MONARCH Report Published

 Exciting news from SITA Trust

We are delighted to announce that we will be offering a new three-year Enriching Nature Programme that will run from 2010 - 2012.

The Trust has committed £8m in new funds to this programme. There will be three funding rounds per year in each of the years 2010, 2011 and 2012. Applicants may request up to £120,000 for an individual project.

We welcome applications to this funding programme from not-for-profit organisations with projects that focus on conserving a species or habitat identified as a priority in the UK BAP process. As a previous applicant to SITA Trust’s Enriching Nature programme, we wanted to let you know of the new funds available.

Previous successful applicants to SITA Trust’s funding programmes can apply for new project sites. To apply for a site which has previously been funded an applicant must wait three years from the date that any funding agreement was signed. If this affects you and you wish to know the date of any previous funding agreement, please call our team on 01454 262910.

Applications to the new fund must be made online using our new online application system. Once you’ve registered on this system you can revisit your form as often as you wish before submitting it to the Trust for consideration. We will not see the form until you submit it to us.

For more info on the programme including deadline dates and an application guide visit www.sitatrust.org.uk/nature-funding

MONARCH report published 

A report concluding the results of a 7 year research programme into the biodiversity responses to climate change has been published in June 2007.

The MONARCH (Modelling Natural Resource Responses to Climate Change) programme assessed the impacts of projected climate change on wildlife in Britain and Ireland.

The study examined the impact upon 32 UK BAP species, selected for having good quality European distribution data used to train the model and deliver a good simulated fit with the actual distribution. The model projected suitable climate space for each species changing by 2020s, 2050s and 2080s under high and low greenhouse gas emissions scenarios.

The current distribution data for such species as black grouse, cornflower and heath fritillary were used to train the SPECIES (Spatial Estimator of the Climate Impacts on the Envelopes of Species) computer simulation model, with soil water availability, growing degree-day and temperature indices used to define current suitable climate space for each species. This was compared with the recorded European distribution to enable a statistical assessment of the model simulation capacity.

From the study, most species will experience some change in the location and/or extent of their potentially suitable climate space. Of the 32 species used in the study, significant shifts in suitable climate space were projected for 29 of them. Six were shown to loose all or the vast majority of their existing climate space by the 2080s under a High climate change scenario. These includes species such as skylark, capercaillie and song thrush.

This research highlights the need for conservation and adaptation planning in the face of climate change for these and indeed all species.

The report has been published by the MONARCH partnership through the UK Climate Impacts Programme and can be downloaded from their website.