Cardiff University Section 6 Biodiversity Report 2022

NRAP3 Objective 1: Engage and support participation and understanding to embed biodiversity throughout decision making at all levels. 

Environmental Sustainability Enabling Strategy

Cardiff University’s Environmental Sustainability Enabling Strategy 2018 -2023 includes ‘A Resilient University’ as one of its underpinning goals:

A University which maintains and enhances a biodiverse natural environment with healthy functioning ecosystems that support social, economic, and ecological resilience, embedding the capacity to adapt to change. 

In addition, a tree survey and replanting program was established in 2022, where the entire urban stock of trees on the University’s estate was surveyed and characterised forming the baseline for our 2023 tree planting program.

A further example of embedding nature within strategy can be demonstrated within the Staff Wellbeing Strategy 2020 – 2023: ‘We will consider the physical working environment and its impact on wellbeing, seeing new building developments through a "wellbeing lens", continuing to consider improvements to the current estate in line with industry wellbeing principles and supporting the environmental sustainability agenda by recognising the connection between enhancing our green spaces, including its biodiversity, and the positive impact that has on wellbeing’.

Environmental Management System (ISO14001)

The University Environmental Management System combined documentation incorporates a section on campus grounds within the aspects and impacts register identifying activities with both positive and negative impacts on the natural environment. The documentation includes a legal register, objectives and targets, and a risks and opportunities register. Internal audits of all academic schools and professional services are carried out on a 2-year rolling programme. The management system is externally audited and accredited on an annual basis. This annual audit includes an update on ERBAP activities.

Behavioural Change: Green Impact

Environmental Sustainability Induction for Staff and Students

All new staff receive a corporate induction and supporting documentation issued by Human Resources. The Environmental Sustainability Induction forms part of the induction process. The induction presentation provides a slide dedicated to the work related to the ERBAP and associated activities including:

Engagement: University Sustainability week

Sustainability week is an annual event run at the beginning of March where we raise awareness of all things relating to environmental sustainability. Below is a table relating to Biodiversity events over the past 3 years (2019-2022). The event in 2020 was postponed:

Biodiversity Engagement through Teaching

Master’s students from the Welsh School of Architecture were commissioned to develop a Tree Planting Guide (a project titled Biodiverse Campus). The resulting tree planting guide takes into consideration various architectural, ecological, climatic, seasonal and policy considerations. The project focused on developing guidelines on planting ‘the right tree in the right place’. The audiences for these guidelines are architects and landscape designers who will engage with Cardiff University estates in the future as well as the local council.

Measures and Indicators

UN Sustainable Development Goals

As signatories of the Sustainable Development Goal Accord, we have committed to embed the SDGs into our academic and business processes. This is reflected within our Environmental Sustainability Strategy. As part of the Accord, we are required to complete an annual survey. The survey details our work on embedding the 17 SDGs into University education, research, leadership, operations, administration, and engagement activities. As part of our awareness sessions, we have been dedicating a monthly article in the university newsletter ‘Blas’ to each of the SDGs. In July 2021 we ran an article on SDG15 Life on Land (Appendix 2).

In 2021, as part of our annual submission for the SDG Accord, we submitted a case study on SDG15 reporting on our ERBAP and engagement work. The findings from all signatories are collated into a report that is delivered at the UN High Level Political Forum at the Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI) event.

The QS have produced a new ranking,‘World University Rankings – Sustainability’, to show how universities are taking action to tackle Environmental, Social and Governance challenges. The aim is to ‘provide prospective students with a clear and transparent overview of which universities are acting on environmental and social change and how’ and ‘to help universities to monitor successes and benchmark progress to help inform discussions about their ESG priorities’. Institutions had to meet three criteria for inclusion; participation in the QS World University Rankings, a minimum threshold of research publications, and evidence of a policy for mitigation of the climate crisis in publicly available policy and/or strategy documents¹. In this first year of the rankings, Cardiff University was ranked 25^th globally out of 700 institutions.

The University takes part in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings. Submitting evidence to THE Impact Rankings will establish the University’s position in the sector and give the opportunity to showcase the excellent work being undertaken. It will also enable those providing evidence to gain insight into how our evidence compares with others in the sector, providing a platform to build on in future submissions. The THE Impact Rankings are the only global performance tables that assess universities against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These rankings use calibrated indicators that provide comprehensive and balanced comparisons across three broad areas: research, outreach, and stewardship. By submitting the University will be measuring our performance on a global stage.

SDG 15 ‘Life on Land’ measures universities’ research on life on land and their education on and support for land ecosystems. The Metrics used for SDG15 are:

We have taken part in the THE Impact Rankings for the last 2 years (see copy of our SDG Summary Report for 2021). For SDG 15 Life on land, we have been placed as follows:

A number of policies have been reviewed to incorporate our commitment to the UN SDGs. This process will continue over the next review period to embed the SDGs into our business processes as reflected in our Environmental Sustainability Strategy action plan. Key examples of this are the Procurement Policy and Guidance and the Sustainable Food Policy.

Biodiversity Training

We have offered biodiversity monitoring training to our staff and students, especially under the Hedgehog Friendly Campus campaign. We have provided training on how to monitor hedgehogs using footprint tunnels and trail cameras; on invertebrate species survey techniques; and on how to take tree measurements (Table 3, Figures 1-3).

NRAP Objective 2: Safeguard species and habitats of principal importance and improve their management

Cardiff University Priority Species - Slow worms

We have produced a report on slow worms (Anguis fragilis) resulting from six monitoring seasons at one of the University sites (Campus - About - Cardiff University).

‘No Mow May’

In 2021, the University signed up for the first time to Plantlife's annual ‘No Mow May’ campaign. This was extremely successful, with several schools and residence sites taking part. In 2022, we signed up again (Figure 4) and received positive feedback from staff and students. Our estates and grounds team have now agreed a third year, including a low management scheme adopted for some of these areas throughout the year beyond May.

Habitat enhancement for wildlife

We have enhanced habitat for wildlife at several sites on campus. Structures placed on campus to help wildlife are listed in Table 4 (Figures 5-9). For example, a wildlife and wellbeing area has been created at the back of the Postgraduate Teaching Centre by the Cardiff Business School team. Wildflowers, a bug hotel, bird baths, hedgehog nesting/hibernation areas, log/leaf piles and hoverfly lagoons have been added to the site to help wildlife.

We also ran a workshop for staff, students, and members of the public to help us build hedgehog houses and bee and bug hotels from wood pallets and other upcycled materials available at the University. These items (Figure 10) will be placed on campus to help wildlife.

NRAP Objective 3: Increase the resilience of our natural environment by restoring degraded habitats and habitat creation.

Tree Planting

Soft landscape enhancement plans have been developed in conjunction with the University grounds contractor. Initially six areas have been identified across the campus where tree planting can be started in 2023. The example below shows the planting schedule for the new campus area by the Heath Park site:

Wildlife Meadows

Cardiff University currently has eight functional meadows (with more planned). Most of these were surveyed in 2019 as part of our Meadow Audit, and we identified 42 wildflower species on our survey day in July. This has led to financial savings (the areas no longer need to be mown through spring and summer) and carbon savings (perennial wildflowers have much deeper roots than ryegrass lawns and therefore sequester much more carbon), as shown in Table 5.

At present our savings are moderate, but since additional meadows are planned and the savings continue each year, the financial savings in particular may become more significant over time. The same is true to some extent of the carbon savings, although net carbon sequestered is thought to diminish after the first decade of restoration.

We have reserved four green area patches located in the courtyard between the Sir Martin Evans Building, Tower, and the School of Law and Politics to develop a new wildflower meadow (BIOSI Meadow) (Figure 11). This area was mainly dominated by grass species with very few flowers and the occasional honeybee visitor. We have encouraged staff and students to take part in the development of this area (Figure 12).

After two ‘No Mow May’ seasons and three seed-planting sessions we are starting to notice a change in plant and pollinator diversity, with bird’s foot trefoil daisies, white and red clover, cornflower, bee-orchid, and bumblebee species all recorded on the site.

Management of green spaces

Cardiff Business School Post Graduate Centre courtyard

The Cardiff Business School and Post Graduate Centre have an established area of land adjacent to their building. Working with the University estates team and the grounds team they allowed the area to return to a natural state with only path trimming in place:

John Percival courtyard development plan

Recent building construction and biodiversity consideration

Since the last section 6 report, a further four new buildings have been constructed across the campus. Tree planting schedules are developed as part of the new building landscape plans, Through the ERBAP, success has been achieved in influencing changes to planting schedules around new buildings, an example being for the SPARC and Translational Research Hub (TRH) buildings on the Innovation Campus where changes were made to ensure native species were planted.

NRAP Objective 4: Tackle key pressures on species and habitats

Invasive Species and Use of Pesticides

The University is keen to reduce the use of pesticides. Therefore, as a matter of preference, physical and cultural controls are used, unless their use proves ineffective; then approved pesticides may be used.

Throughout the year regular visits are conducted to all site areas to conduct inspections across all buildings, courtyards, footings, manhole covers, inspection chambers, all wall bases, steps, ramps, pathways and parking areas. Weed growth is controlled by way of regular mechanical or manual removal my hand, augmented with herbicide application where absolutely necessary.

Throughout the winter, build-up of moss and algae is removed from hard surfaces. Wherever possible, moss and algae removal is conducted with mechanical or manual removal to prevent use of chemicals. If herbicides are required, this is done with an approved biocide in line with manufacturers’ guidelines.

Given the sensitive nature of ensuring compliance with legislative requirements, biodiversity plans, meadow audits and wider university policy, all operations are undertaken in full coordination and consultation with the University’s Grounds Manager and the Biodiversity Steering Group.

The University Grounds contractor is working to develop an integrated weed management plan (IWMP) that explores different methods of weed control. After all other options are scoped out, it may be that chemical control is the best option. With an IWMP, there is usually a reduction in chemical use and sound justification for its use.

Where required, a trained ecologist will supervise, instruct, and support environmental management operations to ensure correct training, programming, techniques and mitigations are in place at all times.

The University holds certification to ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems. Within our Aspects and Impacts register, we have identified 'The use of pesticides and herbicides' within campus grounds. We have also recognised the relevant legislation within our legal register and have a risk assessment in place stating that alternatives should be used wherever possible.

Recycling and waste reduction

We were awarded just over £1 million Circular Economy grant funding from Welsh Government to transform waste and recycling on campus. This project supports Welsh Government to drive further increases in recycling and decarbonisation, where waste is avoided and the things we use are kept in use for as long as possible. The project was implemented by March 2021 introducing the following six waste and recycling streams: paper; cardboard; tins and cans; plastics; glass; and non-recyclables. Food recycling containers are provided in all kitchen and tea station areas. In our restaurants and coffeeshops one can now recycle Cardiff University compostable disposable packaging from items purchased from our restaurants and coffee shops; this includes food packaging, wooden cutlery and hot drink cups and lids. External ‘street furniture’ type waste and recycling containers for general use have also been improved to enable segregation of recycling streams. Waste and recycling compounds have also been created on University-owned land to allow the stripping down of end-of-life furniture and equipment to enable separation of materials for recycling.

The Environmental Sustainability Enabling Strategy details an environmental sustainability   KPI related to domestic waste and recycling:

‘We aim to improve recycling facilities of all kinds throughout the University’. 

The graph below illustrates the change in waste ratio over the reporting period. The data covers both the academic campus and student residences.

Keep Wales Tidy

Cardiff University School of Biosciences is currently registered with Keep Wales Tidy as a local litter picking hub (Figure 15). Staff and students together with the local residents are able to borrow bags and ‘pickers’ to carry out litter picks in the area.

There have been a number of events organised since the Hub was registered and approximately over 100 bags of rubbish have been collected (Figure 16).

Policy to reduce pressure on species.

In addition to protecting local biodiversity, the University Catering department has recognised the destruction of habitat and associated pressure on species occasioned by the widespread use of palm oil in catering supplies. As a result, the University Sustainable Food Policy Action Plan 2021-2023 includes the objective to ‘Seek products with sustainably sourced products containing palm oil and soya’ and the action ‘To source products containing palm oil that are certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil’.

Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS)

We have worked closely with Cardiff Council on the Parc McKenzie Project which sits alongside Main Building. The area was earmarked to provide a Sustainable Urban Drainage System SUDS for the new Centre for Student Life. SUDS minimise surface water run-off and flood risks in an environmentally friendly way mimicking natural water systems such as ponds, wetlands, swales and basins. The ERBAP Steering Group were extensively consulted in relation to the biodiversity elements for the site. The drainage system has utilised the Rain Garden technique. The Rain Garden collects grey water from Park Place Road. It contains separate areas for sediment control and hydrocarbon removal through planting a range of sedges, juncus, and other aquatic plant species. Plants were selected to include a range of flowering species to provide interest and enhance the park entrance.

NRAP Objective 5: Improve our evidence, understanding and monitoring

Hedgehog surveys

Hedgehog surveys, using footprint tunnels, were initiated in April 2021 as part of a 3-week pilot mammal survey in the Cathays Campus and Bute Park, which resulted in two Professional Training Year reports submitted in September 2021. The 2021 hedgehog surveys then extended to five other University sites ending in July 2021 (Table 7). In 2022, the surveys ran from March 2022 until October 2022. The 2022 field season included site 1 and site 5 from 2021, which were surveyed twice in the year (site 1 – March and May; site 5 – May and September), and seven additional sites (sites 7 to 13) (Table 7). In total, for survey season 2021, we recorded 110 times the presence of hedgehog footprints (35 tunnel effort over 51 days). We also found a hedgehog spine in one of the tunnels at site 2, captured live footage from a trail camera placed at site 6 and received reports that hedgehogs had been sighted at site 3. During survey season 2022, we recorded footprints 163 times (43 tunnel effort over 68 days), had a report of a live sighting on site 8, captured trail camera footage from site 1 and 5, and found faecal samples at sites 1, 5 and 13.

Bioblitz

We also ran a bioblitz at the Main Building green area in June 2021. The aim of this bioblitz was to raise awareness and train staff and students on the different techniques (e.g., pit falls, nets) used to collect invertebrates and identify major taxa groups. We also sought to get a general idea of the species present in the area prior to placing a bug hotel and log/leaf piles in the area, so that we could compare results with future invertebrate surveys on this site. We recorded 34 entries in the datasheet, 30 corresponding to invertebrate species, plus one mammal and three bird species. The most frequent invertebrate Order recorded was Hymenoptera (37%), followed by Diptera (23%) (Figure 17).

Biodiversity recording apps

We report opportunistic sightings of wildlife on campus via biodiversity recording apps. (LERC Wales, Spot-a-Bee, iNaturalist, Hedgehog Street, Mammal Mapper). One of our sightings of a southern oak bush-cricket (Meconema meridionale, Figure 18) was selected as record of the week by SWEBreC. This species had only been recorded nine times in Wales prior to this sighting.

Tree surveys

A Visual Tree Assessment & Arboricultural survey was conducted across campus during Spring 2022 with the generation of three specific campus reports covering all campus. The surveys were conducted by the University grounds and gardens contractor and the reports detail the species of tree, height, and stem and crown diameter, level of maturity and current condition.

Review of s6 duty

The development of the ERBAP has enabled biodiversity actions to be elevated in decision making across the campus. A ‘Resilient University’ forms one of our underlying goals within our Environmental sustainability Strategy and clearly marks out our biodiversity agenda. ERBAP activities are reported regularly at all levels of the organisation including quarterly at the Environmental Sustainability Committee chaired by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and biannually at University Executive Board. The ERBAP is a key consideration in all new developments across the campus, with activities being commended as part of our annual external Environmental Management System (ISO 14001) audit.

The ERBAP Strategy runs to the end of 2023. A review will be carried out in the Autumn of 2023 followed by the development of the refreshed strategy and action plan. The requirements of the s6 plan will be incorporated within the new ERBAP Strategy and Action Plan.

Appendices

Appendix 1:  Ecosystem Resilience and Biodiversity Action Plan (ERBAP) 2021-2023

ERBAP Steering Committee:

Michael Bruford (Chair; Dean of Environmental Sustainability), Les Baillie (PHRMY), Angelina Sanderson Bellamy (PLACE/BIOSI), Jordan Cuff (BIOSI), Marie Davidova (ARCHI), Katrina Henderson (SSWEL), Nicola Hutchinson, (Cardiff City Council Conservation Officer), Chris James (ESTAT), Justine Jenkins (PHRMY), Julia Komar (Student Union Ethical and Environmental Officer), Steve Ormerod (BIOSI), Lee Raye (CSERV), Maximilian Tercel (BIOSI), Andrew Thompson (ESTAT).

Abbreviations

BAP  Biodiversity action plan

BRED  Biodiversity and Resilience Ecosystems Duty

CBD  Convention on Biological Diversity

CL BAP  Cardiff Local Biodiversity Action Plan

CWCW  Cardiff Wildlife and Cardiff Wildflower

DECCA  Diversity, Extent, Condition, Connectivity and Adaptability

ECO  Environmental Compliance Officer

EMS  Environmental Management Systems

ERBAP  Cardiff University Ecosystem Resilience and Biodiversity Action Plan

GI  Green infrastructure

HPIB  Habitats of Principal Importance for Biodiversity

IPBES  Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

LNP  Local Nature Partnership

MOOC  Massive Open Online Course

NGOs  Non-governmental organisations

NRAP  Nature Recovery Action Plan

NRW  Natural Resource Wales

PHEW  Positive, Health, Environment and Wellbeing Fortnight

SDGs  Sustainable Development Goals

WG  Welsh Government

Chapter 1: Background

Biodiversity and resilience narrative

Diversity. Diversity matters at different levels and scales, from genes to species and from habitats to landscapes. It supports the complexity of ecosystem functions and the cascades of interactions that deliver services and benefits⁴. If diversity is lost, systems may deteriorate and ultimately collapse. The function of individual components of a system are also susceptible to disturbance; diversity provides redundancy of functions and enhances the capacity of the system as a whole to adapt to future change⁵. It is important to note that diversity must also be ‘appropriate’; some ecosystems, e.g. peat bogs, may have relatively low diversity, but, nonetheless, the particular range of species and habitats they contain are critical for their functioning.

Extent. The greater the extent of a habitat or species, the more able it will be to contain the effects of disturbance. For example, a larger area of habitat can support larger populations, which are less likely to go extinct (and potentially also have a wider genetic diversity conferring greater adaptive capacity) and are less affected by detrimental edge effects. Many species have a minimum size of habitat required to support a population, below which they may become extinct⁶. Size also influences ecological processes, for example, a raised bog large enough to support its own hydrological system is likely to be more resilient than smaller bogs.

Condition. Condition is a broad term that interacts with the other attributes. We employ it here to make a link to how a system is managed, what inputs are applied, what is taken from it, and how it is influenced by the management of the surrounding land. An ecosystem in poor condition will be ‘stressed’ and have reduced capacity to resist, recover or adapt to new disturbances, or to deliver ecosystem services effectively. Condition can be thought of in terms of broad ecosystem components relating to biodiversity, air, water and land. Resilience assessments therefore consider the condition of sites, including soil, air and water quality, and the impacts of major land/sea uses and industries.

Connectivity. Connectivity among habitats allows the movement within and between ecosystems of flora and fauna, nutrients, abiotic material and energy. Connecting of two or more habitat patches enables an exchange of genetic material, nutrients, goods, culture, knowledge, etc. therefore their local condition improves. Connectivity allows ecosystems to function and recover from disturbance, but it is reduced through habitat loss and fragmentation, creation of barriers, and erosion of the ‘permeability’ that allows movement across the landscape. In certain situations, connectivity may have negative aspects, for example, if it risks facilitating the spread of diseases, fire, or invasive non-native species⁷.

Adaptability. Adaptability differs from the other attributes because it is part of the definition of resilience rather than an attribute that supports it. However, its inclusion in the Environment (Wales) Act is important because it emphasises one of the most important features of resilience: dynamism and the ability to adapt to change. This is especially relevant for climate change, which is now regarded as inevitable and during which we cannot expect to maintain the status quo. Instead we need to think in terms of changing species distributions, composition of ecological communities, and ecosystem functions and processes. This is where the elements of diversity, extent, condition and connectivity start to link and provide the basis for adaptation to happen. For example, maintaining diversity hotspots and connectivity between them can facilitate species’ range shift⁸.

The adaptability of habitat patches is an outcome of their resilience. The overall adaptability of ecosystems invites specific consideration of the adaptive cycles which many ecosystems undergo –understanding that ecosystems are not static entities and will change over time. The key question is whether ecosystems will adapt and change in the desired direction given future environmental, and socioeconomic changes and demands such as climate change. Such challenges need to be addressed by active management of habitats across the University’s estate, including direct habitat interventions and Systemic Design.

In addition to the NRW attributes of ecosystem resilience, the Environment Act sets out nine simple principles of sustainable management of natural resources to underpin natural resources management. Cardiff University seeks to integrate these ways of workings within the governance structure of the ERBAP. These principles are⁹:

Adaptability: plan, monitor, review and change our work as we gain a better understanding through our improved evidence. This will be done through the annual audit as well as the regular periods of revision of the ERBAP.

Scale dependence: take decisions and actions at the right level, from global to local. We need to work together to identify the most appropriate scale for delivering the environmental and wider, cultural, social and economic priorities and opportunities that our evidence highlights. The ERBAP creates a centralized plan of action to guide professional services and research actions involving on-the-ground decisions. To scale up actions, Cardiff University is working with other partners across the Cardiff city-region to join up our green spaces and create a more comprehensive ecological network across the city.

Working together: ensure all stakeholders can play a role in conserving and sustainably managing our natural resources through engagement in, codesigning and cocreating projects, providing evidence, and cooperating and collaborating at the local, regional and national level. The ERBAP Steering Group includes stakeholders from the University’s professional services community, the student body and academics, engaging with other government bodies, including Cardiff City Council (a representative which sits on our ERBAP Steering Group) and NRW (South Central Area Statements team), as well as NGOs, other Universities in the Cardiff city-region and local communities.

Engaging with the public: ensure transparency and that local communities have an opportunity to have their say on how our natural resources should be managed. The ERBAP Steering Group plans to initiate public engagement through the organization of a workshop and other public outreach events, targeting NGOs, students and the public. Cardiff university also engages communities through citizen science projects (e.g. the Spotabee App) and will encourage participation in both monitoring and managing existing habitats.

Gaining evidence: improve our evidence base in order to increase our understanding of our natural resources, how they function and the benefits that they provide. This evidence will help us all to better understand the steps that we can take to manage our estate more sustainably. A full range of evidence will be needed, not only environmental, but also, cultural, social and economic, gathered from experts, stakeholders and local communities. The ERBAP will be supported by evidence routinely collected through undergraduate courses, research projects and citizen science.

Understanding the benefits: increase our understanding of the value of our natural resources and how they support each other so that we and future generations continue to receive economic, social, cultural and environmental benefits whilst reducing our environmental impact. These objectives will be carried out through engagement of academics, future professionals and citizens, via dissemination, outreach and education.

Long term approach: the impacts of our decisions and actions need to be considered not only for their effect in the short term but also over the long-term, in accordance with the Well-being of Future Generations Act. Therefore, decisions need to be taken with long-term as well short-term benefits in mind, need to be reflexive and to evolve as conditions change. Strengthening resilience is a time-consuming process and needs to be critically evaluated at 5-year intervals or more.

Prevention: take steps to prevent significant damage of our ecosystems. The ERBAP seeks to both restore and protect our green spaces and the benefits they provide to society. To mitigate events such as accidental damage, unforeseen consequences of management actions, future scenarios will be evaluated, and contingency plans developed to prevent major negative consequences for the University’s green estate.

Resilience: ensure that our decisions consider the resilience of our ecosystems and their ability to provide their benefits in the long term. This is at the heart of the ERBAP and why we consider not just the number of species we conserve, but also the extent, condition, connectivity and adaptability of their habitat. As such we need to acknowledge the specific environment that Cardiff’s urban setting provides, how that varies across the University’s estate and the role of social and cultural processes in forming this matrix.

With the Environment Act, the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act and the Planning Act, we in principle have a broader integrated framework for ecosystem resilience, which incorporates the application of biodiversity policy and management. This framework can be placed in the context of Natural Resource Planning and the development of ‘Area Statements’ by NRW for placing ecosystem resilience and biodiversity policy in a local context, and discussions have recently been ongoing with stakeholders, including Cardiff University staff, in terms of what the statements should look like. At the same time, a number of working groups have been set up to help with ideas for delivery of WG’s Environment Act, including relevant ones on Ecosystem Resilience and Restoration and Urban Green Infrastructure.

While society faces a biodiversity crisis, we also face a climate emergency, which has been acknowledged by the University’s Declaration of November 2019 and current work to develop our route to net zero by 2030. However, we cannot address climate change without also considering conserving and increasing biodiversity. The ERBAP seeks opportunities to conserve and promote the diversity of species on the University’s estate, which can also dovetail with actions to reduce carbon emissions and increase carbon sequestration. Within the urban environment, the conservation of biodiversity is particularly important because wildlife areas may suffer from pollution and fragmentation, so efforts should encompass the protection of remaining sites of interest for biodiversity, enhancement of sites of potential value, and the creation of new habitats. The IPBES report highlights some policy tools, options and exemplary actions in urban areas, such as the promotion of nature-based solutions; increasing access to urban services and a healthy urban environment for low-income communities; improving access to green spaces; sustainable production and consumption; and ecological connectivity within urban spaces, particularly with native species. With the ERBAP, we seek to address these concerns, and by doing so, to join the rank of UK universities who have also dedicated themselves to working to halt biodiversity loss.

Cardiff University staff have worked over the last several years to improve the number of pollinators within the Cardiff urban region by installing beehives on the roof of several university buildings. However, pollinators and other wildlife require access to suitable habitat and diverse forage throughout the year in order to prosper. The ERBAP seeks to take a joined-up approach to work across University sites, with professional services, academic researchers, students, and with Cardiff City Council and other actors to create a corridor of quality green spaces across the Cardiff city region. The ERBAP will identify a series of principles to guide landscape maintenance practices and will incorporate this into the tender process. As the ERBAP develops, further locations and principles will be included in maintenance practices.  Principles will include leaving designated and design spaces for wildflower meadows, reducing and eliminating the use of herbicides, surveying the tree population and using digital tools to inform species and location selection for future tree plantings, and timing of hedge clipping to consider nesting species.

Given the above, the development of the ERBAP is timely and will map onto best practice, as well as supporting Cardiff University’s Environmental Sustainability Enabling Strategy¹⁰ to achieve its underpinning goals. Many universities in the UK already have BAPs, and as such we are somewhat behind the curve. However, we have examined how these are framed within the context of each University’s local environment and have developed the ERBAP by taking some of the best elements of these plans. In addition, we need to ensure that the ERBAP is consistent with Cardiff City Council’s 2019 Green Infrastructure and Biodiversity and Resilience of Ecosystems Duty Action Plans¹¹ and that of other relevant land holders, so that we ensure we manage the University’s estate in a manner consistent with council aspiration and to maintain green infrastructure in a way that enhances biodiversity and connectivity, leveraging synergistic improvements for biodiversity city-wide.

Aims

State-of-the-Art: Cardiff University’s biodiversity and estate

Species

At Cardiff University we have to date identified eighteen species (or species groups) of wildlife and wildflower as our priorities for conservation action (Table 1). The list includes all of the Species of Principal Importance for Biodiversity (SPIBs - under Section 7 of the Environment (Wales) Act 2016)¹² which currently occur at Cardiff University, as well as the Priority Species identified in the Cardiff Local Biodiversity Action Plan, 2008 (CL BAP)¹³.

In addition to this, the list also includes some species chosen by the Cardiff University Community for special attention. In January-February 2019 the Cardiff Wildlife & Cardiff Wildflowers staff group ran a consultation on Yammer about the possibility of developing a ‘Wildlife & Wildflower Plan’ for Cardiff University. The consultation documents were read by 308 members of staff and attracted 167 contributions. The contributors identified ten species (or species groups) of wildlife and wildflower as community priorities for conservation action at Cardiff University.

Also included in the list are several sensitive groups identified from records as present on university grounds, warranting their prioritisation in ongoing management plans. These records were made by members of the Biodiversity Action Plan Working Group and, as described in detail below, by assimilation of recent historical records of the extant flora and fauna through iRecord. The conservation of these groups is largely achievable in parallel with existing aims relating to the other priority species.

We acknowledge that for some of the species on the following list (e.g. black redstart, tree sparrow) it may not be possible to improve numbers, as their absence relates to ecological factors that extend beyond Cardiff University’s ability to influence. However, there are many other species on the list (e.g. finches, warblers, raptors, other thrushes) that are known and commonly visit the site and the numbers of which we expect to enhance through targeted actions.

Table 1. Species and species groups identified to date as priorities for conservation action and management.

Habitats

As well as our priority species (or species groups) we have also identified five priority habitats (Table 2). The first four of these are all Habitats of Principal Importance for Biodiversity under the Environment (Wales) Act 2016 (HPIBs) as well as Priority Habitats under the 2008 Cardiff Local Biodiversity Action Plan (CL BAP) and were independently also chosen as priorities by the Cardiff University Community in the 2019 Wildlife & Wildflower Plan. The fifth, veteran trees, was selected given its provision of several key microhabitats on which a large contingent of EU red-listed species, mostly saproxylic beetles, depend; several similar beetles have been recorded on university grounds, very likely depending on the existing provision of these microhabitats.

Table 2. Habitats identified to date as priorities for conservation action and management.

Our priority species and habitats are spread across the University campus. In Table 3 we indicate the diversity and extent of our key sites with some comments on condition and connectivity where known. The species are not shown at site level in order to protect their location. It is worth noting that these values and statements are approximate and will require further survey during the ERBAP’s first stage (characterise). The grey lines in Table 3 state the aspirations for each site: these may be subject to change based on the outcome of data collected in Year 1. Characterization of each site will then to be used to establish the most effective management strategies for maintenance, restoration and enhancement of the University’s green estate, and the aspirations may be revised at that time.

Table 3.Key sites for biodiversity across Cardiff University’s estate, including DECCA commentary. Determination of species poor or species rich status was determined based on training from National Trust¹⁴. In the training document, key 2a states: “Species poor areas are dominated by ryegrass and usually have poor biodiversity. Semi-improved areas have less ryegrass and a few species. Species rich areas have 15+ vascular plants, or more than 30% flowering plant coverage present and little ryegrass.”

Although much work has already been done to identify areas of biodiversity importance and to map areas of important green infrastructure across the University’s estate, it is recognised that the ERBAP need to build on this work. Further work is needed to characterise both the faunal and floral diversity present across the University’s estate by surveying sites in detail throughout the year. The ERBAP will implement these surveys during 2021, deploying Professional Services staff, Academic staff and students in a systematic way. Quarterly surveys will be carried out for all green infrastructure sites identified around the University in 2019 by the Dean and colleagues, not only those identified above. The surveys will be carried out as described in the ERBAP section below.

Local context and activities

Cardiff City Council

Cardiff University is based largely within the city centre, in diverse locations featuring a wide variety of built infrastructure, green spaces and usage patterns by University staff and students and the public. This makes green infrastructure management challenging and highly context specific. In the context of DECCA, it also means that the University’s patches of green estate cannot be seen in isolation, either in its own right, or within this context of the green estate which is present adjacent and close to the University, management of much of which is the responsibility of Cardiff City Council. The Council recently produced a new Green Infrastructure (GI) and a Biodiversity and Resilience Ecosystems Duty (BRED) Forward Plan (2019)¹⁶ and the University’s ERBAP is very much contextualised by these documents. The GI Plan has the aim to produce “multi-functional, connected green spaces that make the best use of land - at the same time providing green open space for all, helping wildlife to flourish, and delivering a wide range of economic, health and community benefits.” The BRED Action Plan is positioned to “deliver the objectives of the Green Infrastructure Plan as well as those of the Nature Recovery Action Plan (2015).”

The overall vision of these plans is that ‘Cardiff’s distinctive natural heritage will provide a network of Green Infrastructure which will be protected, enhanced, developed and managed to ensure that its integrity and connectivity is sustained for the economic, social and environmental benefit of the City and the Region.’ It is clear that Cardiff University’s estate, especially that located within the Cathays Park site and surroundings is therefore of extreme importance for Cardiff City Council to achieve this vision and as such we must work in close collaboration with the Council to ensure our ERBAP activities are consistent with this vision and with direct management activities carried out by the council. At the same time, Cardiff University employs >6,600 staff and has >33,000 students, all of whom are, at some time or other, users of the city’s green infrastructure and facilities, and who stand to benefit substantially by a joined-up approach to green space and biodiversity management in their surroundings.

Cardiff City Council’s GI Plan is framed explicitly within the concept of resilience identified in the Well-being of Future Generations Act, and this is a major reason why the University’s ERBAP is also framed in this way. Among other policy drivers, the Council’s Plan also acknowledges the role of Natural Resources Wales’ Area Statements activity, which are intended to help facilitate the sustainable management of Wales’ natural resources. Cardiff City Council and all of Cardiff University’s estate are situated within the South-Central Area Statement boundary¹⁷. Its six main objectives include protection and enhancement of Cardiff’s ecosystems to ensure that they continue to support diverse habitats and species, allowing them to adapt to change (Objective 1). This includes the following activities:

The BRED Action Plan aims to bring the general activities in the GI Plan to bear on the objectives of Welsh Government’s Nature Recovery Action Plan (NRAP), which include “Safeguarding species and habitats of principal importance and improving their management”; “Increasing the resilience of our natural environment by restoring degraded habitats and creating habitats”; “Tackling key pressures on species and habitats” and “improving evidence, understanding and monitoring”. A large number of activities are envisaged as part of a “Greening the City” plan, which is embedded in the GI Delivery Plan 2019-2022. Although many of these are site-specific, they include general objectives to map GI-based ecosystem services, development of a Green Lane network plan, installation of wildlife explorer trails across the parks system, installation of interpretation boards, and development of park management plans. Overall, there is an aim to increase tree canopy cover from 19% to 25% by 2030, form a Local Nature Partnership (now formed, see below), and produce a local Nature Recovery Action and a Pollinator Plan for the city.

It can be seen that the above objectives map very well with the objectives of the University’s ERBAP. However, to ensure ERBAP activities are consistent with Cardiff City Council’s GI and BRED Plans in both a spatial and temporal manner, specific joined up thinking and activities are required. Direct co-working opportunities need to be identified, resourced, managed and monitored. To enable these activities to be identified and developed, a member of Cardiff City Council currently sits on the ERBAP Committee (Cardiff Council, Conservation Officer) and a member of the University sits on the Cardiff Local Nature Partnership (LNP) steering committee (Dean of Environmental Sustainability). The LNP steering committee comprises representatives from local government, NRW, a variety of NGOs, Cardiff Civic Society and actors such as the University. Collaboration is at an early stage, but we are already engaged in discussions around, for example, the design and management of green space south of the University’s Main Building and the potential deployment opportunities for Cardiff University students in LNP activities for projects and as volunteering posts.

Natural Resources Wales

NRW’s South Central Area Statement works at a wider spatial scale and has, among its main objectives, the aim to build resilient ecosystems, connect people with nature, improve health and improve air quality. The team is aware of the development of the University’s ERBAP. Under the Building Resilient Ecosystems theme, urban ecosystems are a priority and working through Local Nature Partnerships, Public Authorities and Public Service Boards, the Area Statements team will provide advice to stakeholders with developing their evidence base, understanding ecological networks at a wider spatial scale for synergistic planning and will develop resilience based area plans.

Pharmabees

The award winning Pharmabees project traces its roots back to Dr Jenny Hawkins, a former student of the School of Pharmacy who in 2015 completed a PhD entitled ‘Apothecary Bee’s, using the bee as a tool for drug discovery’. Jenny discovered a ‘super honey’ from Tywyn in North Wales which killed hospital superbugs and determined that this activity was due to specific plants the bees visited during foraging. To recreate super honey, beehives were installed on the roof of the Pharmacy (Redwood) Building and Tywyn plants were planted to provide the ‘super’ food for the bees¹⁸.

Using the experience from the Redwood Building, Pharmabees engaged with the wider University resulting in the installation of hives and bug boxes on more University buildings. A collaboration with the charity Buglife resulted in planting of a wildlife meadow at the Redwood Building which developed into a memorial garden (in commemoration of Prof Chris McGuigan) with a grass free lawn. In 2016 this gained a Green Flag Community Award, which has been awarded annually since as the site has developed.

Pharmabees is also closely aligned with two of the “Flagship” projects; Caer Heritage who plan to install an apothecary garden at their site and Grangetown Community Project who have installed a pollinator friendly community garden and are in the process of seeding a wildflower meadow. These collaborations continue to evolve.

In 2018, in collaboration with the Student Union Wildlife and Conservation Society (WildSoc) gained funding from Grow Wild to establish 10 pollinator friendly areas across the estate. The newly created gardens cover the whole of the Cardiff University site, with planting on the Sports Fields; the Health Park Campus; the Queen’s Building Site; the Cathays site and the new Maindy Road site. The project culminated with a talk from the prestigious academic Professor David Goulson who is one of the foremost bumblebee researchers. The project engaged in the region of 500 people from within and around Cardiff University. There are now 10 areas that can be further developed over the next few years with the involvement of staff and student societies.

Interest came from beyond the university campus, resulting in engagement on biodiversity, antibiotics and antibiotic resistance with 12 secondary schools, 30 primary schools as well as six community projects in South Wales and overseas.  This enabled the development of structured evidence-based engagement with schools, campus and community. The team has evidenced increases in knowledge and understanding which highlight positive behavioural and value changes relating to biodiversity, bees, the environment, science and wellbeing. To engage with communities on the importance of this work, a website was created highlighting how university research is having a real-world impact and how the public can contribute¹⁹. The website hosts a link to spin-out the citizen science project ‘spot-a-bee’ in which the public use mobile phones to upload images of bees and plants onto google maps to build a map of bee friendly plants in Cardiff. So far there have been over 5000 entries, with some from as far as California and Angola. Pharmabees is looking to link the apps output with national databases and to use the data as a planning tool to identify urban areas which are in need to plants and to monitor the impact of climate changes on flora and fauna. Further engagement with schools and university students is planned.

The Pharmabees project is now recognised as part of the University’s Environmental Sustainability Strategy. Over 1,000m²of pollinator friendly, carbon-sequestering plants have been planted at the university. The University was also awarded Bee Friendly Status by the Welsh Assembly Government. In 2017 the project received a number of national awards which included sustainability awards from the Guardian and Sustain Wales. The project has engaged with a diverse range of organizations such as community gardens, schools, industry, health boards, Welsh Assembly Government and the Women’s Institute.

The project has also enhanced links with partner organizations from across South Wales to enrich the biodiversity of green spaces beyond the confines of the University and to encourage more engagement and pollinators across the region. They co-created bee-friendly, plant-rich environments to make the University and Cardiff a better place to work and live. In addition to this, they are currently running a wildflower seed mix project in three areas of Cardiff in which they are asking the public to grow our experimental mix of wildflower seeds at home and record the insects that visit them. The wildflower seed mix will also be used to create a wildflower meadow at a Grangetown site. Local residents and schools will monitor growth and insect visits.

These developments led to the co-creation of wellbeing space with health boards. Wellbeing space at Llandough Hospital was recently cited as an example of good practice by the Auditor General for Wales. A project at Ystrad Mynach hospital looks to measure the impact of spending time in green spaces on personal wellbeing. Increased engagement with Welsh Government led to Pharmabees curating a conference on behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government Pollinator Action Group entitled ‘Bee Well Cardiff, Joining the Dots’.

Cardiff University Meadow Areas

Over the last five years, nine meadow areas have been created on campus by the Cardiff University Grounds Maintenance Team (SPORT) and Pharmabees in collaboration with Residences, Estates, and WildSoc. The seeds used were provided by Buglife’s Urban Buzz project and the Kew Gardens Community Gardens project. The meadows are all on neutral soil and all were planted with exclusively native and archaeophyte species. The predominant species planted were ox-eye daisy, wild carrot, yarrow, salad burnet, knapweed, meadow buttercups, bird’s foot trefoil and red and white clover. Some meadows have established or recruited less common plants, including tufted vetch, perforate St John’s wort, yellow rattle, wild arum, lesser celandine, common centaury, fox-and-cubs, musk mallow, and lady’s and hedge bedstraw.

In addition to this, 4,300 native bluebells were planted across five sites to provide a seed bank for the future (previously the native bluebell was extinct on campus). These meadow areas were all previously lawn areas (improved or semi-improved grasslands) and are now being managed as meadows as part of Cardiff University’s grounds contract. Fifty viper’s bugloss plants were cultivated from seed and introduced in 2019 based on guidance from Pharmabees pollen research. These have become established on at least two sites.

The Cardiff Wildlife and Cardiff Wildflower (CWCW) Staff Group

The Cardiff Wildlife and Cardiff Wildflower (CWCW) Staff Group is part of Cardiff University’s private Yammer network, which is open to all members of staff at Cardiff University. The group was created in 2018 and currently has around 400 members (310 of whom have been active on the group within the last year). The purpose of the group is to share knowledge and enthusiasm about Cardiff University’s biodiversity, and local environmental projects. There is an average of one post a week, usually photographs or videos of wild animals and plants taken on the University grounds, or other local initiatives, petitions and offers.

In January 2019, to celebrate the CWCW Staff Group reaching 250 members, the group ran a survey to select priority species and habitats for Cardiff University to work towards protecting (see Table 1 above). The results of this survey were developed into a Cardiff University Wildlife and Wildflower Plan, which was one of the starting documents presented to the ERBAP Steering Group at the start of its tenure.

It is suggested that the ERBAP Committee formally reports to the EMS Steering Group when it sits and that as part of the ERBAP, the Committee formally reviews membership, including criteria, balance (currently there are no formal undergraduate student members, or members of the local community) and how decisions are formally taken (currently via ad hoc consensus) prior to submission to the EMS Committee for approval. These governance issues are important as the ERBAP will require resourcing from the University and external funders to implement its recommendations.

Actions

Production of the Ecosystem Resilience and Biodiversity Action Plan

This ERBAP has been produced collaboratively by members of the Steering Committee, for discussion, modification and ultimately recommendation by the University Executive Board and Council. It is recognised that a period of consultation will be required by the University and Stakeholders to assess the actions recommended. The timescale of the current ERBAP follows the current University Way Forward period (i.e. from 2021 to 2023), although some of the recommendations extend beyond the current Way Forward document period, until 2030, to align with the University’s Climate Emergency Declaration, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the Council’s tree canopy cover target.

Appointment of a Biodiversity Officer

A central recommendation of the ERBAP is the appointment of a Biodiversity Officer for the University. The role and job description are described below. We suggest a mid-Grade 5 (Spinal point 25: £38,704 in year one) Professional Services position, costed for 3 years in the attached spreadsheet (here at 28/35 hours).  The responsibilities of the role would be to:

Action Plan

Species and Community Biodiversity Plan

The ERBAP’s central Aims are described above but summarised here.

Table 4. Key elements of Higher Educational Institution Biodiversity Action Plans

Best Practice

Relatively comprehensive documents have been produced by Exeter (Penryn campus, this is, however, a very estates-driven report), Glasgow (possibly the most comprehensive which combines most potential facets of what a University BAP could include), Leeds (a very academic document, and has almost no estates component), Nottingham (solely estates driven, to the extent that academics and students have not been involved at all), Sheffield (also very estates-driven), Swansea (quite comprehensive, but perhaps more academically driven) and UCL (very estates-driven). This document therefore aims to take the best elements of these Plans to produce a comprehensive ERBAP based on best practices.

One aim of the ERBAP is to conserve the Priority Species at Cardiff University through proper management of our Priority Habitats (especially where the priority species are known to occur, Table 5). The plan also aims to put into place monitoring procedures for our priority habitats and species. The ERBAP will also institute a comprehensive characterisation program to revisit all sites and habitats on the University’s green estate.

Table 5. Threats facing priority species

Table 6.  Summary of Targets

Feasibility of all targets depends on appointment of a Biodiversity Officer

Table 7.  Capital costs

BAP activities will be embedded within the behavioural change programme, Green Impact. This will encourage building teams from across the University to engage with awareness raising and undertake a range of activities to support the BAP. Activities will be embedded into the staff and student Sustainability week run in March annually and also into the staff Positive, Health, Environment and Wellbeing (PHEW) fortnight run annually in July. The Environmental Compliance Officer (ECO) network will be used for disseminating information out to local areas.

One of the aims of the characterisation programme in year one will be to produce a booklet of “The Wildlife and Wildflowers of Cardiff University”. This booklet will list the 100 most common species found in the different priority habitats of Cardiff University. It will be a basic field guide and include photographs of all 100 species in their Cardiff habitat. These booklets can be sold in the Students’ Union and at other locations around campus. They will help raise awareness about Cardiff University’s wildlife and wildflowers. The money raised will be put exclusively towards funding for biodiversity projects (e.g. meadow, woodland, hedgerow or pond creation; bird, bug, bat or hedgehog boxes) at Cardiff University.

During Fresher’s Week 2021, and each subsequent year, we will run a guided tour of the wildlife and wildflowers of Cardiff University. This will help raise awareness and goodwill towards the biodiversity of Cardiff, especially amongst students who have recently moved to Cardiff. During the tour we can advertise and sell the Wildlife and Wildflowers of Cardiff University booklets to raise money for additional conservation projects. We will look to run similar events during PHEW as well as staff induction activities. We will look to engage with staff in each of the Schools at Cardiff University through lunchtime seminars in order to create space for new ideas for and broader collaboration on future ERBAP activities.

The Student’s Union (SU) will be actively involved with BAP activities. The SU will execute the Planting Project next to the Cathays Railway Station and aims to create a Student Volunteering Group that will help with BAP Projects across campus. The progress of the Group’s work and BAP activities will be posted on SU social media throughout the academic year. During Go Green Week in the SU (February/March 2021) there will be a strong emphasis on biodiversity, for the purpose of raising awareness as well as promoting student engagement with BAP activities.

Regular meetings will be held with relevant organisations (e.g. Buglife, Plantlife), community groups (e.g. Greening Cathays) and local authorities (i.e. Cardiff Council) to discuss progress of the BAP and its context in wider Cardiff biodiversity. This will provide an opportunity to monitor Cardiff University’s alignment with local biodiversity aims to ensure a cohesive approach to biodiversity enhancement in the city and orchestrate a greater degree of connectedness between arising and existing habitats. Pharmabee activities, detailed already above, have already engaged extensively across Cardiff communities (neighbourhoods, schools and hospitals) to add more quality green spaces that contribute to biodiversity. The ERBAP can create synergies with Pharmabees to enhance community engagement. Additionally, through the Dean’s participation in the LNP and Cardiff Council’s Conservation Officer’s role in the ERBAP Steering committee, engagement with local government is facilitated.

Mobilisation of the various communities identified above will occur through our engagement plan. Communities and NGOs will be invited to codesign projects, activities and workshops, such as seed bombing, gardening workshops, bioblitz, concerts, healthy food and cosmetics festivals, etc. In this way, we seek to elicit and include ideas from our communities and to collaborate in bringing those ideas to life.

The University and Cardiff communities will be further mobilised through the promotion of phone apps to employ citizen science approaches to measuring and monitoring biodiversity on the University campus and throughout Cardiff city. A further idea to engage community stakeholders is through the use of a token economy where participants can earn tokens for volunteering in ERBAP activities and exchange the tokens for sustainable products. This kind of reward system can be implemented over the ERBAP period 2021-2023 for time volunteered, but it can also be promoted in particular for events such as Sustainability week and PHEW and implemented as a competition between schools, buildings or teams or for project outputs, such as DIY habitats and edible landscapes extensions. Recognition and awards could be made to different categories such as “Species champions” for those who log the most sightings of priority species each month.

The ERBAP Steering committee, with particular support from the Biodiversity Officer, could partner with the National Museum Wales to engage with museum visitors through both displays and specific events during the year. This same approach can be used with Bute Park and many of our local environmental NGOs, such as Bug’s Life, Wildlife Trust and community gardening groups. In January 2021 the ERBAP Steering committee will agree a calendar of events for 2021 through engagement with our University and external partners and stakeholders.

Table 8. Budget for the engagement and mobilisation plan

Education Plan

The university will integrate the ERBAP into its curriculum across the schools and colleges. This will be performed through ‘living laboratories’ through real life student’s projects. Therefore, e.g. architectural students will work on extending habitats for identified species of importance, whilst music students will be analysing the sounds of bumblebees. Outputs from these kinds of student projects can be presented through public events to inspire and promote further engagement. In addition, the plan proposes a new postgraduate master in systemic design. This program will be fully transdisciplinary, developing collaborative and codesigned studio-based projects with students of various background. The projects will use the university campuses as a living laboratory for extending habitats and edible landscape for the above-mentioned species, integrating social, technical and environmental systems through holistic approach.

Each course offered by the university has to integrate biodiversity in relation to its content; this can be complemented by incorporating some surveying activity or interventionist projects into curriculum. This means that the curricula must become non-anthropocentric, inclusive to other species. This covers e.g. non-human computer interactions, sounds of other species, non-human psychology, communities, habitats, agriculture and medicine. Surveys of taxonomically specialist groups will also be incorporated into teaching practices in BIOSI and other relevant schools where possible.

Survey and interventionist activities could be conducted in a multi-disciplinary setting, for example through regularly held bioblitz, with students from different schools working together to achieve learning objectives. In addition to bioblitz activities, multi-discipline, cross-school student, post-graduate, and staff collaborations will be supported through ERBAP sponsored project competitions, such as designing a bug hotel, with submitted projects being evaluated and the winning project team being awarded during Sustainability week. Further annual competitions will be sponsored by ERBAP, include an annual competition for Cardiff University students, Cardiff primary and secondary students and Cardiff community members to submit an essay about the value of priority species for Cardiff. A winning essay will be selected from each participant category and announced and published during Sustainability Week. Each prize winner will be awarded £50.

Over the last year, the Dean of Environmental Sustainability has been conducting an audit of all the courses offered at Cardiff University that contain topics of environmental sustainability. Once complete, this information will be used by the ERBAP Steering committee to work together with identified sustainability education champions across the campus, including Academics and the Dean of Postgraduate Education (PSE) in Architecture as well as the Sustainable Places Research Institute and the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences to develop curriculum on ecosystem resilience and biodiversity that can be implemented as introductory material for year 1 students across all colleges, which will look to be adapted into a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). The module material will be designed so that there is one module adapted for each college, tailored towards the disciplines within the college, but also including elements of ERBAP in each module.

In addition to this, environmental sustainability material will be included in staff and student induction activities.

Table 9. Timeline of Education activities

Appendix 2: Engagement communications

The following articles have been published in the Cardiff University Intranet All staff communications newsletter ‘Blas’ in the period 2019 – 2023 (links not publicly available).

Mental Health Awareness Week

5 May 2021

Hosted by the Mental Health Foundation, Mental Health Awareness Week takes place from 10-16 May 2021 and the theme this year is Nature.  Register for our lunchtime wellbeing sessions, find out about our step count challenge, and see how you can get involved.

Why nature?

During the pandemic, millions of us turned to nature. The Mental Health Foundation’s research on the mental health impacts of the pandemic showed going for walks outside was one of our top coping strategies, and 45% of people reported that green spaces have been vital for mental health.

Nature is central to our psychological and emotional health. It has a unique ability not only to bring consolation in times of stress, but also to increase our creativity, empathy and a sense of wonder. It’s not just being in nature but how we open ourselves up and interact with nature that counts. Even small contacts with nature can reduce feelings of social isolation and be effective in protecting our mental health and preventing distress.

Wellbeing workshops

Mindfulness walks

We want to encourage everyone to get out and enjoy nature. Staff Wellbeing has recorded a Mindfulness walk audio that you can listen to on your walks. We would also love you to send us your photos out and about, you can either post them directly to the Staff Wellbeing yammer community or email them to Staffwellbeing@cardiff.ac.uk for us to share.

Enjoy a cup of wellness tea and some good mood food

Staff Wellbeing have got cups of wellness tea for you to enjoy for free. All you have to do is contact staffwellbeing@cardiff.ac.uk with your details. There are a limited number available and they will be sent out on a first come first served basis.

You can also purchase 100% natural wellness tea (pure green tea combined with natural flora and Welsh honey) from our campus catering outlets. You can purchase a box of 15 envelope teabags for £4.50 or a takeaway tea for £1.40 (£1.15 if you bring a reusable cup). You’ll get a free pack of seeds with each cup (while stocks last) and a percentage of the profits will support pollinators and biodiversity projects across Wales.

Campus catering will be offering a series of healthy breakfast and lunch recipes that are good for the brain and increasing energy. Keep an eye out for these on their Instagram @CUFoods, the Campus Catering Yammer community, and the Staff wellbeing yammer community.

How Care First can support you

SDG15 – Life on Land

14 July 2021

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the United Nations’ blueprint for a better and more sustainable future. Find out how we are contributing to SDG15 and share your work in this area.

Earlier this year we placed joint 21^st out of 50 UK institutions submitting to the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, which explore the impact a university can make on the SDGs. Universities receive a score and a rank for their activities in each of the SDGs for which they submit data.

One of the SDGs we submitted to was SDG15 – Life on Land, the aim of which is to: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.

We ranked 16^th in the UK for this SDG. Here are some examples of our contribution:

Ecosystem Resilience and Biodiversity Action Plan (ERBAP)

In March 2021 we launched a plan for building ecosystem resilience and biodiversity across our campuses.

The ERBAP, developed in collaboration with Cardiff Council, draws upon the resources and expertise of our wider University community: academic staff, professional services staff, postgraduate and undergraduate students.

It allows us to ensure that our estate is managed to increase our green infrastructure, encourage and enhance biodiversity, and make more of our staff and students aware of the biodiversity that our campuses provide.

Read more about the ERBAP and the objectives it sets out from 2021-2023

Hedgehog Friendly Campus

Did you know that hedgehog numbers in the UK have declined by up to a half since 2000? Universities can play an important role in reversing this trend by transforming campuses into safe habitats for hedgehogs and other wildlife.

As part of the ERBAP, we have joined the Hedgehog Friendly Campus accreditation scheme. This is a national programme set up by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society. Current and future activity from our working group includes regular litter picks, education campaigns, expert talks, and hedgehog surveys using footprint tunnels.

If you would like to be involved in any of these activities, please contact hedgehogs@cardiff.ac.uk. You can also find the working group on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

Spot-a-bee

Species and habitat data is essential for tracking changes in local environments and formulating decisions about how to protect them. You can play an important part in this as the majority of this data in the UK is collected by citizen scientists.

Last year, our Pharmabees project launched a biodiversity monitoring project called Spot-A-Bee. Members of the public can use the free app to submit photos of plants that attract bees in their local area. This is helping to build a map of the floral and insect diversity across the UK. So far, over 9,000 images have been received, some from as far afield as Australia.

The team is keen to recruit more Cardiff-based users – especially residents in Cathays, Splott, and Grangetown. They also want to work with users to increase our city’s biodiversity by planting a seed mix we have developed which is available free of charge from local stores.

If you are a local resident with an interest in nature and a willingness to create a greener neighbourhood, contact Les Baillie for an informal chat.

Find out more about the Spot-A-Bee app and about the project’s work with local residents in Cathays.

Expanding biodiversity

Dr Marie Davidová, a Lecturer in Architectural Design at our Welsh School of Architecture, works on the question of cities’ adaptation to climate change and biodiversity loss. In April, she delivered a talk at the UN World Creativity and Innovation Day Celebration during which she demonstrated DIY intervention recipes for expanding biodiversity in your garden or neighbourhood. Find out more and watch the talk.

If you live in Grangetown, you can use Maria’s Co-De|GT app to engage with biodiversity in the area. Users can fulfil tasks such as building DIY structures designed to encourage cross-species living and to promote an engagement with biodiversity.  Find out more.

Share your work

Are you involved in any work relating to SDG15? We would love to hear from you. Email environment@cardiff.ac.uk to share what you’re doing.