Biodiversity

Biodiversity refers to the variety of species that make up our natural world. All these different living organisms – animals, plants, fungi and bacteria – live together in ecosystems, which are communities of living things and their environment interacting together. All parts of these ecosystems are interconnected, depending on each other, and the earth is made up of a series of connected ecosystems. Our ecosystems survive in a delicate balance and small changes can impact biodiversity.

Changes caused by humans to the environment, including climate change, land-use changes, and the introduction of polluting substances and non-native species, have all had an effect on ecosystems globally. This has resulted in wide-scale loss of biodiversity. As humans we rely on biodiversity and therefore, we need to prevent and reverse biodiversity loss, and support the recovery of our ecosystems to enable our plants and animals to survive.

What we’re doing

Biodiversity Delivery Plan

We have developed our first ever Biodiversity Delivery Plan (PDF, 11MB) which lays out our approach to increasing species biodiversity across our estate. In preparation for enacting the Delivery Plan we undertook a comprehensive baselining exercise of all the habitats present on our university estate. With this understanding of our estate’s current biodiversity value, we have been able to develop our plan to make meaningful improvements that we can monitor.

The Biodiversity Delivery plan includes targeted actions to 2030 that will:

• improve habitat quality
• increase greenspace provision
• improve the university’s climate resilience

Through this we will also contribute to nature recovery in the Liverpool City Region and improve the physical and mental wellbeing of our community by increasing access to nature.

Download our Biodiversity Delivery Plan Summary (PDF, 2.15MB)

Biodiversity Roadmap

We commissioned a Biodiversity Roadmap to look at short-, medium- and long-term measures that we could implement on campus which would:

• improve biodiversity
• provide sustainable urban drainage features
• improve the social value of our external spaces for wellbeing

This document helps us to plan and inspire future actions on campus and visualise how this might look. The multifunctional nature of the actions also means that each of the themes from our Biodiversity Delivery Plan – biodiversity, climate resilience, and green space provision – will be targeted. Our aim is to complete five small actions and one large project from this document each year.

Byrom Street Green Walls

We have installed green walls outside our Byrom Street city campus. Green walls have multifunctional benefits including:

These are our first green walls on campus, so we are monitoring them closely to see if we can expand them further in the future.

Outdoor Learning Zones and Research Gardens

We have an outdoor learning zone at John Lennon Art and Design Building, where local primary schools from across the region are able to come to give young children an opportunity to learn about nature, engage with the environment, and undertake a range of outdoor activities. Our education courses also use this space to teach modules, so our students can develop the skills to deliver safe and exciting outdoor learning activities such as den building, creative play, safe fire lighting, and foraging.

We also have teaching and research-based wildlife gardens at Byrom Street which provide students with on-campus habitat types to learn surveying skills. They include features such as hedgehog houses, insect hotels, enhancements for birds, and bird hides (observation structures), so that students can monitor species interactions with the habitats.

Green Roofs

We have green roofs on John Lennon Art and Design Building and the Cherie Booth Building at Byrom Street. These roofs are not accessible but provide important multifunctional benefits including supporting biodiversity, providing building insultation, helping to slow rainwater runoff, and reducing the urban heat island effect.

Growing Spaces

We have two growing spaces on campus: the herb garden at Byrom Street which is used by our Nutrition students; and the vegetable patches and raised flower beds at the Tithebarn Building which are used for recreation.

Alongside the Staff Wellbeing Team, we run volunteer taster sessions through the year to give those who are interested an introduction to gardening and growing on campus. Individuals are welcome to come and use these beds when they have free time during the day to take a break and get outside.

We’re also building our third growing patch next to LJMU Sport which will be open in July! This will be a staff, student and community growing space.

Hedgehog Houses

We have installed hedgehog houses in several areas across campus and on our wider estate. We will be monitoring the uptake of these and looking to see how we can make our campus even more hedgehog friendly! If you’re interested in working towards taking on the Hedgehog Friendly Campus award programme next year, email the team at sustainability@ljmu.ac.uk.