SGB Outdoor EOG
EOG ASSOCIATION FOR CONSERVATION
18,562 votes for Conservation!
Tanya Bascombe shares a great story about how one of the group’s latest projects was chosen by the great British public, who mobilized to try and save the humble bumblebee…
Artist’s impression!
expanding the remaining populations is therefore vital to prevent its national extinction. The BBCT intends to restore wildflower-rich meadows in areas alongside the new path, which will help connect up other valuable habitat patches nearby. This should not only help to support and expand populations of the shrill carder bee, but also provide vital habitat for several other rare bumblebees in the area and support a wealth of grassland species.
All sounding good, so far? Well, now I’ll tell you why we are able to make this project public. Because it was actually voted for by well over 18,000 consumers up and down the nation over 3 weeks in February!
T
It has long been a desire of the Association to get end consumers involved in the conservation process, as well as its trade members. So what better way to introduce them to all this than by asking them to vote for their favourite project? See what they thought was the most worthwhile nature conservation project.
he votes are all now in, have been counted and the projects the EOG Association for Conservation is going to fund for 2010 are… well, I’m afraid I’m not allowed to divulge that information just yet. Although the members will have heard, by the time you read this, I’m afraid you will have to wait a little longer for the official announcement. You could always join up and I will whisper the results to you…
But there is one project that we will be supporting during 2010 which I can tell you about. And it is quite an exciting one. First because of what it is hoping to achieve – and second because of the way it was chosen. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust (BBCT) aims to halt, and if possible, reverse the decline of bumblebees in the UK. Bumblebees are major pollinators of a majority of wildflowers and many agricultural crops. If they continue to disappear (the UK currently has 24 bumblebee species, all of which are thought to be in decline with two species having become nationally extinct), these plants will set less seed, resulting in sweeping changes to the countryside with catastrophic
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SGB OUTDOOR APRIL 2010
knock-on effects for other wildlife. Not good. Some commercial crops (including beans, tomatoes and some soft fruit crops) are dependent on bumblebees for pollination, and in areas where there are few hedgerows, yields of many crops are already falling…
The project is located in Pembrokeshire, along the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. There is a section of land which, until now, walkers have been obliged to avoid, instead taking a route inland, by road. Not good on the old joints, and the views are not as pleasant either. Following meetings and negotiations between the MOD, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, Countryside Council for Wales and local recreation groups, a new 10km route will be opened up across Castlemartin Range, a large area of grassland which has been left pretty much undisturbed and is therefore of considerable conservation interest. The shrill carder bee is one species that has suffered huge declines recently due to loss of foraging and nesting habitat. The grasslands at Castlemartin Range are extremely important for the shrill carder bee as they support one of only six remaining UK populations. Maintaining and
In conjunction with Trail magazine and their livefortheoutdoors website, six UK-based projects were introduced over 12 days, and then the voting was thrown open to the public. A bit like X-factor, I suppose, but with (in my humble opinion) rather more worthwhile results. All the projects, even those not chosen, saw a vast increase in the traffic to their website. The Association and its UK members were presented to a huge audience. Livefortheoutdoors viewing figures shot through the roof and the PR and chatter generated was amazing. It was even on BBC Radio Wales, the BBC website and there’s a potential TV broadcast follow-up to come. And then 18,652 people got online and voted. Incredible!
So we thought we might do it again next year – across Europe. And see if we can’t get people right across our continent talking about conservation, and what the Outdoors industry is doing to help.
tanya.bascombe@egconservation.org
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