Newport City Council's Local Biodiversity Action Plan has a list of special habitats and species in the area and outlines how we and our partners plan to protect and enhance them.
Biodiversity is short for 'biological diversity' and includes all species found on earth and the habitats in which they live - woodlands, grasslands, rivers, farmland or towns.
During the last 70 years there has been a drop in the number and variety of species and across the world, biodiversity is under threat from human activity, including development, industry and recreation.
If action is not taken to halt this decline, many plants and animals familiar to us today will be lost forever.
Download Newport's Local Biodiversity Action Plan (LBAP) (pdf)
UK Biodiversity Partnership published a list of priority UK species and habitats, and this list was used as a reference to draw up the species and habitats of principal importance in Wales under Section 42 of the NERC Act (Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006).
The combined list of species and habitats is referred to as the Section 42 list for Wales, and forms the basis of the Welsh LBAP system.
These priority habitats are important in Newport:
Broadleaved, mixed and yew woodland - ash woodlands, wet woodland, wood pasture and parkland, mixed deciduous woodland and traditional orchards.
Freshwater - rivers, streams, ponds, canals and lakes.
Wetlands - lowland fens, reedbeds and coastal and floodplain grazing marsh.
Farmland - hedgerows and arable field margins
Lowland grassland and heathland - lowland meadows, calcareous, dry acid grassland, purple moorgrass and rush pastures, and lowland heathland.
Brownfield and urban - brownfield sites, inland rock and scree, urban open greenspace, garden and allotments and churchyards.
Marine and coastal - maritime cliff and slope, coastal saltmarsh and intertidal mudflats
Of particular importance in Newport are the dormouse, bat, otter, water vole, fungi, small ranunculus moth and shrill carder bee.
Newport Biodiversity Partnership
The Newport Biodiversity Partnership is a group of professionals and volunteers working together to look after our local biodiversity.
The Partnership acts as a platform to adjust, improve and deliver the Local Biodiversity Action Plan and is made up of different organisations and individuals, who all work or live in and around Newport, and have an interest in looking after the natural ecosystems which surround us.
Members include:
Newport City Council
Natural Resources Wales
Gwent Wildlife Trust
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
Butterfly Conservation
Gwent Fungus Group
Amphibian and Reptile Conservation
Gwent Ornithological Society
Newport City Homes
Charter Housing
SEWBReC (South East Wales Biodiversity Records Centre)
Wales Biodiversity Partnership
Bumblebee Conservation Trust
If you or your organisation would like to become a member of the Biodiversity Partnership, please email the Biodiversity team below.
Contact
Green Services at Newport City Council
Email: [email protected]