Biodiversity

We own a large amount of land throughout our 21 ports, much of which is close to areas of very high conservation value.  UK and European Union (EU) legislation extend protection to some of these sites.  At national level, some of our landholdings have been designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981), while the EU Birds and Habitats Directives create a network of internationallyimportant conservation sites across Europe, which also affect some of our land.

Consequently, the management of biodiversity is an important issue at our ports.  We work in conjunction with English Nature (EN), the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) to maintain the nature-conservation value of our land assets.  This year, we are working with EN to carry out a full assessment of our SSSI-designated land in England as part of an initiative it has set up with industry.

The proximity of our ports to many important habitats and species, combined with our extensive landholdings, presents a variety of opportunities for us to maintain and enhance biodiversity.  We do this by adopting two main approaches, which can broadly be defined as ‘working in partnership’ and ‘integration’.

Our work with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) at Blacktoft Sands nature reserve on the Humber Estuary is an example of working in partnership.  Having originally been involved in the establishment of the reserve, last year we carried out work with the RSPB to create pools which will attract bitterns, a species of bird that has become extremely rare in recent years, due to loss of habitat.

In addition, we work in partnership with government and other bodies to promote and manage conservation and biodiversity in our areas of operation.  For example, we are involved in nine management schemes that exist for European Marine Sites (EMS), as designated by the EU Birds and Habitats Directives, chairing the Severn Estuary scheme and acting as vice-chair of the Humber scheme.  These schemes are aimed at maintaining and enhancing the conservation value of these internationally important sites.  We also led on the coasts and the marine environment theme which formed part of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (DEFRA) Biodiversity Strategy for England, published at the end of 2002.

Through integration, we aim to make the maintenance and enhancement of biodiversity central to our activities.  This is especially true of our estate-management practices.  For example, at the Port of Immingham, we have invited Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust to identify opportunities to enhance wildlife as part of our general estate-management activities.  Many ports have existing programmes for tree-planting and landscaping, and the Port of Newport is using grass-seed mixes that include wildflowers as part of its initiative to make its estate more attractive visually, as well as for wildlife.

To see the legislation that governs our management of biodiversity in the ports and how we have translated this into environment policy objectives, refer to the Biodiversity page in the Legislation section.