We are committed to supporting the delivery of one vision for a sustainable Wales as we go about our business. This vision comprises of 7 Well-being Goals (see graphic below), set out by law, aiming to secure positive environmental, societal, economic conditions for Wales today and future generations.
One of the goals is to be a resilient Wales, focusing on natural environment and its role to support people well-being. These days, the natural environment is sometimes referred to as green and blue infrastructure, to help people recognise benefits from it and therefore the needs to maintain and invest in it, just like roads, water or electricity distribution networks.
Bron Afon manages a significant amount of green infrastructure within Torfaen, giving us an opportunity to directly contribute to building a resilient Wales. Our Caretaking and Grounds Maintenance Team has done some good works previously. We want to go further by scoping clear biodiversity targets and approach in our new ground maintenance contract to start next year.
Specifically, we want to trial an approach to grassland management at some suitable sites. Initially we want to focus on two groups of grasslands. One group will be sites that already contain a variety of native plant species that will benefit from changes to the current cutting regime. Another group will be sites that lack variety of species but have potential to support more species through planting of native plants and pollinator-friendly wild flowers.
We are working with the council to identify some potential sites, to make sure that we pick areas that will maximise our contribution to the wider effort to support the network of natural grasslands for pollinators and improvement of biodiversity value for Torfaen.
Before settling on the sites for this new management regime, we will engage with our staff, communities, and tenants of the potential areas. Working with external and internal colleagues, we will look to create opportunities for community engagement to increase public awareness of biodiversity in their neighbourhood and the sense of ownership, for examples, (when we can mingle outside a bit more!) we will see about organising community planting of wild flowers and/or public talks about benefits of pollinators and biodiversity
If you know of an area that you think we could include in this new scope of work, please get in touch with Simon Morgan.
What is biodiversity? Have a look at this animation from the Natural History Museum for a quick explanation on what it is, why it is important, and what we can do to help.
