Biodiversity - Objectives and Workstreams - Environment - Translink

Site Search

  
Background:

Translink, in partnership with the Ulster Wildlife Trust, have taken a positive and proactive approach to complying with statutory duties and obligations by funding a Biodiversity Project. The extent of Translink’s business, operating a bus and rail service across Northern Ireland incorporating a range of properties, structures and land, has warranted the creation of a post focusing on biodiversity. The extent as well as type of property that the company manages is impressive – over 200 miles of railway corridor alone.

Biodiversity is short for biological diversity – it is the total variety of all living things on earth: people, plants and animals and the places or habitats where they live. Biodiversity received international recognition with the signing of the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1992 by 150 world governments at the Rio Earth Summit, paving the way for individual countries targets and action plans.

  
Project:

The project will be run over 3 years from late June 2007. The project officer will undertake an audit of Translink’s properties and landholdings and from this will deliver a Biodiversity Action Plan. Issues identified by this process will be addressed. These could include the development of appropriate conservation advisory notes, educational and training events for staff and contractors and promotion of biodiversity through various mediums.

Poster that was distributed to bus and rail stations across the network	School children from Whitehead who built Biodiversity Boxes for the Larne line train stations.

  
Stations, sites and species:

Much of the rail network runs adjacent to or bisects sites that are important for conservation, Areas of Special Scientific Interest (ASSIs), for example the Bann Estuary and Brakagh Moss south of Portadown. Designated sites are important but so too are features that may not possess a designation such as the many miles of hedgerows or species-rich grass verges  that border the railway track.

In the days of steam-engines, teams of people were employed along sections of the track to maintain hedgerows and cuttings, in part as a fire prevention measure. Steam engines are long gone and the maintenance teams have dwindled to a core. It is unrealistic to expect a return to such comprehensive, labour-intensive practices. What will be sought is prescribed work at targeted areas on Translink property – priority will be given to designated sites, invasive alien species and supportive work for priority habitats and species. 
 

The Ulster Wildlife Trust

The UWT is a local nature conservation charity, working across Northern Ireland for a healthy environment for us all. We are passionate about the vital role people have to play in securing a healthy future for our environment.

Without a biodiverse environment, with healthy ecosystems and a wide range of species and habitats, we are all under threat - people and wildlife. We believe in taking local nature conservation action to secure the survival of life, acting locally, thinking globally.

 

Return to the top ^

Bookmark with:

Delicious |

Digg |

Reddit |

Facebook |

Stumbleupon |