Insect conservation charity Buglife has recently launched the new “Brownfield Hub”, a one stop shop for information on brownfields and their invertebrates. The brownfield hub is intended to help anyone from ecologists to planners, or developers to wildlife lovers to understand the value of brownfields for our rare invertebrates.
A brownfield site is a piece of land that has been altered by human activity, which is not currently in use. Brownfield sites offer a precious ‘mosaic’ of habitats, providing variety that is rare in the wider landscape and can support important populations of scarce invertebrates, such as the Streaked Bombardier Beetle (see photo left).
Buglife has produced a series of downloadable PDFs which highlight the importance of brownfields for rare wildlife, how to identify the UK Biodiversity Action Plan priority habitat ‘Open mosaic habitat on previously developed land’, and how to manage brownfields for key invertebrate groups, alongside useful case studies of Buglife’s work.
Buglife will continue to add new documents and information to the Brownfield Hub to make it a useful source of up-to-date information on brownfields and their invertebrates.
Photos by John Archer
