Space4Nature

What is Space4Nature?

Funded by the People’s Postcode Lottery’s Dream Fund, this three-year project is combining satellite imagery, citizen science and AI, to revolutionise how we monitor habitats to act for nature.

When making decisions to protect nature, it’s vital conservationists know where the best remaining habitats exist, to help identify the best opportunities to protect and connect them. However, this frequently isn’t the reality. With many habitats constantly changing, outdated records often don’t represent what’s available for our wildlife on the ground. Sending scientists to reassess and map all of our habitats again and again is a monumental task, complicated further by difficulties accessing some of the best habitats. With conservation organisations under tight resource constraints, sadly comprehensive mapping doesn’t happen which leaves rare habitats unrecognised and unprotected. Space4Nature aims to provide the solution!

Advancements in satellite imagery let us observe UK landscapes, in greater resolution than ever before. With available imaging improving from 10m x 10m resolution squares to 0.3m x 0.3m, it’s now possible to assess habitat type and condition from space. Using technology and our ‘ground-truthing’ citizen scientist volunteers, were training artificial intelligence software to automatedly map these habitats. Ultimately, developing software tools to enable us to make strategic and scientifically informed conservation decisions.

Building the B-Line

Space4Nature doesn’t stop at monitoring. Buglife have also been working with local communities and landowners, to create wildflower-rich habitats to connect Surrey’s B-Line insect superhighway. Buglife’s B-Lines network is the world’s largest and most connected habitat connectivity project!

Within Space4Nature, Buglife has been providing advice and support to local landowners and communities, delivering forty-four hectares of new pollinator habitat within Surrey’s B-Line, exceeding our initial project target of thirty hectares. This includes creating or improving a range of different habitats within Surrey, such as wetlands, heathlands and wildflower meadows.

The Potential of Space4Nature

The potential of Space4Nature for environmental conservation is out of this world!

Applications include:

• Quantifying and assessing the condition of the UK’s remaining wildlife habitats, in real time.
• Identifying achievable opportunities for habitat improvement and restoration.
• Highlighting the best opportunities to create new habitats to boost connectivity.
• Informing landowners of areas of ecological value existing on their property.
• Identifying existing or potential habitats for vulnerable species populations.

What has Space4Nature achieved so far?

• Over forty hectares of new habitat created for pollinators and other wildlife, within Surrey’s B-Lines network.
• 200+ citizen scientists trained in the Space4Nature ground truthing surveys.
• Launching the Space4Nature citizen science invertebrate surveying scheme.
• Winner of the 2024 International Geospatial Innovation Awards.

How can you get involved?

At Buglife we always want to involve people who are passionate about invertebrates. If you’re interested in helping with Space4Nature why not:

• Sign up for our volunteering programme, to help us test our pioneering technology.  Find out more about Space4Nature here.
• Doing something to help insects? No matter how big or small, we’d love to hear about it! Try mapping it on our interactive B-Lines map.

For more information on how to get involved in Space4Nature project please contact Louis Harrington-Edmans (Conservation Officer) at [email protected]