A new European project will bring tremendous gains to the region by helping to stem the rise of invasive plants and animals. The RINSE project (Reducing the Impact of Non-native Species in Europe), which has a total budget of over 2.5 million Euros, will look at ways of managing invasive non-native species (INS) across a large project area.
...your school?... a local group?....the local allotment club? …your mum!?
We’ve started the New Year with the excellent news that our own Dr Gerry Barnes, Environment manager at Norfolk County Council and chair of the Norfolk Biodiversity Partnership has been honoured with an MBE for services to Forestry and the Community.
Ancient Trees in the Landscape – Norfolk’s arboreal heritage is a fascinating and original study by Gerry Barnes and Tom Williamson, which explores many aspects of ancient and traditionally managed trees in Norfolk.
The survey, commissioned by the Norfolk Biodiversity Partnership and carried out by the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV), revealed that there are at least 60 community environmental groups active in the county.
An exciting new initiative in Norfolk will help to safeguard the survival of the white-clawed crayfish in the county. The white-clawed crayfish is one of Britain’s most threatened native wildlife species, but in Norfolk, a group of conservationists is now setting up safe havens for them where they can live and breed naturally.
Species re-introduction projects - where attempts are made to re-establish populations of animals and plants that have been lost from their natural haunts – were the focus of the Norfolk Biodiversity Partnership’s annual forum on 3rd November. Some 120 delegates joined the event, including partners from Natural England, the Broads Authority, Norfolk Wildlife Trust, RSPB, district councils, local community groups and landowners.
Gallant soldiers from South America are to be found all over King’s Lynn. So is fleabane from Mexico, comfrey from Russia, and maple from Norway – along with a host of native British plants.
A new species of sponge has been discovered off the coast of Norfolk by scientists taking part in the first-ever survey of seaweed along the east coast of England.
Proposals to establish a Local Nature Partnership (LNP) for Norfolk and Suffolk are off to a strong start, with the news that a grant of £31,000 has been awarded to Norfolk County Council from Defra/Natural England.
The Government has reaffirmed its commitment to biodiversity with the recent publication of the new and much-anticipated England Biodiversity Strategy, entitled: Biodiversity 2020: A strategy for England’s wildlife and ecosystem services.
Killer shrimp, Japanese knotweed, American signal crayfish and coypu were just some of the invasive alien species that participants learned about at the Norfolk Non-native Species Stakeholders' Forum on 24 May 2011.
The importance of Crop Wild Relatives (CWR) - the wild relatives and ancestors of our crop plants - has been highlighted in a new report recently published by Natural England.
The financial costs of invasive non-native species to the British economy were unveiled recently in a new report published by CABI - the Centre for Agricultural Bioscience International (www.cabi.org).