Derbyshire is currently covered by the Lowland Derbyshire Biodiversity Action Plan 2011 to 2020 and the Peak District Biodiversity Action Plan.
The Lowland Derbyshire Biodiversity Action Plan was made by a partnership of over 90 organisations including local authorities, environmental groups and statutory agencies.
It is a core document which takes a landscape character-based approach to listing UK priority habitats and species. It sets actions and gives targets to work towards to stop the loss of biodiversity across our area.
What the BAP is for
The Lowland Derbyshire Biodiversity Action Plan provides local information on UK priority habitats and species across our county, excluding the Peak District. It gives guidance and sets targets for actions to create, link or manage those priority habitats most appropriate to each different landscape character area. Each of these 8 'action areas' in lowland Derbyshire has its own 'area action plan', with additional over-arching actions described within a 'generic plan'.
The Lowland Derbyshire BAP is an important strategic document. It should be referred to by ecologists, planners, conservationists, grant-giving bodies, and by all those seeking funding for conservation projects, or who are planning environmental improvements or mitigation as part of a planning application. Showing that a proposed action fits in with locally-defined biodiversity action plan priorities and targets is an important requirement that local authority planning departments, as well as grant-awarding bodies, expect to see.
Derby City, Chesterfield, Erewash, North East Derbyshire and Bolsover have all had individual 'greenprints' which distilled BAP priorities for those districts. Most were produced before 2010, so may now be out-of-date. For further information contact Derbyshire Wildlife Trust.
Together with the Nottinghamshire Biodiversity Action Plan, the Lowland Derbyshire Biodiversity Action Plan provides guidance on the most relevant and appropriate improvements to UK Priority Habitats and Species across the Lowland Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Local Nature Partnership (LDN LNP) area.
After 2020
The Lowland Derbyshire Biodiversity Partnership does not currently have the resources to provide detailed monitoring of every environmental improvement made across Lowland Derbyshire. However it believes the overall principles and priorities laid out within the current LBAP will remain valid, moving beyond 2020.
The LBAP document should be regarded by local authorities and the Local Nature Partnership as a key document well beyond 2020. It should remain in effect until such time as a further update or replacement is published.
What BAPs don't tell us
BAPs don't tell us everything about protecting our environment. Local biodiversity action plans (LBAPs) only highlight what UK priority species and habitats are present in an area, and set priorities and goals for enhancing them. They do not highlight the presence of EU protected species, scheduled species, statutory and non-statutory designated sites or the presence of nationally or locally designated Red Data List species.
Contacts
Between 2004 and 2016, members of the Lowland Derbyshire Biodiversity Partnership funded the post of a project officer to develop and promote its Biodiversity Action Plan. More recently, it also supported the creation and development of the Local Nature Partnership. Unfortunately, by 2017 these various contributions were no longer available and the Biodiversity Partnership currently has no coordinator in place.
For queries relating to county ecology, please see our information on ecology, geology and biodiversity.
Derbyshire Wildlife Trust also holds information on local wildlife sites, UK priority habitats and species, as well as biological records.