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First there was the Fairbrother Group, a small group of like-minded people intent on raising the flag for nature conservation in towns and cities. Then there was the Urban Wildlife Partnership, an organisation with staff and a busy programme of support for communities throughout the UK. Now there is the Urban Wildlife Network, a small group of like-minded people intent on raising the flag for nature conservation in towns and cities…..
The Fairbrother Group, which was formed in 1987, was named for Nan Fairbrother. Her seminal book ‘New Lives New Landscapes’ inspired a generation of conservationists, landscape professionals and what we now call urbanists. Nan’s main messages concerned the need to reflect the profound changes in the way most people live by making places and spaces for nature in towns and cities. This focus on the social benefits of urban wildlife coincided with increasing recognition within the nature conservation movement itself, that its work on conserving wildlife is as relevant in towns and suburbs as in the more traditional rural and remote areas.
The Urban Wildlife Partnership thrived under the patronage of the Wildlife Trusts. It campaigned, gave advice and support, published guidance and information, organised meetings and conferences, and helped hundreds of local urban wildlife groups in developing both the theory and practice of nature conservation in urban areas. As well as those groups its membership included larger organisations such as Wildlife Trusts, Groundwork Trusts, Landlife and the National Wildflower Centre, community forests and local authorities. Successes included developing guidelines for creative conservation, securing changes to derelict land policies and helping people to realise their ambitions and aspirations for their local wildlife and treasured green spaces.
In some respects everything is better for wildlife in towns and cities than it was 18 years ago. In others it is much worse. There are certainly more people and groups active in the field (or should that be suburb?) There are more organisations, partnerships, programmes, plans and policies favouring wildlife, and people have more fun looking after that wildlife. Even so species remain threatened, sites and habitats are trashed and the regeneration steamroller is but rarely diverted to help.
People and organisations move on, evolve indeed, and the needs of those being supported change, as do the means of delivering that support. The Network is still in transition from what it was to what it will become. This Conference both continues the tradition of organising such events and is part of the transition process. We need your ideas and input to our thinking about an effective structure, membership arrangements, and how best to network amongst the doers and thinkers engaged in nature conservation in towns and cities. How can we effectively involve and inform those whose primary pursuits may be regeneration, community development, environmental protection or building sustainable communities, but whose activities are of critical importance to the natural environment and most people’s daily experience of that environment? We have prepared the ground with organisational changes. We have reviewed current work by others, such as CABE Space and Greenspace. Our view is that the Network remains the only organisation solely dedicated to promoting nature conservation in towns and cities. It is also completely independent. As well as Nan Fairbrother’s ideas we have those of others prominent in this field, such as our President, Chris Baines, and David Nicholson-Lord who has recently published a ‘Manifesto for Green Cities’. We believe that we should now focus on advocacy, encouragement and strategic activities such as organising events like this. In particular we see a need to:
