Urban Greening Ideas
Roof Space
Where space is limited, green roofs play an important role in providing green space both for wildlife and people. There are many different types and designs of green roof. Larger-sized extensive green roof spaces provide ecological value as well as amenity space to socialise and relax. However, smaller roofs with no access can still provide ecological benefit but providing undisturbed spaces for wildlife.
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Green & Brown Roofs
An intensive green or brown roof will provide ecological benefits such as supporting a wide range of insects and birds, even if it is not accessible it can also provide visual amenity for users of the street or building. Addition of features such as logs and stones provide additional benefits to biodiversity.
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Green Roofs
Green roofs can be designed as recreational spaces to be enjoyed by people, as visual, sustainable or ecological features to support wildlife or a combination of both. An accessible roof with planters or water features can help reduce the heat island effect and insulate the building as well as proving opportunities for relaxation and increasing biodiversity.
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Rooftop Beehives
There has been a lot of interest by people wanting to promote (more) beekeeping in London. Beekeeping is a wonderful hobby, which we are keen to promote. But keeping honey bees in Inner London will not help wildlife or boost biodiversity. There are already lots of managed honey bees in London, and numbers have been increasing. The distribution is very uneven, but there are hotspots where there are simply too many honey bees for the carrying capacity of the land. This leads to competition for floral resources (nectar, pollen) – and honey bees can out-compete wild bees and other pollinators. For more detailed information please see a report from the London Beekeepers Association.
Creating good quality habitat for pollinators and other insects will contribute to wildlife corridors for all insects and birds. Butterfly Conservation, has some information about creating such ‘wild spaces’ on their website, here.