Biodiversity Action Plan

Leyton Powell

Safety and Sustainability Director
Transport for Wales

Protecting our natural environment for future generations is one of the greatest challenges of our time.

The State of Nature Report 2019 highlighted continued decline in Wales’ wildlife along with widespread changes in the abundance, distribution and ecology of wildlife due to climate change. Without a culture shift, we’ll continue to lose our wildlife for decades to come. We must seize all opportunities to embrace greener, more sustainable pathways and value and protect our natural assets that will help us to achieve this, and make it even better for future generations.

Protecting our wildlife is a key part of this objective. Many of our railways, roads and cycle paths are rich in wildlife; home to many different species of flora and fauna that use these habitats for shelter, commuting, feeding and breeding.  It’s vital that we consider biodiversity and ecosystems within our natural environment, and value the important contribution we can make to the biodiversity of Wales and the UK as a whole as a transport provider.

The Environment Act and the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act provide firm foundations for us to deliver this ambition. This Biodiversity Action Plan sets out the principles Transport for Wales will embrace to ensure that we protect, enhance and champion wildlife, biodiversity and our ecosystems throughout our operations. The plan is not an end in itself, but a living and collaborative document which is designed to be adapted and updated to make sure we align with Wales wildlife and conservation priorities. In essence, it sets out how we will get to where we need to be.

Laura Jones

Ecologist
Transport for Wales 

Our transport networks in Wales have an essential role to play in protecting and enhancing our natural environment

This Biodiversity Action Plan forms a key component of our wider sustainability aims at Transport for Wales; driving us forward to halt species decline, habitat degradation and protect our biodiversity and ecosystems throughout our operations. Laura Jones Ecologist Transport for Wales.

Our aspiration is - and always will be - that transport can positively contribute to the protection and enhancement of our wildlife.

Nikhil Seth

United Nations
Secretary General

What Wales is doing today, the world will do tomorrow

Our Biodiversity Action Plan

Our Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) provides the over-arching framework for habitat and species conservation within our company.

This document outlines how we’ll protect and enhance biodiversity while delivering a better, more integrated and more sustainable transport network.

This plan forms an integral part of achieving our vision of our operations being undertaken sustainably for safety, performance, the environment, our customers and our neighbours. Close collaboration and engagement with our stakeholders and local communities to maximise the benefits we can bring for biodiversity forms a vital part of this.

This plan is for all Transport for Wales (TfW) employees and our partners, which are either directly working to protect and enhance biodiversity, or whose work may impact on it in some way. Actions within this plan are proposed over an initial five-year period, which will be subject to review at the end of this duration by the Sustainable Development Team.

This plan is endorsed by the Transport for Wales leadership team and is communicated to all employees and is available to the public and interested parties upon request.

What is Biodiversity?

Biodiversity is a term used to describe the abundance and variety of living things on the earth, from mammals to insects, fungi, trees to wildflowers and the habitats in which they live and the communities they form.

Everyone’s well-being - economic, social, cultural and environmental - depends on healthy and resilient ecosystems. The natural environment provides employment and sustains communities across Wales. Thousands work in farming, forestry, fisheries, tourism and recreation, all of which depend on natural resources.

We have a legal obligation to appropriately safeguard our wildlife and the environment as part of our work. We deliver projects and own and manage land that is important for wildlife – road verges and railway lines for example provide biodiverse habitat mosaics because they are generally subject to less human interference and disturbance. In addition, they provide a rare level of landscape scale habitat connectivity. Therefore, its vital that we play our part in helping to protect, conserve and enhance Wales’ biodiversity and set out clear targets and actions to show how we are doing this.

Our work on biodiversity is strongly linked to our other priorities as set out in our Sustainable Development Plan. Nature-based solutions help to reduce the amount of new raw materials we use, reduce our carbon emissions, help to create a more biodiverse environment, enhance and safeguard our natural resources and increase ecosystem resilience to impacts like climate change, habitat management and pollution

Since 1970, increased pressure on Wales’ diverse landscapes and seascapes has resulted in both losses and gains for biodiversity. The State of Nature 2019 report shows that, on average, Wales’ wildlife has declined in recent decades, with some species declining rapidly and others becoming extinct.

Our natural environment is under significant pressures and threats. Pressures upon wildlife come from many different sources, including agricultural management, urbanisation, pollution, hydrological changes and increasing presence of invasive non-native species. Climate change is also causing widespread changes in the abundance, distribution and ecology of Wales’ wildlife, and will continue to do so for decades to come.

We need to act now so that future generations can have access to clean air, water, food, raw materials and opportunities to enjoy nature.

• 52% decline in some butterfly and moth numbers in Wales since 1976
• 73 species already extinct in Wales
• 17% of species are threatened with extinction in Wales

Objectives and aims in this plan have been informed and led by relevant wildlife legislation, plans and policy (Appendix 1) including the Environment (Wales) Act 2016 and the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.

This legislation and guidance collectively recognise the importance of biodiversity and ecosystem resilience, and the steps which must be taken by public bodies - including those responsible for transport infrastructure - in order to protect and enhance these in Wales.

We’ll report our compliance, actions and progress on our biodiversity targets and goals annually to the Welsh Government under the Biodiversity and Resilience of Ecosystems Duty in Section 6 of Environment (Wales) Act 2016. This plan will be updated and when necessary to reflect changes in the regulatory framework

State of Natural Resources Report
Natural Resources Wales

Environmental pressures are causing global biodiversity declines at rates not previously encountered in human history…Nature plays an essential role in providing food, energy, medicines and genetic resources. The ecosystem services resilient habitats provide - like flood defence and carbon dioxide removal - will also be lost… If changes aren’t made now, losses of biodiversity and the negative impact on nature’s benefits to people will continue.

The aim of this Biodiversity Action Plan is to provide a strategic overview for biodiversity conservation within Transport for Wales and set out what information, data and measures are needed for us to monitor these targets and demonstrate our progress with these.

This plan is underpinned by five main objectives:

1. No net loss of biodiversity
2. Communication and transparency
3. Mainstreaming best practice
4. Collaboration
5. Biodiversity initiatives

We’ll ensure any impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems are properly assessed and mitigated

In line with the Biodiversity and Resilience of Ecosystems Duty under Section 6 of the Environment (Wales) Act 2016, we’ll ensure appropriate mechanisms are in place to protect against biodiversity loss, secure enhancement opportunities and promote the resilience of ecosystems in our operations.

We’ll trial appropriate processes, such as the Welsh Government’s approach to Net Benefits for Biodiversity. This will help us to measure our impact on biodiversity reliably and accurately, and mitigate these where necessary. From 2024, we’ll ensure there’s no overall loss of biodiversity because of our operations and seek to increase and enhance biodiversity and ecosystems as part of this.

As well as understanding the potential impacts of our work, we’ll embed these principles in our policies, strategies and everyday business activities.

Integral elements to achieving this in the long term will include:

Data collection and sharing

We’ll create an ‘asset database’ to collate a wide range of ecological data from across our network. We’ll use this to establish the biodiversity baseline, helping us better understand what we currently have, what we need to protect and may impact, or can enhance in our operations.

This includes allowing us to identify when we’re maintaining or increasing biodiversity as a result of the work we’re doing. This in turn allows us to prioritise work based on ‘predict, prevent, and enhance’ rather than ‘react and mitigate’.

In addition to high level analysis of habitats using desk top surveys, we’ll draw upon other reliable sources of data from environmental records and open-access species and habitat databases. This will be supplemented by ground truthing during site walkovers to re-assess and/or update our habitat and species data.

Informed management

Longer term, our asset database will inform our annual vegetation management plans and provide specific site level management plans to protect and/or enhance biodiversity in any given area.

Users will be able to log into the database and see where potential ecological issues and opportunities (such as offset projects with local stakeholders) have been identified. This information will also allow us to implement route-wide strategies for biodiversity during routine vegetation management.

We promise to communicate and engage with our staff, stakeholders and the public about the work we’re doing and why

Being open and transparent about our operations – both internally (including our lineside staff) and externally – to our stakeholders and the public – is really important so everyone understands what, when, how and why we are doing the work that we do.

For example, to ensure the integrity of the network we are sometimes required to remove trees and vegetation which represent a risk to our transport infrastructure and (therefore) the communities in which we work.

We recognise the impacts this has on biodiversity and how others, including our neighbours, can be affected by this. We’ll be explicit and transparent about the duration, scale and reasons for our operations and associated work, which will be communicated through a variety of means including bespoke weblinks on our website and through our social media platforms.

These will include detailed information on what to expect, and how any given area of our work ties into this plan. By working with our neighbours and engaging with our stakeholders, we can work better - together - in achieving our biodiversity goals.

We’re mainstreaming biodiversity into our operations as standard, always informed by best practice

We’ll mainstream biodiversity in our decision making and operations as standard; where appropriate governance is embedded and signed off at board, department and project levels. This will secure the inclusion of biodiversity alongside delivering our construction and maintenance works and asset management, whilst also ensuring health and safety conditions are met. Fundamental best practice principles for ecology and biodiversity will be applied in line with our biodiversity No Net Loss objective, always applying the mitigation hierarchy in each instance: Avoid > Minimise > Mitigate > Offset.

By taking this approach, we can better manage our environmental risks adaptively by planning, monitoring, reviewing and, where appropriate, changing our actions. This includes routinely seeking opportunities to enhance the resilience of our ecosystems through protection, connection, enhancement and creation of these in our operations, such as targeted vegetation management and strategic tree planting. Whilst doing this, we’ll also explore opportunities for integrating wider ecosystem service delivery, such as carbon, water and flood management.

Training for our staff and contractors will form an integral part of this objective, with appropriate resources in place for all staff who need it. Our land asset managers, engineers and lineside staff will be advised and trained on identifying habitat management opportunities and risks for biodiversity.

By working closely with our staff and stakeholders to support change, we will create a culture shift where biodiversity is embraced on all levels.

Collaboration and engagement with stakeholders, wildlife organisations and local communities is hugely valuable and is essential to ensure the continued longevity and success of any biodiversity conservation work we do now, and in the future.

By working closely with others, we can make better, more informed decisions - for example linking a project’s biodiversity net gain with local nature conservation priorities.

Over the next five years, we plan to work closely with key bodies, organisations and groups, such as:

• Welsh Government
• Community partners
• Pesticides Action Network
• The Tree Council
• Local Wildlife Trusts
• Natural Resources Wales
• Network Rail
• Wales Biodiversity Partnership
• Wales Invasive Non-Native Species Group
• Local nature conservation groups

We also participate in Community Rail; a government strategy that aims to engage local people in the development and improvement of the railway environment. Community Partnerships are groups of committed people working with the rail industry and Local Authorities to promote railway lines and improve stations, services and access.

Through this we can improve our understanding of the current and future needs of our communities, which will positively influence our operations

Our commitment to biodiversity extends far beyond simply doing what we’re required to do - we want to do everything we possibly can to maximise biodiversity and we have ambitious visions for how we can do this.

We want to exemplify as a leader in urban and rural transport networks and in promoting Wales as leading the way as a first-class sustainable tourist destination.

We’ll be investing in a range of features that will enhance biodiversity, such as:

• We’ll commit to a green infrastructure fund every 5 years to support our Station Improvement Plan initiatives such as green roofs on bike shelters and living walls at stations
• We’ll develop Green Stations and increase station artwork to ensure stations are characterful and promote reflect their local landmarks
• We’ll support a Biodiversity Initiative Fund which will encourage charities and academic institutions to implement initiatives such as habitat boxes, bug hotels and wildlife gardening around our rail network and in the wider environment
• We’ll identify opportunities to maximise biodiversity gain on our land assets that will have a quantifiable benefit, including restoring degraded ecosystems and using hedgerow planting as replacement boundary fencing as alternative boundary structures where possible
• We’re working on a range of initiatives aimed at protecting pollinators including reduction of pesticides when undertaking land management and pollinator friendly planting

These initiatives include identifying suitable investment and funding opportunities to help us achieve our goals.

Llanwern off-site mitigation tree planting

As part of mitigation for construction of a Major Events Stabling Line (MESL) at Llanwern, an ecological mitigation approach was proposed which included both on and off-site habitat creation and management to ensure a net gain of biodiversity was achieved.

A compensation ratio of 2:1 was used, with over 6 hectares of new planting comprising both on and offsite habitats to mitigate for the of 2.9 hectares of habitat that would be lost as a result of the development. This included wet woodland, broadleaved woodland and scrub planting to benefit dormice, reptiles, bats and birds. Additional on-site mitigation included long term woodland management, habitat box installation and refugia creation.

Core Valleys Lines

Appropriate inclusion of biodiversity will form an integral part of vegetation management and standard protocols on the Core Valley Lines. For example, frequency and timing of cuts, critical areas for protection and opportunities for enhancement.

This includes targeted and appropriate long-term control and management and biosecurity as standard for invasive non-native species and diseases, which can cause our native species to decline.

For example, ash dieback (Hymenoscyphus fraxineusis) is a chronic fungal disease that has already devastated many ash trees across Europe and could lead to the loss of over 90% of one of our most common broadleaved trees

Station Adopters

Our Adopt a Station scheme aims to improve links and relationships with local communities near railway stations.

Through these partnerships we can promote the use of green spaces and infrastructure at or around our stations to enhance the resilience of ecosystems.

We plan to increase the number of adopted stations in the next few years. We have many great examples where volunteers maintain station gardens to a very high standard, even winning national awards.

 Key UK legislation, plans and policy for biodiversity and conservation in Wales and the UK