Red Data Book Species & Conservation. Free Lecture Series, Birkbeck Spring 2016

Ecology and Conservation Studies Society, Birkbeck Free Lecture Series: Spring 2016
Red Data Book Species and conservation

 

Six Friday evenings. Feb 5th to 11th March. 18:30 to 20:00. Lecture Theatre B35, Birkbeck, University of London, Torrington Square.

[Gehan's Comments: I have copied here the programme for the Spring 2016 Free Friday evening lecture series. I have attended many of the talks in the free lecture series at Birkbeck on Ecology and Conservation held in Spring and Autumn. I think they are brilliant. A chance to listen to some of the world’s leading experts who are based in the UK explaining their work to a public audience. Some of the lectures I have attended in the past have been be a little techy but most of them would be intelligible to an informed audience].

Species conservation is embedded in national and international regulations, but does this achieve good representation of biodiversity? For example, invertebrates are not well catered for, let alone many fungi. Can we conserve the Great Crested Newt by translocation without providing for maintenance of both the ponds and terrestrial habitat that it needs? Or does the protection of species such as the Violet Click-beetle act as a flagship to conserve the whole suite of veteran tree biota? Are Red Data Book species the best indicators or flagships of biodiversity value, or should we rather examine concepts like “ecological engineers”. What of widespread species that may be declining un-noticed? This series examines the questions around the protection of threatened species.

Feb 19th "Red-listing the English flora - a better approach to conservation prioritisation?"

Fred Rumsey, Natural History Museum.


Feb 26th "Has being a European Protected Species helped the great crested newt?”
Brian Banks, MIEEM, Director, Flag Ecology.

March 4th “The return of the native; the reintroduction of the short-haired bumblebee”.

Nikki Gammans, Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

March 11th “Action for Species – the RSPB’s Species Recovery Programme”.

Hannah Ward, RSPB.


COMPLETED LECTURES

Feb 5th “To protect or not to protect? Extinction risk, Red Lists and the agony of choice”.

Monika Böhm, Indicators & Assessments Unit, Institute of Zoology.

Feb 12th “Stinking Hawk’s-beard, species recovery – the inside story”

Brian Ferry, Royal Holloway University of London.


A reading list will be available later. To receive this, please email ecssoc@gmail.com or consult the website, or pick up a copy at one of the lectures.

 Bee Orchid photographed on a walk with Graham Loasby in Soham. This image is not related to the talks above, but illustrates how many local communities volunteers to manage reserves such as Soham for their plants.