Brown roofs for invertebrates
Where proposed development will remove significant areas of brownfield habitat, it is the author's
view is that brown roofs should be used in addition to other mitigation or as a last resort, where
there are no other viable alternatives to conserve the habitat and its connectivity. It is recommended
that planners ensure that long-term study is included when brown roofs are proposed in mitigation
for the loss of high quality invertebrate habitat. The use of brown roofs for invertebrates should be
planned to provide wildlife conidors or networks of habitat mosaic. It may well be that their use
can also provide valuable habitat within a sterile modern agricultural Essex countryside.
Acknowledgements
I am very grateful to Dr Chris Gibson for valuable feedback on the draft paper and Gary Grant at
EcoSchemes Ltd for permission to use figure 1.
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