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Our Habitat creation, restoration & enhancement services cover a wide range of broad habitat types with specialist provision for native woodlands, riparian corridors, wetlands, mires and grasslands. European and national policies increasingly seek to mitigate and/or compensate against further losses of biodiversity through statutory control and legislation. In Scotland this has culminated in the recent Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 which builds strongly on previous well know legislation such as the Wildlife & Countryside Acts, EC Habitats Directive, Birds Directive, Habitat Conservation Regulations etc, and all other legislation, regulations and guidelines pursued since the British Government signed the Biodiversity Convention at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Brazil in 1992. The Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act has been hailed as the most comprehensive and significant conservation related legislation for over 20 years. By charging all public bodies with the 'duty to enhance and conserve biodiversity', the Act has provided a legislative framework to ensure all future planning and development gives due consideration to biodiversity with equal consideration being given to mitigation and restoration of past practices. The production of habitat and conservation management plans is a skilled and often complex process. A multitude of factors require assessment such as historical site management, geology and landforms, hydrological regimes, climatic regimes, ecological requirements whilst taking full account of the needs of owners, managers and agents. There is also often a requirement to consult widely with other interested parties such as other statutory organisations, local authorities, conservation charities and in particular local communities where they are likely to be affected by the project. In relation to planning and development, many of these factors are incorporated into licence conditions. Our consultants are experienced in preparing complex land management plans and can feed fully evaluated assessments into larger design and build projects as Ecological chapters in the EIA and design processes to reduce costs and complications at later stages. All grant support applications, whether through SEERAD, the Forestry Commission Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and many other environmental project funding bodies, expect these factors to be fully considered. Our landscape ecology by design services, incorporating our native Scottish origin plant services, are designed to enable this legislative duty to be implemented through the provision of a sustainable alternative approach and methodology to biodiversity protection, conservation and enhancement. Currently most policy and good practice guidance on functional and applied habitat management states that 'local origin plants should be used if available'. However, as they are currently not widely available, the vast majority of planning and planting in Scotland is still carried out using inappropriate species from inappropriate origins. This depletes the genetic resource of Scottish plants, can disable the functional ecology of the landscape and can considerably increase costs if the plants used are not adapted to local biogeographic and climatic conditions. Our services can deliver sustainable and viable solutions to ensure that functional landscape ecology is achieved through design in both rural and urban settings. For more information telephone 01577 861437 or e-mail info@scotorigins.co.uk |
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