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Bug Roofs
Friday听18 February
Yvonne Ellis visits an unlikely candidate for the nickname 'England's Little Rainforest' - Canvey Island in Essex.
Roof top wildlife
Canvey Island in Essex is a brownfield site on what used to be an oil refinery and to the untrained eye looks like little more than wasteland.
The area is听a haven for biodiversity. It acts as a home to countless insects, including over 30 rare species.
The site is earmarked to be developed into a business park, to provide jobs for local people.听However, the insect inhabitants of the island are calling the shots.
There are plans to protect their habitats by landscaping the business park so that the minimum habitat is lost.
This means building special bee banks, leaving plenty of rough grassland and creating roofs听that re-create habitat for听insects on top of the buildings.
But what does this mean for the future of the Canvey Island residents - creepy crawly and otherwise?
Yvonne visits the site with Matt Shardlow from the conservation charity Buglife, and Jamie Merrick from the East of England Development Agency (E.E.D.A)听to hear how this will be a development with a difference.
