An environmental education charity which began in 1943, the Field Studies Council works with people of all ages and abilities, providing opportunities for them to experience the environment at first hand; to discover, explore, be inspired by, and understand the natural environment. Everything that we do has close links to the work of GiGL and all local records centres.
By now, we should all be aware of the potential impacts that Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica), an invasive non-native species, can have on local biodiversity, on built structures and on our local amenity. It is important to know how to identify it throughout the year. This task becomes more difficult in winter when it has lost its distinctive leaves and flowers.
In the summer of 2012, I began research for my dissertation for my degree. The study focused on the invasive non-native plant species, Crassula helmsii in aquatic environments around London. Through this investigation, I aimed to evaluate the adaptability of C. helmsii and some of its invasive behaviours in small aquatic habitats.
London is home to many species of wildlife, from the birds and squirrels that visit our gardens and parks, to more secretive animals like badgers, hedgehogs, water voles and Muntjac deer. Many species are protected by law to varying degrees. For example, all wild birds are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, …
The end of March 2013 marked the fifth anniversary of the fruitful partnership between The Royal Parks and GiGL. Our partnership began in 2007 with the appointment of Ian Woodward as the first GiGL Royal Parks Officer. Ian got the records system up and running before moving on to do an MSc. He was succeeded in October 2008 by Claudia Watts who is still in post.
The Essex Field Club is an entirely voluntary society for wildlife enthusiasts who study and record the natural history and geology of Essex. The Club was founded in 1880 to promote the study of the natural history, geology and pre-historic archaeology of the county of Essex and its borderlands; to establish a museum and to issue publications.
Brian Cuthbertson, Head of Environment and Sustainability at the Diocese of London The Churchyards Ecology Survey is the first phase in a multi-year project called ‘Churchyards for London’. Depending on how you count them, there are about 600 churchyards in Greater...
LISI is now starting on projects for its upcoming second year. The first of these is the invasive non-native species (INNS) mapping project. This will devise a standardised method for collecting data on invasive species and a way for recorders to get their information into the GiGL database where it can be stored, used and shared.
Recording need not be a lonely activity. Recording groups and events are a great way to share skills, expertise and resources and to get together with like-minded people. GiGL have been involved with a number of our partners’ recording events, from biodiversity workshops to ‘BioBlitzes’.
One of the lesser known uses for GiGL partnership data is in the field of research. Collectively, the species, habitats, open space and protected sites data held by GiGL represent a unique resource. Most recorders are aware that their data are used to inform the planning system, land management and conservation efforts.
All is not well with the European eel (Anguilla anguilla). Research over the last thirty years indicates that the number of eels arriving each year (recruitment) in some rivers in Europe, from the Sargasso Sea, is believed to have declined by up to 95%. In 2008, in recognition of this worrying decline, the International Union for Conservation of Nature listed the European eel as critically endangered.
House sparrows are no longer ubiquitous. Both rural and urban populations in the UK have shown a severe decline. In London numbers fell by a shocking 68% between 1994 and 2000. The drop in numbers has been so dramatic that sparrows are now “red-listed” as a species of high conservation concern.
London Wildlife Trust has been a ‘critical friend’ of London 2012 Games. For us to not have a voice in the largest urban park development in the UK for the last 150 years would be to the detriment of London’s wildlife. Our support was given on the proviso that there would be a net-gain in biodiversity as a result of the Games.
Invasive non-native species (INNS) are noted as the second biggest threat to biodiversity worldwide, second only to habitat destruction. They contribute significantly to the threat to biodiversity within the Greater London area. All stakeholders need to work together to ensure effective management.
Our gardens research project has caused quite a stir, not only within our patch, but also in the national and international press. Almost a year has passed since we completed the project, and we reflect here on the press coverage received and the benefits of partnership work.
Invasive non-native species are thought to be the biggest threat to biodiversity globally, second only to habitat destruction. They can result in significant declines in native fauna and flora, devastate threatened species and replace rich local biodiversity with a sea of a single species. They are reported to cost the British economy alone around £1.7 billion annually.
We always knew that iGiGL, our new online mapping interface, had great potential. Its value in allowing users to access our data without the need for desktop mapping software has already been recognised by Natural England and the Environment Agency. For no sooner had we launched iGiGL than they approached us about the possibility of extending its functionality.
The Environment Agency needs your information about rare wildlife. We regulate others and we impact the environment ourselves. To carry out our business, to protect and enhance wildlife, one of our most fundamental needs is for information about where rare species and habitats are.
Hackney’s first biodiversity action plan went to public consultation in 2011 and is due to be formally adopted by the borough early this year. The delay in the BAP’s adoption hasn’t prevented the borough starting its delivery. A GiGL biodiversity audit, together with local knowledge from the Hackney Biodiversity Partnership, helped us to understand the current biodiversity resource and formulate priorities for action. As a competent authority we need to make evidence-based decisions and GiGL provides us with an invaluable service across our work, particularly in our green space and planning teams.
We all know that London is an historic city, but perhaps not so many of us give much thought to its geological history. The London Geodiversity Partnership (LGP), which formed in 2008, is a group of individuals and organisations with an interest in geology and the environment, who aim to promote and protect the capital’s vast geodiversity ‘the variety of rocks, fossils, minerals, landforms, soils and natural processes, such as weathering, erosion and sedimentation, that underlie and determine the character of our natural landscape and environment’.
The All London Green Grid (ALGG) is a strategic project which provides a framework for the creation, enhancement and management of multifunctional green and open spaces across the whole of Greater London. GiGL is working with the project’s leaders, Design for London, to provide the evidence behind this important initiative.
The ALGG has eight key objectives, including: improving access to open space and nature, managing flood risk, enhancing connections between distinctive destin […]
London is arguably one of the world’s most verdant big cities. A significant part of our green space is managed by ordinary Londoners – the humble gardeners.
Gardens cover nearly a quarter of London, yet we know little about what’s in them or how this is changing. Over the period of a year GiGL worked in partnership with London Wildlife Trust and the Greater London Authority to fully document London’s garden cover […]
With more than one billion passenger journeys every year, the London Underground is an essential part of the daily lives of those who live and work in the capital. It sometimes provides the only “green” people see in London’s highly urbanised environment, and provides easy access to greenspace in areas of deficiency.
Most of the London Underground is over ground; stretching from Buckinghamshire’s Chiltern Hills in in the west to Essex’s Epping Forest in in the east. London Underground’s land acts […]
Technological advances have not only made it possible to share, manage and put biodiversity data to use in meeting national or local needs, they also facilitate record making thanks to GPS, digital cameras and smart phone apps. And, by offering new ways to attract, involve and support individuals and communities in recording activities, technology simplifes the coordination of surveys and recording effort. But the effectiveness of recording still depends largely on the activities, skills and enthusiasm of […]
A BioBlitz is a light-hearted biological survey that provides the chance for naturalists and members of the public to explore and learn together.
As well as raising awareness of biodiversity and the importance of biological recording, it can also generate genuinely useful …
The London Invasive Species Initiative (LISI) is a newly formed group under the London Biodiversity Partnership, which aims to co-ordinate action to prevent, control and eradicate invasive non-native species in London.
LISI was formed in response to national policy initiatives seeking a co-ordinated national approach …
Tanya Broadfield, London Fire Brigade Environment Adviser GiGL works with the great and the good in London conservation and development. But the services that GiGL provides are of use to more organisations than you might expect. One of GiGL’s less obvious partners...
Mandy Rudd, GiGL Director Data entry and validation are two key but under-utilised services that we provide to our partners in order to help them mobilise their data. GiGL has been able to offer these services free of charge to the voluntary organisations who...
We are really pleased that the Association of Local Environmental Records Centres (ALERC) has recently become a Community Interest Company – a not for profit company whose income will be reinvested to further expand and raise the profile of records centres across the...
Helen Babbs, London Wildlife Trust’s Communications Officer, introduces some of the ways the Trust links to the GiGL website. Mandy Rudd, GiGL Director, flags another way for partners to make use of GiGL’s website. London Wildlife Trust’s website excites visitors...
GiGL’s new partners ... Four new London boroughs joined the GiGL partnership at the start of the current financial year. A further three are considering signing up to service level agreements. If successful, this would bring the total number of London boroughs in the...
There are more than three million private gardens in Greater London – a significant resource for wildlife and people. Despite the extent of London’s gardens, information about their current use is scarce and concern is growing that changes in use – paving, car parking, development, etc., may reduce their value for wildlife. London Wildlife Trust and GiGL have joined forces to deliver the Garden Research Project to fill this gap …
Philippa Burrell, Director Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre, explains how third generation data are already changing the way people work in the region.
A simple ‘data in, data out’ service had been available in Oxfordshire and Berkshire before the Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre came into being. A number of key people in the region – county ecologists, Natural England, Wildlife Trust staff and others – could see the potential for even more helpful data products and were willing …
Thames Valley may be ahead of the game in third generation data modelling, but London is not far behind. Nick White of the London Biodiversity Partnership explains how the same opportunity mapping techniques could help target action in London. In 2007, the London Biodiversity Partnership successfully lobbied for regional habitat creation and enhancement targets for a range of key habitat types to be incorporated into the Greater London Authority’s alterations to the London Plan. Although biodiversity had always been mentioned within …
John O’Neil, Senior Planner at the Greater London Authority, gives an overview of how GiGL could help boroughs to meet their obligation to produce an open space strategy
The Mayor’s London Plan sets the strategic context for open space planning throughout London, based on protecting and promoting the network of open spaces.The London Plan recognises the valuable contribution that open spaces play in providing a good quality environment that makes London an attractive place to live, work and visit.
London Bat Group (LBG) is an entirely voluntary, registered charity working throughout the Greater London area to protect and enhance London’s bats. What that means in practice is that LBG is run by a small group of devoted volunteers, all of which have busy professional lives, but we choose to dedicate a large part of our private lives towards raising awareness of bats, and particularly of course bats in London. LBG has been a partner of GiGL since it was first developed in its original form of London Wildlife Trust’s Biological Recording Project, due in large part to one of LBG’s most devoted volunteers, Pete Guest, who also worked for London Wildlife Trust.
‘Imagine you are walking through a field in summer. You might think you were in the heart of the country, but you could equally be in the middle of London where urban wastelands … previously developed land that has been abandoned by people and reclaimed by nature … bring people closer to nature.’ ‘Brownfield? Greenfield?’ London Wildlife Trust and the London Brownfields Forum, 2002.
GiGL has been working with the GLA since long before either organisation existed. John Archer, Principal Policy Officer at the GLA and GiGL's steering group chair explains. The London Ecology Unit, which was later absorbed into the GLA, was one of the key partners in...
Mandy Rudd, GiGL Manager It’s been an eventful journey. Ten years ago, in May 1996, with funding from the Bridge House Trust, London Wildlife Trust launched its Biological Recording Project – the first step towards a biodiversity records centre for London. Alistair...
John Swindells, LNHS. The London Natural History Society has been collecting natural history records since its early days in the mid nineteenth century. Currently, its 22 recorders cover most groups of plants and animals. The Society’s recording effort has resulted in...
Jon Riley, ECL. When developers are looking at a development site, they do not always see the wildlife value of that site.This is where consultancies such as Ecology Consultancy Ltd come in. A data search, or ‘desk-top study’, is carried in the early stages of an...
Alison Fure, Furesfen Ecological Consultancy. Not many consultants pass records on to biodiversity records centres, although it is in the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management’s code of conduct to do so. I always ask and some clients are pleased to allow...
Emily Reynolds, London Borough of Redbridge. For those over-stretched local authority ecologists who would love to play around with data and GIS maps but don’t have the time, GiGL provides an invaluable service. As nature conservation team leader for Redbridge, and...
For many people, the Natural History Museum is a wonderful visitor attraction – an iconic building in central London.To some it means only one thing – dinosaurs! The Museum is much more than this. It is primarily a research institution – an international leader in the...
Nick White, London Biodiversity Partnership. The current rate of species extinction worldwide is estimated at between 1,000 and 10,000 times what would occur without human influence. In 1992, the UK along with 150 other signatories at the Rio de Janeiro ‘Earth...
In this first issue of The GIGLer, we’ve followed GiGL from humble roots to its current position – the recognised one-stop-shop for greenspace information in London. So what does the future hold for GiGL? Trevor James, NBN Development Officer gives us a glimpse of...
The London Underground network may not be the first place to spring to mind when you think of good wildlife habitat. But large parts of the outer reaches of the network run above ground and adjacent to a variety of trackside habitats. A recent report has confirmed that the Underground network is home to a wealth of wildlife. Badgers, water voles and grass snakes are just a few of the protected species to be found.
Like all borough biodiversity officers, I require access to reliable species information for many aspects of my work including strategic and development planning. A variety of people will expect me to be able to tell them what lives where in the borough, the moment that I pick up the phone to them. Yet many biodiversity officers inherit what information we have in various forms – paper notes, spreadsheets etc – from a variety of sources. These can be hard to collate at short notice. Equally, our records are often incomplete.
The water vole is a UK priority species for biodiversity conservation. Its presence on a site is a material consideration in planning applications, and under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) it is an offence to damage burrows and nests, or to disturb water voles while they are in their burrows. The water vole is also protected from persecution and unnecessary suffering under the Wild Mammals (Protection) Act (1996). A review is currently underway which will hopefully lead to the water vole being given full protection – making it an offence to take, possess or intentionally kill a water vole.