In its simplest form biodiversity is about the variety of life on earth, the more biodiversity we have the more secure life on earth is, the more stable our access to water, food, and medicines, the more opportunity we have to offset carbon and reduce climate change.
It seems obvious that to preserve our own lives we need to protect and enhance biodiversity, but in fact, over the last 50 years, we’ve destroyed over 68% of the world’s animal populations.
Now we need to take positive action to rebound from this pending disaster, avoid future losses and start to regenerate and recover from this biodiversity crisis.
That’s why we want Elements Edinburgh to make a positive difference, it’ll complement its natural surroundings, be in harmony with nature and promote wellbeing through the appreciation of the Gogar Burn and the biodiversity of the surrounding area.
Not only are we committed to preserving the existing diversity on site, but we also aim to enhance this by having an overall positive impact on the biodiversity of the area.
We’ll implement several biodiversity enhancements focussing on habitats along Gogar Burn. Landscape planting will provide improved opportunities for invertebrates, the provision of bat boxes will encourage roosting bats in the trees, and we’ll work with environmental bodies to identify the potential to improve fish life in the burn itself.
This will give our residents and occupiers unrivalled access to experience the natural environment that surrounds them, and support them in understanding the role they can play to sustain and grow biodiversity further for future generations.
In addition to the Gogar Burn we’ll also incorporate a rain garden corridor and residential ‘green fingers’ between homes meaning the total green space will be equivalent to more than 50% of the site’s overall area meaning the blue-green connectivity will support not only Elements Edinburgh but the whole of west Edinburgh.
