Mitigation
Wildlife Trusts in the West Midlands are taking significant steps to reduce their carbon emissions. All Trusts are committed to measuring their own CO2 emissions (or carbon footprint), setting targets to reduce them, and reporting regularly on how they are doing.
All Trusts have already taken action to install low energy light bulbs and reduce energy waste. Others have installed small scale renewable energy schemes. Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, for instance, have a battery of solar panels at their Wolseley Centre HQ generating a significant proportion of the building’s energy requirements and, on occasion, supplying electricity back to the national grid. Worcestershire Wildlife Trust have installed a new geothermal heating system to heat part of the Trust’s conference and education centre. The system uses heat from the ground to heat water flowing through underground pipes and then pumping it into an underfloor heating system.
Adaptation
‘Adaptation’ refers to the policies needed to ‘adapt’ to what we know are the inevitable impacts of climate change. For wildlife this means helping species and habitats move more easily as temperatures rise. The key adaptation principles are as follows:
- Developing ecologically resilient landscapes through establishment of ecological networks, linking up fragmented habitats
- Protecting biodiversity, including protected areas and other wildlife habitat of high value
- Reducing other sources of harm, such as pollution, inappropriate habitat management, and over-exploitation of resources (e.g. water abstraction)
We believe the development of ecological networks through a landscape scale approach to land management is key. This involves identifying where the wildlife-rich places currently are and how we might rebuild biodiversity to connect them together. It means providing room for wildlife to manoeuvre to shadier slopes, higher ground or alternative habitat.
In the West Midlands region the West Midlands Biodiversity Partnership, led by the Wildlife Trusts, has, through the Landscapes for Living project, produced a regional Biodiversity Opportunities map which highlights the optimum locations where rebuilding habitats will have the greatest benefit for wildlife, natural resources and people.
» Click here to find out more about the Landscapes for Living project.
Government has a critical role in ensuring that the range of existing policy tools can help our biodiversity adapt to climate change. Examples of tools include:
- Agri-environment Stewardship Schemes: the decisions Natural England takes in guiding these schemes will be crucial in helping to deliver this vision and we must seek to influence them.
- The Planning System: Local authorities can use planning tools to protect existing sites and to facilitate the creation, enhancement and restoration and linking of priority habitats, including Local Wildlife Sites.
- Local Area Agreements: Local authorities have the potential to use LAAS to focus funding and decisions to assist the development of resilient landscapes and landscape scale restoration.
The Wildlife Trusts are part of a consortium campaigning on the issue of climate change - see the Stop Climate Chaos website for more information.