The Gwent State of Nature Report has been produced by the Resilient Greater Gwent Partnership, which provides valuable information that will provide a baseline to assess the effectiveness of conservation work.
For many of the 100 species included, this has been the first time that regional trends have been recorded.
The monitoring and collection of wildlife data is incredibly important and will help inform the Resilient Greater Gwent Partnership in going forward; directing further recording and monitoring. It demonstrates the need for awareness raising and education, as well as policy change and future conservation action.
One such example where the information and data has helped to direct action is through the implementation of Blaenau Gwent Urban Hedgehog project. Local residents have been creating hedgehog highways, providing nesting sites and recording our prickly friends’ activity via hedgehog footprint tunnels.
Tai Calon has also supported the Urban Hedgehog project by also ensuring hedgehog passes have been installed in any new boundary fencing that they have been installing. This was later followed on by Tai Calon offering their tenants Urban Hedgehog packs.
In the Spring 2021 the urban hedgehog project expanded to several Blaenau Gwent schools, and with 8 schools taking part in a National pilot project with Hedgehog Friendly Campus. These schools are now all taking the extra steps to make their school grounds a better and safer place for these amazing animals.
The schools have already been running hedgehog footprint and wildlife camera surveys, litter picks, planting hedgehog friendly plants and doing their bit to raise awareness in their local community.
Both the Gwent State of Nature Report and the Urban Hedgehog project is part of the overarching project: ‘Resilient Greater Gwent’. This is funded by the Welsh Government’s Enabling of Natural Resources and Well-being Grant
“This is a really interesting project for Blaenau Gwent, Gwent and partner agencies. The report provides us with vital information that will help inform the actions we need to take to help tackle biodiversity decline and increase ecosystem resilience. I really look forward to seeing how this progresses.’- Cllr Joanna Wilkins
“This project is very exciting for the Borough of Blaenau Gwent and its neighbouring authorities and I wish it the best of luck, it shows a great collaboration of many local organisations and also provides the opportunity for citizen science!”- Cllr Lee Parsons, Blaenau Gwent Nature Champion