Bird Wise East Kent have teamed up with the Plover Rovers to bring you the 2022 Mitigation Meet Up. We have an exciting, packed programme set out for you to get the most information possible from the day, helping you to develop a more effective community engagement presence. There will be a balanced mix of social science and practical based speakers, bringing forward their research and experiences from working within the field.

You will be provided with a hot lunch and beverages throughout the day. You will also receive a printed programme listing the events and speakers.

Why not join us at the Canterbury Cathedral Lodge on November the 11th and network with other projects and professionals.

Programme for the day:

09:00 – Registration

09:45 – Cordelia Spalding (Natural England): An introduction to community engagement

10:10 – Stephen Jenkinson: Management of visitors with dogs: past, present and future

Stephen will explore his first-hand experiences of mitigation management across the globe, which in turn gives us cause to celebrate the world-class approaches being developed and delivered in the UK. But what of the future? How can you make your projects sustainable in the face of ever-changing government policies and Brexit?

10:35 – Mitigation Market Place & Coffee

A chance to network and find out what different projects are doing around the country

11:00 – Paul Hadaway (Kent Wildlife Trust): KWT have been on a journey

Conservation practice is having to change in order to meet the ever increasing demands of development, land scarcity, people pressure and the climate and nature crises. This has meant new ways of working, including restoring natural processes and moving to more naturalistic grazing and management of our own reserves; allowing nature space to recover – paving the way for returning our missing species.

11:30 – John Buckingham (Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory Trust): ecology & threats to migratory birds

11:55 – Lunch (a hot lunch is provided to all delegates)

12:40 – Panel: Tony Child (Thanet Coast Project), (Dorset Dogs), Anna Parry (Bird Aware Solent), Stephen Jenkinson, and Scott Xavi Gudrich (Plover Rovers)

13:10 – Megan Swann (Magic Circle): engaging young people in conservation through magic

Megan Swann uses her magic routines to share environmental messages, in a clever, engaging and inspiring way. Initially developed to perform in schools, she has since performed her environmental routines for audiences of all ages, including on national TV, at the Royal Festival Hall and to royalty. She joins us to explain why she developed her unique style of magic and why she thinks it is a powerful way to spread the word about key issues including climate change and biodiversity loss. Megan will tell us about the benefits of using an unusual communications tool to reach new audiences and present some of her amazing routines.

13:35 – Richard Griffiths (University of Kent – Durrell Institute for Conservation & Ecology): Mitigation for reptile species

14:00 – Mitigation Marketplace & Coffee

Another chance for networking

14:30 – Richard Taylor Jones (BBC): Watching wildlife as a cameraman

14:55 – Gail Austen (University of Kent – Durrell Institute for Conservation & Ecology): Citizen Science – experts and expertise in species identification

There are ongoing discussions around declines in field biology skills, including the ability to accurately identify species. Species identification occurs professionally and recreationally, but some have questioned the accuracy of data collected in a ‘non-scientific’ manner. However, to answer questions about the natural world, the reliance on citizen science and volunteer collected data is increasing. In my PhD, I used methods from face recognition studies in psychology to investigate accuracy in visual species identification. Here I reflect on those findings, discuss what makes an ‘expert’, and consider if we can improve these skills as a legacy for future generations.

15:20 – Breakout Session – book yours here

and choose between:

Chris Panter & Phil Saunders (Footprint Ecology) – Effective monitoring of strategic mitigation

This will be an open discussion covering the design and application of various monitoring approaches. We will be sharing tips and examples from our work around the country, including visitor and telephone surveys, vehicle counts, automated counters, and ecological surveys/data. Key themes will relate to monitoring frequency, the effective combination of different datasets, and choosing the best approach when addressing particular questions.

or

Stephanie Street – Feeling confident when speaking to the public

or

Stephen Jenkinson – Quick wins with dogs and their owners

or 

Anna Bell (Anna Outdoors) – Outdoor activities to do with families

16:20 – Chris Honey (Hadlow College): Reaching out to diverse communities

16:45 – Bob Smith (University of Kent – Durrell Institute for Conservation & Ecology): Using marketing to engage people in nature

The agenda may be updated or changed at any time