The University of Sussex has today (Friday 4 August 2023) announced the outcome of a consultation on dedicating more of its campus to nature. In response to an extensive consultation involving students, staff, and the wider community, the University has decided it will increase the land set aside for nature to 42% by 2027.
In March 2022, the University began the Big Biodiversity Conversation with students, staff and academics, to discuss ways to improve nature on campus. The second stage of the conversation centred around a consultation, which launched in December 2022, and asked the Sussex community how much land should be set aside for nature.
Based on the consultation, the University will now increase the percentage of campus biodiversity from the 2022 baseline of 38% to 42% by December 2027. This figure sees the University far outstrip the UK government’s 2020 commitment to manage 30% of UK land for nature by 2030. The University may go further in future.
The commitment to reach this figure has now been outlined in the University’s updated Biodiversity Strategy and Biodiversity Policy, which sets a vision to become the UK’s most biodiverse campus.
Working with academics at the University, all campus land is being designated into four categories. These four categories are:
- Amenity management: this land will be managed and mowed typically eight times a year, as these areas are either heritage sites or used by the community for practical or leisure activities. (Amenity areas do not count towards the 42% of land handed over to nature.)
- Reduced mowing areas: areas which will be mowed a maximum of three times per year, compared to a typical eight times for amenity areas.
- Low management areas (flower-rich downland and hay meadow): these areas are mown only once a year in late summer to promote biodiversity.
- Passive rewilding: non-intervention zones, where nature is allowed to develop freely across campus.
The University will reach its 42% goal by setting targets each year within an annual grounds management plan for achieving both biodiversity net gain and an increase in the percentage of land set aside for nature.
The University will also actively identify, monitor and protect any species with habitats on the Sussex campus categorised as vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered from next summer.
Professor Sasha Roseneil, Vice-Chancellor at the University of Sussex says:
“Since the 1970’s the UK has seen a decline in land and freshwater species, and the University of Sussex’s own research team found that one in four mammal species is threatened with extinction. But biodiversity can recover if we give it help.
“Following an extensive consultation with staff and students, we are now working towards ensuring that 42% of land will be set aside for nature on our campus by 2027. Our commitment to biodiversity is woven through the fabric of research, education and extra-curricular student experience at Sussex. In the years to come, I am optimistic that we may even see half of the campus land devoted to biodiversity.”
University academics have been fundamental in initiating and leading projects across campus to help increase biodiversity as well as student and staff engagement.
Dr Chris Sandom, a Senior Lecturer in Biology at the University of Sussex, who has been an important lead on the Big Biodiversity Conversation, also leads the Love Your Scrub initiative. Love Your Scrub is a rewilding project set to expand scrub habitat on campus and increase biodiversity, with scrub land acting as a nursery for sapling trees and providing a haven for nesting birds, small mammals, beetles, moths and other invertebrates.
Professor Dave Goulson, Dr Beth Nicholls and Dr Ellen Rotheray, who are among the University’s resident bee and insect experts, have helped to increase the number of pollinator habitats on campus, building bee hotels and hoverfly lagoons, which are also being monitored for research and teaching.
Sussex Forest Food Garden enlists the help of volunteers across various disciplines at the University to create a forest food garden, which emulates natural woodland ecosystems. Volunteers regularly meet to manage the garden and recently begun the next round of planting herbaceous perennials and a ring of nitrogen fixing Elaeagnus plants.
The University is currently ranked third in the UK for sustainable institutions, according to the inaugural QS World University Sustainability Rankings 2023, and 49th globally for overall sustainability performance in the latest Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2023.
Sam Waugh, Sustainability Manager at the University of Sussex says:
“Our commitments outlined in the Biodiversity Policy are designed to help us achieve a biodiversity net gain through specific actions such as monitoring and protecting endangered species and local water quality. With a campus nestled between the South Downs, we have an abundance of green space around us. We also have an impressive list of biodiversity experts, which makes the University of Sussex ideally placed to become the most biodiverse campus in the UK.”