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The Integrated Habitats Design Competition: emphasising nature in the built environment. This competition seeks to inspire urban designers to put nature at the heart of their work.

The Integrated Habitats Design Competition champions working with nature and natural systems, ensuring biodiversity and biodiverse green infrastructure are integral to the design, construction and management of the built environment.

The IHDC is open to all, and welcomes interdisciplinary approaches that show how to combine ecological, spatial and social understanding. IHDC 2012 Awards include categories for completed projects and creative design ideas, as well as an overall IHDC Winner 2012. Awards will be made at a prestigious ceremony in Central London in October 2012, with an accompanying public exhibition and conference.

Entry Period - 20th March - 30th June Submissions will be judged on the integration of biodiversity and biodiverse habitats into built environment developments, to provide ecosystem services and help us adapt to climate change.

There are two categories within the IHDC:

Category 1 - Best Implemented Projects +3 Years - 1st Place winner £1000

Category 2 - Best Creative Design Project - 1st Place winner £1000

For more information on this year's entry: www.ihdc.org.uk/ 

• Scotland's Environment website   (SEWEB) - launched in November 2011 this new website brings together information on Scotland's environment for the first time in one place.

• Updating the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy - a 2020 overview is being prepared to complement the 2004 Strategy. This will set out principles and priorities for the Scottish Government and its partners to adopt in order to meet the 2020 biodiversity targets. Scottish Natural Heritage is hosting a workshop fat Battleby on 15 February 2012 for stakeholders to contribute to the development of the strategy. You can find further details of this on the Events page.

• Machair Life+ Newsletter.    Machair Life+ is a project which aims to secure and improve the conservation status of 70% of the world's machair and its associated species by working closely with crofting communities within the Natura network of protected areas. The project is managed by RSPB and supported by the EU LIFE+ Programme in partnership with Scottish Natural Heritage, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar and the Scottish Crofters Foundation.