4 minute read
Wild Ipswich
Matt Berry, Ipswich Borough Council
Last October a meeting was organised by Ipswich Borough Council (IBC) to discuss a new concept for bringing all the conservation organisations with an interest in Ipswich together under one banner – Wild Ipswich.
The meeting was attended by representatives of Suffolk Wildlife Trust, RSPB, Suffolk Biodiversity information Service, Ipswich Wildlife Group, Suffolk Amphibians & Reptile Group, Suffolk County Council, Greenways Countryside Project and officers from IBC, including the Strategic Planning and Parks & Cemeteries Services. The suggestion received full support around the table and from those unable to attend from Butterfly Conservation and Buglife.
The idea has evolved out of the IBC Ecological Network plan, which as the name suggests, is a map and associated policy showing the core wildlife sites and corridors, which together form a vital support and travel system for all the wildlife in the town. This plan and associated wording now forms an integral part of the IBC Core Strategy, which when adopted will form a unique and strong policy to assist IBC in protecting and enhancing biodiversity, particularly when it comes to town planning and the development control process. This is a huge step forward towards making awareness and consideration of biodiversity issues mainstream, and as important as trees and other more traditional considerations. loss and reverse the trend of decline to one of enhancement and expansion of biodiversity instead. We all know how difficult this will be to achieve, but it is surely the only goal we should be considering and striving for if we want a wildlife rich and healthy natural environment.
Ipswich is already doing good things. The ecological network approach has received numerous plaudits and praise for being something of a trail blazing initiative, especially because it is being taken much further forward than merely mapping where wildlife sites and corridors are – we’re actually trying to do something about making things better too! Then there has been the Ipswich Heaths Project from Butterfly Conservation, a landscape level project for protecting the Silver-studded Blue and other associated heathland wildlife, along with the habitats themselves. And now we’re about to see Ipswich become an ‘Urban Buzz’ town with a new project funded by Buglife. The aim of this is to create 100 new wildlife sites to benefit pollinators – clearly these habitats will benefit a multitude of other wildlife too, including butterflies and moths.
There is also the SWT Hedgehog project currently underway in the town, a perfect demonstration for how vital a linked landscape is to wildlife as hedgehogs can roam quite a distance and they also require significant areas in order to sustain viable breeding populations.
level of interest in wildlife in Ipswich and there has never been more need than there is now for some serious action to protect it! The next step requires us to declare a vision for what we want Wild Ipswich to do. It is still being discussed but we expect it to be along the lines of the following:
How will this vision become reality? We will make this happen by building a resilient ecological network to give wildlife the freedom to move throughout the town via; strategic town planning and site level development management; looking after and improving existing core wildlife sites; increasing space for nature by securing new sites; working with landowners to build biodiversity into their businesses; and identifying where we can thread wildlife corridors throughout Ipswich.
Our vision is also about inspiring and empowering people, and benefiting their communities and immediate environment. We will inspire people street-by-street, areaby-area, to turn the town into a nature-rich, connected landscape.
Wild Ipswich is for anyone living and working in the town to help transform gardens and open spaces into a town-wide nature reserve. Together, if we connect habitats and green spaces, we can create wildlife corridors, enabling wildlife to move easily around the town and link to the wider countryside. In summary the main priorities for taking things forward are to:
Inspire people and communities to care and take direct action for nature
Have a launch event for Wild Ipswich in 2017.
Host a programme of public events to give people the help they need to transform and re-wild their homes, gardens and local areas. Design a Wild Ipswich website hosting information and interactive features.
Publish a quarterly Wild Ipswich magazine.
Maintain, improve, and increase our current wildlife habitats and sites.
Restore and create new areas for wildlife.
Join them up – through continuous corridors or via stepping-stones.
Increase the wildlife value of the wider landscape.
Wild Ipswich is still in its infancy but we hope that things will start to happen fairly quickly this year and there will be opportunities for people to get actively involved. We also hope that this might be a model followed elsewhere and that the concept of making our towns and cities wilder will catch on around the country.
