November 2016 marked the 10th anniversary of the launch of the landmark RSPB report
The much-respected publication was the result of an extensive Geographical Information System (GIS) model review of all active mineral sites in England, to assess their potential to deliver against existing Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) habitat creation targets at the time and thereby protect species.
The report highlighted just what immense potential there was and still is for minerals restoration to deliver for nature and people on a grand scale.
Nature After Minerals (NAM) was devised on the back of the findings of this report to help convert this potential into reality through the sharing of best-practice advice, encouragement and promotion of appropriate and sustainable biodiversity-led minerals restoration.
In NAM’s latest news bulletin Debra Royal, NAM’s events & communications officer, writes: “NAM is pleased to see the on-going progress which has been made in the intervening ten years since the report’s release, with working and worked-out quarries - managed and restored with nature and people very much in mind – increasingly providing vital refuges across whole landscapes, to help buffer and link existing conservation hotspots, providing corridors for wildlife to move along and wonderful places for people to enjoy.
“More recently, it was particularly good to see recognition the impact wetland habitat creation through minerals restoration is having on species conservation, as highlighted in the multi-partnered State of Nature 2016 Report from over fifty wildlife conservation and research organisations. However, whilst there are success stories to be found, the overriding trend in species decline through habitat loss means there is still much to be done.”
NAM says it is looking forward to continuing to work with minerals restoration stakeholders to help ensure this great potential to give back to nature, big-time, is realised.
The original RSPB nature after minerals report is available for viewing on Nature After Minerals website
