News Item (24-07-2007)

Biffaward is a national fund, managed by the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, which uses landfill tax credits to support worthwhile community and biodiversity projects.  Over the last 10 years, Biffaward has supported more than 1000 projects with £85 million of funding. This includes many biodiversity projects which are already benefiting nature in the UK. However, with the UK’s wildlife facing increasing pressure from climate change and habitat loss, Biffaward aims to expand the proportion of funding available to projects designed to benefit UK species and habitats.  

Martin Bettington, Chairman of Biffaward, said “The UK’s ecosystems are facing ever greater challenges and we want to encourage more funding applications which are going to help our wildlife. Biffaward’s support for projects such as The Great Fen and the Lower Lee Otter Project show that funding can play a vital role in restoring habitats and protecting species. However we feel that we are not receiving as many applications from environmental groups as we would like. So over the coming months we will be aiming to increase awareness of the funds available for biodiversity projects and I hope that many more groups will be encouraged to apply to us in the future.” 

Biffaward can help all kinds of biodiversity projects, great and small – with funding available from £5,000 to £500,000. Rebuilding Biodiversity projects which have recently received funding include: 

• £32,628 for heathland restoration on Sandy Ridge, Bedfordshire: This project is providing practical habitat restoration needed to return 43 ha of newly acquired land, adjacent to the RSPB's headquarters, to a mixture of woodland and prime heathland, helping to meet priority Biodiversity Action Plan targets for these habitats and the species that depend on them.  

• £389,930 for The Great Fen Project - restoring a ‘Living Landscape’ (pictured above). In order to help wildlife adapt to the effects of climate change, The Wildlife Trusts have embarked upon a strategy for large-scale habitat restoration. In the front line of this campaign is The Great Fen Project which aims to restore over 3,000 hectares of all but vanished wildlife habitat. Biffaward has provided funding to improve the conditions within the Holme Fen National Nature Reserve, create up to 26.5 acres of wet grassland, and restore up to 3km of ditches for conservation benefit. It has also paid for the development of a unique vehicle, the ‘fen harvester’, which enables a much more environmentally friendly system of managing fen vegetation.

• £41,918 for the Lower Lee Otter Project heralds the return of one of Britain’s favourite species to the capital. This project is helping the European otter re-colonise the Lower Lee Valley, close to London. Local people are being supported in implementing essential habitat improvement initiatives that provide otters with feeding sites, refuge areas and safe access routes through the busy valley.

• £295,668 for the Calke Abbey National Nature Reserve Biodiversity Development Project, Derbyshire. In September 2004, 79 ha of Calke Abbey’s wood pasture of ancient oaks was designated as a National Nature Reserve (NNR); Biffaward funding is bringing about many community benefits as well as habitat improvements for species such as the Spotted Woodpecker, Kingfisher, the threatened native White-clawed Crayfish, rare insects and fungi.

Gillian French, Assistant Fund Manager for Biffaward at The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts says “Biffaward is well-known for funding environmental and community projects throughout the UK but less familiar is the scope of work that can be undertaken to help our native species. Already there are projects underway helping protect priority species such as water voles, brown hares and otters. Biffaward can help to rebuild biodiversity by funding species recovery projects as well as habitat management, preservation and restoration.” 

Biffa provides a range of public sector, commercial and industrial waste collection services as well as the management of 33 operational landfill sites across the UK. The multi-million pound a year Biffaward fund has been set up, using tax charged on waste taken into landfill sites, to help finance environmental projects near Biffa sites.