Principle funders: Devon Wildlife Trust and Devon County Council
The Biodiversity Monitoring Framework (BMF) is one of the largest habitat monitoring projects in the UK. It is a complex project with an overall aim of finding out how the wildlife of Devon is faring. The main part of the project involves surveying a number of existing County Wildlife Sites (CWS) following a specific methodology each year. The information gathered helps to monitor the quality of individual CWS over time but to also determine patterns of change in habitats across the county as a whole.
This project has been running since 2009 and during the first five years, approximately 500 CWS were surveyed as a part of the BMF project. Many of these sites had not been surveyed since the early 1990s. DBRC carry out the majority of the surveys but a number have been carried out by partner organisations such as Devon Wildlife Trust’s Working Wetlands team and Dartmoor National Park Authority.
Following the survey, landowners are given a report for their CWS providing detailed information on the habitats present and recommended management advice tailored specifically to their site. We can also forward landowners to sources of further advice and/or funding.
All of the information gathered is fed into annual reports, compiled by Devon County Council, which review trends in Devon’s natural environment.
For more information about the BMF project please contact us at countywildlifesites@dbrc.org.uk