November - green networks
Ecological or ‘green’ networks can provide benefits for wildlife as well as for walking and cycling, as part of flood management, and in helping us to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
With climate change, because of the need for species to be able to disperse into new areas, species are much more dependent on there being suitable habitats in the wider environment rather than just on designated sites. Habitats in most of lowland Scotland and also part of the uplands are already highly fragmented due to land-use change including agriculture, built development, transport networks and forestry. There are also natural barriers to species’ dispersion such as rivers, mountain ranges and oceanic fronts.
We need to avoid further fragmentation and develop ecological networks to help species to respond to climate change and try to prevent their further decline. This will require action in all land-use sectors including agriculture and forestry, for example through the Scottish Rural Development Programme, development and transport planning, and greenspace management. At the landscape scale, we are developing tools such as BEETLE (Biological and EnvironmEntal Tools for Landscape Evaluation – a computer-based tool developed by SNH and FCS) that help to use information on the connectivity requirements for species with particular characteristics, including soil types and capacity, to plan ‘ecological networks’ which will assist species dispersal and survival, by creating new or enhancing existing habitats.
