大象传媒

Dusty Gedge is an ornithologist from east London who is passionate about getting nature up on the top of buildings. People walking around London often only see the sights, they rarely look up and think about what is on top of all the buildlings of the city, but the roofs can also do something valuable for wildlife. By getting on top of the roof, you can get away from the stresses of the city below, away from the people rushing to get to the tube, the train or the office. Dusty originally got involved with a survey of an area of South East London which was up for development. There were several pairs of black redstarts, some of th UK's rarest breeding birds, nesting in the area. Because of that they are a protected species. When new developments come into London they often end up pushing the black redstarts out because they don't provide enough habitat for them. By convincing developers to recreate bare, scrubby habitats on top of the roofs of their new developments, the black redstarts still have enough habitat to breed and survive. This means social regeneration can continue but the wildlife is not suffering as a consequence. If you fly into London, or many other UK cities, you can see that most of the roofspaces are grey. There is huge potential here to provide interesting habitats for wildlife above our offices and newbuild flats and to transform the way our cities work with nature.