our online interactive map.
Get a Data Search Report
Ecological consultants: access comprehensive biodiversity and open space information.
GiGL Life
London’s Priority Species
Over 15,000 different species have been recorded in London so identifying a smaller number of priority species allows conservation efforts to be focused towards those species that need help the most. London’s priority species are those we share our city with that are national priorities for conservation and those that are believed to be declining in London or beyond…
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LERCs: it’s not always about data
Even though LERCs are mostly associated with biodiversity data, they often provide services that are not strictly related to the data they hold and manage. Below are just a few examples of the wealth of non-data resources available through the records centre community…
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GiGL in full colour: our first public facing annual report
Part of our commitment as a community interest company (CIC) is to submit our annual accounts and a completed CIC34 form, to Companies House. The form includes sections to demonstrate how our activities have benefited the community we were set up to serve, and whether we have consulted our stakeholders and acted on their feedback. We have a series of standard metrics to illustrate these points drawn from our social media accounts, internal monitoring spreadsheets and various other stats-rich resources. What the mandatory reporting doesn’t do is show GiGL in full colour…
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GiGL is Closed Week
Like most organisations, we often find we have a list of things we’d like to do on a ‘rainy day’. But sometimes that rainy day never comes. A solution we’ve found helpful at GiGL is to have a dedicated “Closed Week” every six months…
Read MoreIssue 29: Editorial
Welcome to the winter edition of our newsletter. We have some project updates to share, and a few staff changes to announce, along with two ‘joy of recording’ articles to inspire us to get back to recording…
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The Riverfly Monitoring Initiative: an update
It was over six years ago that ZSL wrote an article in the GiGLer about the launch of the Riverfly Monitoring Initiative (RMI) Hub within London. The project has been busy ever since. In spring 2014 the first ZSL led training events were offered on the River Crane and the Hogsmill. Since then the scheme has expanded to include groups of citizen scientists on 16 rivers within Greater London…
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Interview, Jo Heisse
People who aren’t afraid to be themselves and challenge prejudice are inspiring. I currently work mainly in diversity and inclusion and get to meet and work with truly inspiring people who are doing just that. From championing transgender rights, to challenging our gender binary world, to better understanding living with disabilities or mental health conditions, to challenging racism or gender bias. They genuinely inspire me…
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Interview, Tanvi Desai
Seeing the Bosco Verticale in Milan really inspired me to start thinking about the imaginative ways that green can be added to urban environments. The experience encouraged me to take on an MSc in Environment and Sustainability, where I focussed on the value and potential of London’s small green spaces (particularly the patches of grass around buildings). I learnt a lot about the many environmental, social, medical and economic benefits of urban greenspace…
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Digitising Orpington Field Club
It is not very often that we get asked to help digitise the archives of a natural history society so we were excited when the Orpington Field Club approached us to see if we could help. After saying yes, we received a visit to our office from two members of the Club who came with a trolley full of paper newsletters and annual reports detailing the work and life of this organisation from the 1960s to 2014…
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Joy of Recording: Does watching and recording wildlife make a difference?
The Barbican Wildlife Garden is 0.17 hectares of loveliness! We have a meadow which is hand scythed annually and two borders of hedging which include mature plane trees. There are two ponds and a small orchard of ‘rescued’ fruit trees. There is a much loved small bird hide, complete with a white board for observations. We have bird boxes and feeders, and a network of paths dotted with perching logs and benches…
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