Wildlife & Biodiversity

According to Defra, biodiversity is the variety of all life on Earth. It includes all species of animals and plants – everything that is alive on our planet. Biodiversity is the building block of our ‘ecosystems’ that in turn provide us with a wide range of goods and services that support our economic and social wellbeing.

East Farndon Parish Council is committed to work towards conserving and enhancing the biodiversity of our rural parish. We have a biodiversity policy which sets out how we will consider sustainability, environmental impact and biodiversity when making decisions – please click this link to read our full policy. We also have a biodiversity action plan to work towards conserving and enhancing the biodiversity of the parish – please click this link to read our action plan.

This page is dedicated to communicating our wildlife and biodiversity actions, and to provide useful information on how villagers can make a difference.

Actions & Stories

In June 2024, the Wildlife Trust met with members of the Burial Ground Committee, to get advice on how the biodiversity could be improved in the Churchyard, Burial Ground and Burial Ground Extension. A copy of the report can be found here: Wildlife Report. For those interested in plants, the Wildlife Trust said they had never seen so much hoary plantain, which tends to grow in places like Churchyards which have never been cultivated. The Wildlife Trust also carried out an audit of the wildlife found in these areas, copies of which can be found here: Churchyard, Burial Ground, Burial Ground Extension. An audit of just plants in the Churchyard had previously been undertaken in around 1990 by the Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland, a copy of which can be found here: 1990 Document. The Parish Council has updated its biodiversity action plan to incorporate the Wildlife Trust’s advice.

In early 2024, the Burial Ground Committee decided that as the Burial Ground Extension will not be required in the near future, they would try and establish a wild flower meadow to improve biodiversity. As a start, yellow rattle has been planted, which will hopefully keep the grass down and the area to the right (as you go in through the gate) is being left to develop into tussocky grassland which will be suitable as small mammal habitat.

Biodiversity Ideas for Everyone

Here are links to some ideas that anyone could incorporate into their gardens, which would help improve biodiversity in the village:

1. Making and installing nestboxes for garden birds
2. Building a bug hotel
3. Creating a butterfly bank
4. Every garden matters – a roadmap for boosting biodiversity
5. RHS Plants for pollinators