Where do wild birds thrive? In Peckham
Urban wildlife ‘better than national parks’
A TYPICAL London borough has more wildlife than parts of Britain’s “mismanaged” national parks, a top TV nature producer claims.
Wildlife struggles to flourish in the Peak District, Snowdonia and Exmoor as they are so heavily “exploited and degraded,” according to naturalist Benedict Macdonald.
Yet areas of habitat in London boroughs such as Peckham burst with life as they are largely left alone.
Benedict has worked on some of the UK’s favourite wildlife shows, including Springwatch.
He said: “Walking through a national park, you should expect a deafening diversity of natural life to greet you. Instead, there is little more than silence. With few exceptions, such as the largely unspoilt New Forest, only small oases of wildlife exist within our national parks.”
An area comprising three of the capital’s most urbanised boroughs was found to be home to more native birds, mammals, insects and plants. Parks, docklands and even industrial estates were found to have sustainable breeding populations of threatened species on the RSPB’s red list.
The peregrine falcon, a species completely absent from many wild grouse moors, is thriving in cities. Central London is also home to wildflowers, including orchids, and a range of rare species from bitterns to water voles and hedgehogs. Benedict says many of Britain’s 15 national parks are now used largely for non-native timber production, sheep and cattle rearing, and raising grouse and deer for hunting.
He called the parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty “green deserts exploited as natural factories at the cost of native wildlife”.
His view was supported by Mike Pratt, CEO of the Northumberland Wildlife Trust, who warned that our “national parks are not quite as focused on wildlife as you might expect”.
PEREGRINE FALCON
WATER VOLE
THE upside of naturalist Benedict Macdonald claiming more wildlife is found in London than in some of our national parks is that city dwellers need only step out of their front doors to find animals.
The downside is greedy property developers might pretend that building on green spaces will save rather than destroy wildlife.