Binghams Pond, Glasgow

Urban Biodiversity Conference

On October 30th - 31st 2010 a conference entitled Urban Biodiversity: Successes and Challenges took place in Glasgow University.

Although urban areas account for only around 3 per cent of Scotland's land area, it is in the urban greenspaces that up to 80% of Scots gain their everyday experience of the natural world. The urban environment is important not only because it offers contact with wildlife for so many people. It also provides a diverse range of habitats for plants and animals: public parks, local nature reserves, gardens and allotments, rail and road corridors, canals, graveyards, recreational areas, and even disused industrial sites.

The conference reviewed some of these successes and challenges in Central Scotland and further afield; and well-attended workshops gave participants a chance to have a say in how the process is taken forward in the future.

Two new publications were on sale at the conference: Wildlife around Glasgow (Glasgow Life), and A Checklist of the Moths of Dunbartonshire, Stirlingshire and West Perthshire (John Knowler).

The conference was organised by Glasgow Natural History Society in association with The University of Glasgow, RSPB, Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Life, and the Scottish Wildlife Trust, and was a major contribution to Glasgow Biodiversity Partnership’s programme of events in this International Year of Biodiversity.

Proceedings