Gareth Thomas

University of Northampton

Project Title:
Development of a biodiversity index for use in the waste and mining sector

Tel: +44 (0)1604 893 371
email: gareth.thomas@northampton.ac.uk

England has a network of formally protected wildlife sites amounting to 7% of the total land. These sites afford refuge for the country's 55,000 fauna and flora species with 6.1% of this area given the highest protection through designation as Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs).

Other natural areas such as nature reserves and national parks have much lower protection and as such many are being slowly degraded or have been lost altogether. The trend of biodiversity loss is not a recent phenomenon and certainly not restricted to the UK. The world's governments have failed to meet the internationally-agreed target set out in the 2002 Convention on Biological Diversity of curbing the loss of species and nature by 2010.

The continued trend of species loss strengthens the requirement for all biodiversity to be assessed for its value, and where necessary enhanced and protected. Traditionally biodiversity has been packaged in protective lots such as SSSIs and nature reserves; however the value of other areas of natural habitats (e.g. gardens) has been recognised an important source of biodiversity. There are also vast tracts of land with no protection or official recognition of their ecological value. Areas under private ownership such as land owned by the aggregates and waste industries and University campuses are potential havens for diverse range of flora and fauna.

To successfully manage potentially important habitats present on the sites under private ownership they must first be identified and measured effectively and at low cost. To assess these habitats without the use of ecological specialists requires a tool that can be used by someone with limited knowledge of the natural environment.

The research will focus on the development and testing of a biodiversity index. An index will be developed as a tool for the use of primarily Higher Education Institutions (HEI), then rolled out to other sectors. The tool will allow non-experts to assess the habitats and species present on a campus through basic identification parameters. The results of the assessment will be used to grade the habitat, site or species in terms of local, regional and global importance and value. This assessment tool will enable site managers to categorise natural areas and develop specific management strategies for each habitat.

Once developed, the tool will be tested at several HEI's using people with varying knowledge and skill in assessing the natural environment. Further testing will be undertaken on other sectors with large areas of land under their control, such as the aggregate/ mining and waste industries, to establish the applicability of the tool across these sectors.

Research Interests

I am currently employed a researcher within the Centre for Sustainable Wastes Management and have been in this role for 6 years researching different aspects of waste management, specifically hazardous construction waste, communal recycling and composting solutions for housing and waste management on the island of Rhodes. I have studied ecology as an undergraduate and at MSc level and am interested in the areas of evolutionary theory and landscape ecology.

Note: This research is being funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) as part of the larger "Keeping It Local: shared solutions for sustainability" project