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Green corridors lead nowhere

December 10, 2001

Green corridors, which have become a common feature of urban planning and conservation over the past decade, may make very little difference to the diversity of plants found in our towns and cities, ecologists have found. Speaking at the British Ecological Society’s Winter Meeting, to be held at the University of Warwick on 18–20 December 2001, Dr Mark Hill of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Monk’s Wood, will say that in ecological terms, evidence that plants need green corridors to spread around cities is little more than an urban myth.

Dr Hill, together with ecologists from the University of Birmingham, studied flowers, grasses and ferns growing on 50 derelict sites in Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Dudley, and related their occurrence to city wildlife corridors. “We found no evidence that plant diversity was greater on or near the green corridors, and no evidence that corridors are necessary for dispersal,” Dr Hill says.

“Green corridors” form the connections between green spaces that together form green networks. These networks are natural or permanently vegetated, physically connected spaces in otherwise urban, industrial or agricultural landscapes. They have been used since the early 1990s and are now ubiquitous features of urban planning. But according to Dr Hill: “Planners aiming to enhance botanical richness should not expect plants to move along green corridors. Plants do not respect connectivity. If corridors are used in city plans, then they should be treated either as habitat for plants or routes for people. They are not routes for plants.”

Although Dr Hill questions the ecological evidence that green corridors enhance plant biodiversity in our cities, he does not dispute their value to people. “In terms of urban planning, that people can flow though green spaces in cities is hugely important,” he says. However, Dr Hill says that planners could have a more positive impact on urban biodiversity by slowing the pace of redevelopment. “Disturbed sites are good for plants. If derelict sites are allowed to exist for a little longer, then they can develop into the flower-rich urban commons that have been celebrated by the urban ecologist Oliver Gilbert,” Dr Hill says.

In sister projects under the same NERC research programme, Drs Andrew Pullin, Steve Rushton and colleagues from Birmingham and Newcastle have collected data on butterflies, voles, muntjac deer, and beetles to add to the plant results. “Preliminary results indicate that, except for water voles, green corridors are no more necessary for promoting diversity of animals than they are for plants,” Dr Hill says.

Dr Hill will present his full findings at 14.20 on Thursday 20 December 2001.

British Ecological Society (BES)

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