VIEWS SOUGHT ON BIODIVERSITY ACTION PLAN

Residents of Argyll and Bute are being urged to give their views on the latest draft of the area’s Local Biodiversity Action Plan (LBAP), which has already delivered many benefits in protecting and enhancing local habitats and species.

The plan was originally launched in 2001. This is its first review, and the Argyll and Bute Local Biodiversity Partnership hopes it will result in agreement on a series of far-reaching conservation activities over the next few years.

The partnership has already been working with RPS Consultants in reviewing the current plan. Now the general public is being given the chance to have their say on what is planned over the next four years.

The consultation focuses on threatened habitats and species through adopting the nationally-accepted ‘ecosystem’ approach as a means of ensuring cohesive conservation activities.

There are six work programmes under the scheme - Freshwater and Wetland, Marine and Coastal, Lowland and Farmland, Woodland, Upland and the Built Environment . Each programme contains a number of habitats and associated species for which projects will be developed in a bid to ensure their sustainability.

The consultation will concentrate on exploring these programmes, and how best to deliver them.

Councillor Bruce Marshall, Chair of the Argyll and Bute Local Biodiversity Partnership, said: “As this is International Year of Biodiversity, it is fortunate that we are carrying out a review of the Argyll and Bute Local Biodiversity Action Plan and publishing a new set of actions to be delivered over the next four years.

“It is essential for the success of the latest plan that we encourage people to comment on our new approach to delivering biodiversity benefits. We are very fortunate in Argyll and Bute to have the accolade of having some of the best examples of biodiversity in Britain, and I urge people to become part of this process.”

The LBAP has already involved many partners, and has motivated a significant number of local communities across the area to take up the challenge of the Community Action for Biodiversity initiatives.

Information events served to raise awareness as well as promote the integration of biodiversity into many land, freshwater and marine and coastal management activities.

The plan has also influenced agricultural environment schemes, river basin and catchment management plans, protected marine and coastal habitats and species and encouraged people to be more proactive in their community.

The proposed work programme takes account of the potential impacts of climate change and our ever-changing economy.

The partnership has stressed that the effort community groups and individuals put in now will reap great benefits in ensuring that what is important to Argyll and Bute is protected and enhanced for the future.

The consultation period runs from 20 September 2010 to 29 October 2010 and can be viewed by following the link at www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/biodiversity/.

Comments can also be sent to Simon Zisman at RPS, 7 Clairmont Gardens, Glasgow G3 7LW or at zismans@rpsgroup.com.

The Argyll and Bute Local Biodiversity Partnership was established in 1997, with the first tranche of the LBAP launched in 2001. The partnership has thirty members.