Industry
Wildlife Conservation and Management
The Client
The Ulster Wildlife Trust (UWT) was founded in 1978 with the aim of conserving the natural habitats of Northern Ireland.
The Challenge
In order to maximise their efforts, the Ulster Wildlife Trust needed to be able to accurately map the areas they were working in, particularly for their nature reserves. This would enable them to plan future management of conservation areas.
Solution
The Ulster Wildlife Trust required a solution that would provide clear maps to demonstrate the different areas of conservation.
Benefits
The software is helping to manage the Ulster Wildlife Trust's nature reserves to the highest standards and is proving very useful with their work with community groups. The software is also being used to help other groups that they are working with, e.g.: linking sites and landowners who need cattle that need land to graze on.
Summary
The Ulster Wildlife Trust required a solution that would provide clear maps to demonstrate the different areas of conservation. They now use GIS for mapping their reserves such as distributions of priority species that occur, different habitat types, grazing regimes, butterfly and vegetation surveys. This is used in conjunction with their own GPS hand held devices for field work.
Through the efficient mapping of our reserves it gives us a picture of how well they are managing the areas of conservation and helps us alter resources if required. With the click of a mouse, they can get a visual representation of how the species they are monitoring are progressing and whether we need any corrective action if a species isn't doing as well as it could be.