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The Durrell Trust for Conservation Biology
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CV
PhD research entitled ‘Ecological and economic cost-effectiveness of mitigation actions for protected species on sites scheduled for development.’ Resolving conflicts between development and wildlife is fundamental to the effective management of biodiversity. Nowhere is this issue more evident than in the UK, where the demand for housing and industrial, recreational and commercial development is placing increasing pressures on protected species and their habitats.
Guidelines exist for developers and their consultants who need to carry out such actions, but these are largely based on traditional management practises and consensus views, rather than on rigorous hypothesis tests of the best actions to take. Equally, relatively few mitigation projects have carried out post-mitigation population assessments, and those that have done so invariably comprise some form of simple count that may bear little relationship to the actual population size. Consequently, we have little idea if mitigation actions are cost-effective for either the developer or the species concerned. The project will address two fundamental questions:
Funding The project is funded by a NERC/ESRC Interdisciplinary Research Studentship
Publications: Lewis, B., Griffiths, RA & Barrios, Y (2007), Field assessment of great crested newt Triturus cristatus mitigation projects in England. Natural England Research Report NERR001. Natural England, Peterborough, England. ISSN 1754-1956. Lewis, B., Griffiths, RA & Leggat, K (in press), Long-term field assessment of great crested newt Triturus cristatus mitigation projects in England. Natural England Research. Natural England, Peterborough, England.
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When a development threatens an area containing a species that is afforded legal protection (e.g. under the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 or Conservation [Natural Habitats & c.] Regulations 1994), the developer is legally obliged to undertake appropriate mitigation measures to reduce the impact of the development on the species. Although the mitigation actions depend on the species concerned and the degree of legal protection that it is afforded, a typical mitigation involves pre- and post-development population and habitat assessments, habitat management and enhancement and actions that will reduce the likelihood of animals being killed by the development activity (e.g. translocation or exclusion of the population from the development site by drift fences). 
The project will focus on a high profile species that frequently comes into conflict with development – the Great crested newt (Triturus cristatus). These questions will be addressed by combining assessments of great crested newt populations that have been subject to mitigation with an analysis of the costs and benefits of the actions taken from both ecological and economic viewpoints.