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This was the first North Lanarkshire biodiversity forum, 16 people attended it. Those attending the meeting were fortified by fine soup and sandwiches before the meeting began at 6pm.
Jonathan Willet, the biodiversity officer, introduced himself and thanked all those attending for coming along. In his first year in the post a great deal of time had been spent dealing with creating structures within the NL biodiversity partnership, specifically the working groups that would be the key facilitators for biodiversity action. Now these structures have been set up he hoped to get more involved with practical community projects, raising awareness of biodiversity and getting to meet people from these communities.
After this introduction, a slide show was given by Jonathan on the current state of the biodiversity of North Lanarkshire. A summary of this information can be found by clicking this link Status of North Lanarkshire's Biodiversity 2004.
After a short break, there was a discussion on which habitat should be chosen as the main focus for awareness raising and action in 2005. The choices were woodland, water and farmland. After a lively discussion it was decided that farmland would be the priority for 2005, with river and lochs being the priority in 2006 and woodland in 2007. This year urban habitats and mosses are being focussed on with specific events and publicity. It is hoped that by focussing on one habitat in a year we can raise the profile and awareness of that habitat significantly.
One action to come out of the discussion was to encourage more farmers to participate in the rural stewardship scheme, the agri-environment scheme run by the Scottish Executive. Under 10% of the active farms in the area are in this scheme, one of the main reasons seems to be lack of awareness, so letting farmers know about the RSS is a major action for next year.
The meeting ended at 8pm with Jonathan thanking all those that attended and looking forward to seeing them all and more in 2005.
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