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What is Biodiversity?
Biodiversity means, "the total variety of all living things". It is "our living bank balance ".
Biodiversity is the life support system for our planet and serves us in many ways, providing:
Biodiversity is a measure of sustainable development helping us to gauge how we meet our needs today without impacting on the quality of life for our children and the needs of future generations.
The Biodiversity Duty - What does it mean?
The Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 gives all public bodies a duty to
further the conservation of biodiversity. The Act came into force on the 29
November 2004. Whether you are a local authority, health board, agency or other
public body, involved in health, arts, tourism, sport, education or business
development there is a role you can play to support biodiversity from simple
direct actions to educating others and raising awareness. A significant contribution can
come from supporting the work of the Scottish Biodiversity Forum and helping
to implement the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy. Press here to find out more about the implementation plans and how you can help.
How does this guide work?
This guide explains the steps you can take to comply with the biodiversity duty, but it is not offered as a definitive interpretation of what the legislation means or how it affects any individual body. It does however provide supporting tools and case study examples to simplify and make the
process easier. There are 4 simple steps with supporting tasks.
If you already have an environmental management system then there is specific
guidance for each task for you in the boxes coloured blue. If you are a local
authority, there is guidance targeted at you for appropriate tasks in the boxes
coloured brown. Further links to the best value process can be found in Best Value and Biodiversity in Scotland: a handbook of best practice for public bodies
Who is the guide for?
The guide has been designed for anyone within any public body who is inspired
to take action for biodiversity conservation!
It should be of interest to everyone within your organisation, but will be of particular importance to those:
The site is easy to navigate through and you can enter the 4 step process at any stage appropriate to your circumstances although we recommend checking each task to make sure you have addressed it thoroughly. We hope you find it both useful and interesting!
Comments
We would welcome any comments or suggestions for improving this guidance.
Please send any comments about the guidance using our contact form,
or by post to Adrienne Burgess, Biodiversity Team, Scottish Executive, Mailpoint
14A (1-JS), Victoria Quay, Edinburgh, EH6 6QQ.