Canvey Island in South Essex may not be the first place to spring to mind when thinking of rare wildlife, but it has recently been found to have one of the best sites in Britain for endangered invertebrates.
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| Flower-rich area with Narrow-leaved bird's foot trefoil (Lotus glaber) Canvey
© P. Harvey |
Canvey Wick, a 93 hectare site next to the Morrison's superstore on Canvey Island, was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) on 11 February 2005, the first brownfield site to be protected specifically for its invertebrates. This decision was the culmination of a 3-year campaign by Buglife and local residents to save the site from being destroyed to make way for a business park. (see press release for more information).
The Guardian article
"All of a Buzz in Canvey Island" Project
Buglife has been given a
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| Marbled white (Melanargia galathea) © D.Blackwell |
Heritage Lottery Fund grant to raise awareness of threatened brownfield habitats, both as a resource for people and for nature. From autumn 2006 to spring 2008, the project will work to encourage the local community to become involved with this amazing site and its wildlife.
Activities planned include:
- Bug walks
- School visits
- An 'invertebrate roadshow'
- Talks to local community groups
- A community art project
- Practical conservation activities
- Formation of a 'Friends of Canvey Wick' group
- Bumblebee surveys (see 'Big Bumblebee Hunt')
If you would like to take part in any activities or become a 'Friend of Canvey Wick', please contact Claudia Watts for more information or see our Events page.
Why is Canvey Island so important for wildlife?
Described as "a little brownfield rainforest" by Natural England officer Dr. Chris Gibson, the results of surveys have shown Canvey Wick to have "more biodiversity per square foot than any other site in the UK" (Matt Shardlow, Buglife Director).
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| Shrill carder bee (Bombus sylvarum)
© P.Harvey |
The East Thames corridor is particularly rich in invertebrate species and Canvey Wick is one of the most diverse and species-rich sites in the area, with nationally important assemblages of invertebrates. It also has the most important remaining population of the BAP Priority Shrill carder bee (Bombus sylvarum) in the Thames region and perhaps the UK. The loss of the site to development would have severely threatened the survival of this rare bumblebee.
In total: 30 Red Data Book (RDB) species and 3 species previously thought to be extinct in Britain have so far been found on the site. These treasures include:
Brown banded carder bee (Bombus humilis) BAP Priority.
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| 5-banded weevil wasp
(Cerceris quinquefasciata)
© M. Edwards |
Five-banded weevil wasp (Cerceris quinquefasciata) BAP Priority.
Hedychrum niemalei - a RDB 'kleptoparasite' that lays its eggs in the burrows of the 5-banded weevil wasp so that its larvae can steal the food that the wasp has provided for its own young.
Morley weevil (Sitona cinerascens)
Canvey Island ground beetle (Scybalicus oblongiusculus)
Scarce emerald damselfly (Lestes dryas)
Sciocoris cursitans, a nationally scarce shieldbug, and Gymnosoma nitens, the RDB fly that parasitises it.
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| Pyramidal orchid (Anacamptis pyramidalis)
© Claudia Watts |
And it's not just invertebrates. In spring and summer, whole swathes of the site burst into colour as the grassland plants start to flower. Some of the most spectacular plants to be seen are the orchids; four species flourish on the site: Bee orchid (Ophrys apifera), Pyramidal orchid (Anacamptis pyramidalis), Common spotted orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii) and the beautiful Southern marsh orchid (Dactylorhiza praetermissa). Essex rarities include Hairy vetchling (Lathyrus hirsutus) and Ploughman's spikenard (Inula conyza) and patches of upper salt marsh support the nationally scarce Golden samphire (Inula crithmoides).
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| Reedbed and pond, Canvey Wick © Claudia Watts |
On warm summer days common lizards come out to bask in the sunshine and you may hear skylarks singing overhead. Water voles nest and feed along the ditch banks and in autumn and winter pretty little stonechats gather to feed on the seeds of reedmace in the wetter areas of the site.
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| Stonechat on reedmace
© D.Blackwell |
Habitat history of Canvey Wick
Although originally coastal grazing marsh, prior to being developed as an oil refinery site in the 1970s much of the area had been used to dump sediments dredged from the Thames. This material is varied in size resulting in silty, sandy and gravely areas rich in shell fragments. However, the Occidental oil refinery was never actually used due to the crash in oil prices and was decommissioned in 1973 after much of the preparatory infrastructure had been built. This has left an area which is very varied in structure with wet reedy areas, marshy floods, ditches, ponds, sallow carr, bramble patches, sparsely vegetated gravels, sandy banks, dry grassland, wet grassland and bare concrete.
The future
After working with English Nature and Buglife to decide on new priorities for the site, the landowners of part of the site, the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) has come up with a plan to develop part as a sustainable business park that should bring new job opportunities to Canvey whilst preserving the majority of the site as a nature reserve.
Listen to past BBC Radio programmes featuring this site and its wildlife:
Changing Places Friday 18th February 2006
Nature 14th June 2004
Why are similar species-rich brownfield sites under threat?
Invertebrates and SSSI designation
Surely such important sites (brownfield or not) should automatically be designated as SSSIs?
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| Common sand wasp (Ammophila sabulosa) © Roger Key |
Elliot Morley introduced a new Code of Guidance on SSSIs in 2003. The new stated purpose of SSSIs was to 'safeguard for the present and future generations the diversity and geographic range of habitats, species and geological features'. Unfortunately, many critically important sites for invertebrate species are currently not protected because the SSSI system was developed in the 1940s and their philosophy, based on bird and plant habitats, has been left almost unchanged for nearly 30 years. Dragonflies and butterflies are the only invertebrates that have established scientific criteria. The section of the SSSI selection guidance relating to other invertebrates does not contain clear enough guidance to facilitate selection by non-expert conservation officers. It is the hope of Buglife that the criteria for selection of SSSIs for invertebrate interest will in due course be improved and the future 'development of more robust techniques for assessing the quality of sites for invertebrates' mentioned by the 1989 author will finally come to fruition. This will enable Conservation Officers to effect recent developments such as the need to implement the Rio convention on Biological Diversity (1992), designate RAMSAR sites for national invertebrate rarities, and protect certain BAP species at a site level.
In the meantime many invertebrate species, particularly those often associated with sites that have been heavily modified by humans, are still not adequately protected by the planning system.
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| Canvey's industrial heritage © Roger Taylor |
The Cinderella factor
Until Buglife became active in 2002 there was not nature conservation NGO to protect invertebrates, hence they are the last group of organisms to come to the conservation ball. 98% of all animal species are invertebrates, but some still think that biodiversity can be conserved without considering their needs. Unfortunately, some still think that environmental destruction is acceptable as long as obvious and well-loved species are not affected. This is despite a recent survey showing that 91% of people in East Anglia think that it is important to protect invertebrates in the countryside (BMRB Omnibus Survey Data 2003).
Brownfield definition
Sites such as Canvey Wick should not be classified as brownfield or 'previously developed' sites where they have ‘blended into the landscape’ (excerpt from government national planning guidance PPS3). However most local plans do not take this ruling into account and continue to list these sites as brownfield sites (as happened in this case). When planning permission is applied for the system will follow the local plan and view development as the right option.
For more information on why brownfield sites can be important to wildlife, click here
