Urban Habitats in NPT

There are significant challenges for nature in the urban landscape and species are threatened by, amongst other things, loss of nesting sites, lack of connectivity and inappropriate habitat management (e.g. mowing through flowering season). Although most urban areas in NPT contain wildlife habitat, in many areas this is not by design and there is a need for more areas to be specifically managed and maintained for nature in urban areas. Many species in urban habitats have decreased significantly in NPT in recent decades e.g. swifts and hedgehogs.
Urban habitats support 13 priority species and, accordingly, their diversity has been assessed as fair. Connectivity between urban landscapes is good, but it is difficult to frame this specifically in terms of good habitat connectivity. For example, the level of connectivity between gardens for species such as Hedgehog and Slow Worm is unknown. Most of the urban habitats in NPT are not managed with biodiversity in mind and there are regular losses of habitat as a result of human activity e.g. loss of nest sites for swifts as repairs take place on buildings, therefore their condition is poor. Taking all of this into account, the state of nature and resilience of Urban Habitats in NPT has been assessed as fair.
www.naturenpt.cymru/urban