East Ayrshire Coalfield Environment Initiative
www.ea-cei.org.uk
East Ayrshire is a landscape of contrasting land uses. Opencast coal sites sit amongst lowland farmland, blanket bog and upland grouse moors, whilst at its heart is a 263km2 Special Protection Area (SPA), designated as one of the most important places in Europe for the rare birds that breed there.
The East Ayrshire Coalfield Environment Initiative (CEI) was launched in October 2002 and is a partnership between the local authority, conservation bodies and industry, working together to enhance, conserve, and promote the environment in East Ayrshire.
The CEI believes that a high quality environment, rich in biodiversity, will make East Ayrshire a valuable and attractive place for people to live, work and play.
Our work is driven by a belief that:
- East Ayrshire is a fantastic place for wildlife
- restored open cast coal sites offer great opportunities for creating new wildlife habitats
- community participation in wildlife conservation enhances people's lives
- young people are the decision makers of tomorrow and should be given every opportunity to discover the value of their environment today
The CEI believes that a high quality environment, rich in biodiversity, will make East Ayrshire a valuable and attractive place for people to live, work and play.
The 3 aims of the CEI are :
Environment - to enhance the natural environment and landscape within the CEI project area
Understanding - to increase understanding and appreciation of East Ayrshire's wildlife and its value, providing and developing opportunities for learning about and experiencing wildlife
Engagement - to increase community participation in wildlife conservation, enabling local people to contribute to environmental improvements and develop new skills
The CEI has implemented a range of projects that will enhance, conserve and promote the environment in East Ayrshire.
Garden Bird Viewing facilities have been set up at 3 primary schools. Children can view live images from a bird box and learn about wildlife.
A wetland habitat enhancement plan has been implemented on a former opencast coal site, creating new wetland habitats and improving existing ones.
Conservation volunteering events help to maintain some of East Ayrshire's wildlife areas and involve local people in conservation.
Pupils from a local primary school learned about sustainable use of resources when they took part in a project to build a greenhouse using 1400 plastic bottles.
40ha of native woodland have been planted on the stream sides of two glens traversing a restored opencast coal.