Richmond Biodiversity Partnership

The Biodiversity (explanation of the word) Partnership brings together organisations and individuals to conserve, enhance biodiversity in the borough. The Partnership started as sub group of Richmond's LA21 Group formed after the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and commonly referred to as the Earth Summit. As a result of the Richmond LA21 Group merging with Richmond Environment Network (REN) in November 2007 the Group/Partnership became part of REN and chaired jointly by REN and the Council. In May 2010 the Group voted to amend its name to Richmond Biodiversity Partnership, reflecting the partnership working, and partnership of organisations involved. In 2011 REN became a charity named South West London Environment Network (SWLEN) and the Partnership remains jointly chaired by the Council's Ecology Officer, Tasha Hunter and SWLEN's Chief Officer, Colin Cooper, with secretariate function of the partnership undertaken by SWLEN.  The Biodiversity Partnership's  Members represent a range of local interests concerned with wildlife and biodiversity, including the following:

Our aims

• To identify and protect important and significant wildlife habitats and species in the borough
• To enable all sectors of the local community in Richmond to have safe and easy access to nature
• To encourage all sectors of the local community to cherish and care for their local environment
• To collect information about nature conservation and ensure that it is made more widely available
• To encourage those responsible for larger areas of land to manage it to enhance biodiversity

What does this mean in practice?

Here are some examples of projects that the group has worked on:

• In 2005, we published the Richmond upon Thames Biodiversity Action Plan (note this is a 2.58 MB PDF and all recent report has been done through BARS) containing individual plans for five habitats and six species (se below).
• We have produced a leaflet giving details of the wide range of wildlife sites to visit in Richmond and explaining how people can get more involved with the wildlife on their doorsteps.
• We have produced a leaflet giving details of the importance of dead wood as a habitat.
• We have produced a leaflet giving details of the importance of Mistletoe as a species.
• We have organised borough-wide 'garden surveys' to find out what wildlife lives in Richmond gardens and to encourage local residents to take an interest in what lives in their gardens. With recent declines in habitats, even the most common species are retreating to gardens as wildlife refuges.

The Action Plans

(each of the Plans is looked after by a working group who report updates at the Partnership meetings)

Publications from the Partnership

Richmond upon Thames Biodiversity Action Plan (note this is a 2.58 MB PDF)

Richmond upon Thames Biodiversity Action Plan Leaflet

Dead wood leaflet

Mistletoe leaflet

Black Popular leaflet

Information on honey bees (an extremely important part of food production), can be found on this link http://www.twickenham-bees.org.uk/