Ecology - Print version

Ecology and biodiversity

Ecology is the study of how organisms interact with their environment. An organism is an individual animal, plant, or other individual living thing, including humans!

Biodiversity is the variety of all life on Earth. It includes all animals and plants as well as other organisms and the habitats that support them.​

Coventry City Council helps manage, protect and improve the City's ecology and biodiversity through the planning process. We also work with external partners to help analyse and assess the City's natural environment.​

Our Ecology team works on a number of projects to actively enhance our City's biodiversity, in collaboration with other Council Teams as well as external partners such as Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, our two Universities, and other neighbouring local authoriti​es.

Coventry features many important species and sites and urban wildlife is everywhere in the city. For more information about species in Coventry, see what residents have recorded on the iNaturalist website , and add your own observations!

Planning advice

Under UK planning legislation, there are three main areas of ecological protection: protected species and sites, biodiversity net gain and trees. Advice on ecology in the planning system can be sought through the Council's pre-application service [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/planning-2/pre-application-planning-advice]. Further information on trees and their protection can be found on the Council's Trees and Woodlands webpage [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/heritage-ecology-trees].

Protected species

Many of our native plant and animal species have legal protection under UK and/or European law. For example, all bat species, great crested newts, and otters are protected under both UK and European law and badgers are protected under their own Badger Act.

Areas of significant ecological value in Coventry are also protected either through national law or local policy. This includes Sites of Special Scientific Interest such as Tile Hill Wood. More information about where our protected sites are can be found on the Spectrum Spatial™ map [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/planning-2/online-planning-map].

Planners are legally required to consider protected species and sites when relevant to planning applications. This is undertaken in accordance with the above national legislation and the City Council's adopted Local Plan.

Biodiversity Net Gain

Biodiversity Net Gain was made nationally mandatory under the Environment Act 2021, and it requires developments to enhance the biodiversity of their sites by 10% more than it had pre-development.

Further information on this can be found in Coventry City Council’s Biodiversity Net Gain Supplementary Planning Document [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/downloads/download/7393/biodiversity-net-gain-spd].

Coventry City Council has been applying a biodiversity offsetting scheme prior to the Environment Act of 2021 and is in the process of adopting the national scheme.

Biodiversity projects

The City Council's Ecology team leads and contributes to a variety of projects across the city and region. These projects cover a range of overlapping aims, including nature enhancement, biodiversity monitoring, community engagement and citizen science.

We work with partners within the Council, such as parks, urban forestry, Public Health and climate change, as well as external partners, such as the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, Canal and Rivers Trust, and both Warwick and Coventry University.

We play a strategic role, offering advice or assisting with funding applications in everything from local community projects to regional programmes and research collaborations.

Examples of our ongoing projects

Tree Planting and the creation of Tiny Forests

Coventry City Council has been awarded £294,915 from the Forestry Commission’s Local Authority Treescapes Fund to plant 151 semi-mature trees and 7068 whips across 10 Wards in Coventry. 3600 of these whips will be planted as Tiny Forests. This project is in partnership with Citizen Housing, and Earthwatch Europe who will be planting the Tiny Forests. This tree planting will include the 3 wards with the lowest tree canopy cover in Coventry: Radford, Upper Stoke and Holbrooks. These trees will capture carbon from the atmosphere, absorb pollution, help with urban cooling by providing shade, provide much-needed homes for urban wildlife and create visually diverse green spaces for local communities to enjoy.

Tiny Forest are dense, fast-growing native woodlands, about the size of a tennis court, which will be delivered by Earthwatch Europe, who have pioneered the planting technique, building on the Japanese Miyawaki method. Each of these forests will be designed by, cared for and enjoyed by the local community. Under the careful management of ‘Tree Keeper’ volunteers, communities can water, weed and care for their local forests. More information can be found on Earthwatch Europe's webpage [https://tinyforest.earthwatch.org.uk/].

To give your input into the project and help design the Tiny Forests in your area, please check out the survey on the Let's Talk Coventry webpage [https://letstalk.coventry.gov.uk/tiny-forests].

The distribution of the tree planting across the City can be seen on the map below:

City Nature Challenge

This is a global Citizen Science event that takes place the final weekend in April every year and involves getting people out in their local environments to record biodiversity. More information can be found on the official City Nature Challenge webpage [https://www.citynaturechallenge.org/].

The Species Recovery Programme

In collaboration with Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, the Canal and Rivers Trust, and the University of Warwick, we will be enhancing habitats designed to support bittern, water vole, willow tit and white-clawed crayfish and help their local populations flourish. More details can be found on Warwickshire Wildlife Trust's webpage [https://www.warwickshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/news/threatened-warwickshire-species-be-saved-extinction].

Monitoring biodiversity with eDNA

In collaboration with the University of Warwick's School of Life Sciences, we have been awarded funding from the University's Biosciences Impact Fund to experiment with innovative eDNA techniques to monitor biodiversity in Foleshill and Binley and Willenhall. This involves collecting water and soil samples with volunteers, which colleagues at the University of Warwick then use to identify species in the area.

Creating and supporting natural spaces

Inline with Biodiversity Net Gain legislation, we are creating biodiversity offsetting sites. This involves large-scale, long-term habitat creation and restoration. Examples of these spaces include Elm Fields Farm and Coundon Wedge.

Partnering with the Council's Parks Team

This includes designing and implementing biodiversity enhancements in our green spaces, such as Edgwick Park and Radford Recreation Ground.