A variety of work is undertaken related to green Infrastructure in Cambridgeshire. Green infrastructure is fundamental to having a good quality of life, whether it is in urban or rural areas. It can provide space for recreational activities, improve people's wellbeing and protect and enhance biodiversity and landscapes.
Green Infrastructure
Green Infrastructure is part of our natural life-support system. It is the network of natural and man-made features such as open spaces, woodlands, meadows, footpaths, waterways and historic parks, which help to define and to link the communities with each other and to the surrounding landscape.
In 2011, the Cambridgeshire Green Infrastructure Strategy was published. This Strategy is designed to assist in shaping and co-ordinating the delivery of Green Infrastructure in the county, to provide social, environmental and economic benefits now and in the future.
Action for wildlife
Biodiversity is the wealth of wildlife in terms of the number of species and their habitats - it includes those that are rare and threatened and those that are thought of as commonplace. We can all take action to help conserve and enhance biodiversity to ensure a better future for people and wildlife.
The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Biodiversity Partnership delivers biodiversity action across the county. For information about biodiversity projects and local Biodiversity Action Plans go to the CPBP website.
The County Council works with a wide range of partners and the public to improve the countryside and urban areas for both wildlife and people.
- County Council policies - Climate Change and Environment Strategy contains actions for biodiversity and encourages environmentally friendly practices across all its departments
- County wildlife sites - developing the County Wildlife Sites Partnership (CWSP) to protect and sympathetically manage wildlife sites
- Biodiversity action plans - set local Biodiversity Action Plan targets and implement actions to achieve these targets
- Environmental records centre - supports the development of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Environmental Records Centre
- land owned by the council - management of council land to enhance biodiversity for the protection of wildlife and for people to enjoy
Sharing habitat and species information
The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Environmental Records Centre (CPERC) was established to gather, store and share information about local wild species, habitats and protected sites, to make this information much more accessible to the public.
Building up a biodiversity database is important for a number of reasons:
- understanding where important wildlife sites are in the county (especially for protected species)
- finding new important sites for species and helping to maintain them
- monitoring changes in the populations of species or areas of habitats
- where species are found to be declining specific action can be taken
- records can also be used for monitoring environmental changes (eg lichens can be an excellent indicator of clean air and pollution levels)
The CPERC invites you to get involved in its work and runs various events and activities throughout the year. To find out more please go to the website or contact 01223 713 570.
Cambridgeshire's landscape
There are a wide range of landscapes in the county, including chalk and limestone grassland, wetlands, woodlands and hedgerows. As part of the Countryside Character Initiative the landscape in Cambridgeshire has been divided into distinct character areas:
- The Fens
- East Anglian Chalk
- Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire Claylands
- Northamptonshire Vales
- Breckland
- Bedfordshire Greensand Ridge
