Welcome to the About Biodiversity 
section of the Norfolk Biodiversity website

On this page you will find information on:

Why should we conserve biodiversity

Protecting the variety of life around us is becoming increasingly important. In the UK we have lost over 100 species in the 20th century including 5% of our butterflies, 7% of our dragonflies and more than 2% of our fish and mammals.

The underlying reasons why we should conserve biodiversity include a moral obligation, good stewardship, the benefits to society and economic value.

Moral and aesthetic

  • We should conserve species and habitats because they enrich our lives
  • We should hand on to the next generation an environment no less rich than the one we ourselves inherited
  • The culture of a nation is closely allied to its landscape and wildlife. Poets, painters, writers have been inspired by the nature around them
  • A culture which encourages respect for wildlife and landscapes is preferable to one that does not.

Stewardship

  • Human beings have a certain power over other creatures; with this power comes responsibility
  • Species which have evolved over many thousands of years may be lost very quickly and cannot be recreated

Benefit to society

  • Natural processes help to protect our planet, e.g. diversity of vegetation on mud flats and sand dunes reduces coastal erosion; flood plains act as natural release valves for rivers in flood
  • Many species possess medicinal properties for example some plants promise potential cures for different forms of cancer

Economic Value

  • Much of the countryside in the UK is of great beauty and is a focus for recreation and tourism
  • Many species have direct economic value e.g. as food, building materials, fuel, clothing
  • Biodiversity also provides a more indirect, economically valuable service e.g. water and soil conservation, climate and weather moderation, pollution control

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Global Biodiversity: Out of Rio 1992

Biodiversity is disappearing at an alarming rate, both globally and in the UK.

In June 1992, the Convention of Biological Diversity was signed by 159 governments at the Earth Summit, which took place in Rio de Janeiro. It entered into force on 29 December 1993 and it was the first treaty to provide a legal framework for biodiversity conservation. It called for the creation and enforcement of national strategies and action plans to conserve, protect and enhance biological diversity.

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National Biodiversity: Working with the grain of nature - a biodiversity strategy for England

Working with the grain of nature: a biodiversity strategy for England Working with the grain of nature: a biodiversity strategy for England was launched on 24 October 2002 at the London Wetland Centre, Barnes by the RT Hon Margaret Beckett MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

The Strategy seeks to ensure biodiversity considerations become embedded in all main sectors of public policy and sets out a programme for the next five years to make the changes necessary to conserve, enhance and work with the grain of nature and ecosystems rather than against them.

The Strategy is a Government strategy, but it has been prepared with the active partnership of a broad range of stakeholders in the public, voluntary and private sectors, and follows on from the production of the UK Biodiversity Action Plan in 1994.

The Strategy sets out a series of actions that will be taken by the Government and its partners to make biodiversity a fundamental consideration in:

  • Agriculture: encouraging the management of farming and agricultural land so as to conserve and enhance biodiversity as part of the Government's Sustainable Food and Farming Strategy.
  • Water: aiming for a whole catchment approach to the wise, sustainable use of water and wetlands.
  • Woodland: managing and extending woodland so as to promote enhanced biodiversity and quality of life.
  • Marine and coastal management: so as to achieve the sustainable use and management of our coasts and seas using natural processes and the ecosystem-based approach.
  • Urban areas: where biodiversity needs to become a part of the development of policy on sustainable communities and urban green space and the built environment.

The England Biodiversity Group, which includes the principal stakeholders from the public, voluntary and private sectors, will oversee the Strategy's implementation. The Strategy is intended to be a living document, subject to regular review and roll-forward. The England Biodiversity Group will take stock of progress annually and publish a full report in 2006.

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Local Biodiversity: Local Biodiversity Action Plans (LBAPs)

The Norfolk Biodiversity Action Plan [image] In order for the national priorities and targets to be met it is essential that action is taken at a local level.

The Norfolk Biodiversity Action Plan was officially launched in January 1999 and is one of many LBAP's across the UK that are helping to meet national biodiversity targets

The plan was produced by the Norfolk Biodiversity Partnership and currently contains Action Plans for 29 Species and 9 Habitats

These are national priority species and habitats which are found in Norfolk and as such are those which require our urgent attention. The Norfolk Biodiversity Action Plan will evolve and in time contain species and habitats of more regional and local significance. One of the strengths of the Biodiversity Action Plan process is that it enables conservation efforts to be prioritised.

To help engage people in the biodiversity process the Norfolk Biodiversity Partnership have established a number of Topic Groups to take responsibility for producing, implementing and reporting on the various species and habitat action plans. There are currently eight groups...

  • Coastal
  • Communities and Nature
  • Farmland
  • Heathlands
  • Large Areas for Wildlife
  • Waterbodies
  • Wetlands
  • Woodlands

...all formed of people from the Biodiversity Partnership with expertise in that particular area.

A brief update on the work of these groups can be found in the Biodiversity Partnership update on the news page.

When reading about the global, national and local processes, plans and strategies above it is important to remember that biodiversity conservation, is not just the responsibility of the government, nature conservation organisations or businesses. As individuals we too can contribute towards the conservation of biodiversity - see the Gardening for Wildlife page on this site to find out how.

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contact us [image]
Send mail to scott.perkin@norfolk.gov.uk with questions or comments about this web site.  This page was printed from the Norfolk Biodiversity Website : http://www.norfolkbiodiversity.org/ 

Good evening, today is 12 May 2008 @ 23:11 This website is © Copyright Norfolk County Council
Website last updated 30 April 2008.