Happy Birthday Brighton Biosphere

admin
, 22 June 2015
Happy Birthday Brighton Biosphere
adonis blue / Neil Fletcher

By Tony Whitbread,

Chief Executive

The Brighton & Lewes Downs Biosphere is now a year old and in that time it has built up a good record of pioneering a positive future for people and nature in the area.

The Biosphere – an area of land and coastal waters between the rivers Adur and Ouse – was officially recognised by UNESCO on 11 June 2014. With the city of Brighton and Hove at its heart, it joined a unique global network of over 600 international demonstration areas across 100 countries.

The Biosphere name confers a high level of international recognition on an area, but it does not come with any extra guaranteed money or powers. So action has to be delivered through imaginative approaches. And since its launch the Biosphere has developed new partnerships, improved the natural environment, organised a campaign of community engagement and provided more opportunities for local people and visitors to experience its special nature.

Paula Murray, chair of the Biosphere Board, says “We want to build on the success of our first year through more innovative major projects, novel partnerships and greater community engagement. Our aim is to sustainably improve our environment, our relationship with it and ourselves too.”

The work of the Biosphere programme has successfully:

  • Worked with Brighton & Hove City Council’s Cityparks team and the University of Sussex to create new wildflower areas for bees and butterflies in Brighton, including a new ‘bee-bed’ at The Level
  • Created fun and stimulating educational programmes for children including a virtual world of the Biosphere based on the popular computer game, Minecraft
  • Developed projects with a range of public and private bodies to reduce impacts of flooding and to improve the quality of our drinking water from the chalk downs
  • Worked with Visit Brighton to develop a 'Best of our Biosphere' guide for visitors and local people, as well as a host of new materials for promotional and educational purposes

The Biosphere Partnership of some 40 local organisations, including the Sussex Wildlife Trust, aspires to not just enhance the environment but also to raise the profile and awareness of how special our area is with both residents and visitors, as a key foundation for the local economy too.

Murray says, “We have established a Biosphere Board that will work with the Greater Brighton Economic Board to take forward a programme of new projects that deliver for both people and the environment, for example by diversifying our visitor offer to include eco-tourism.”

We all rely 100% on the environment for our health and well-being, yet people in towns and cities can become isolated from this reality. Brighton, Hove and Lewes are set within a world-class environment, both in the surrounding Downs and threading into the urban areas themselves. The Biosphere has created the perfect opportunity to increase awareness of this precious resource and hopefully provide a stimulus for us to care for it for years to come.

Leave a comment
Time Δ Debug Message - Perch Runway 3.2
1783704652.79320 [906] SELECT p.pagePath, pr.routePattern, pr.routeRegExp, p.pageTemplate, pr.routeOrder, s.settingValue AS siteOffline FROM swt_pages_staging p LEFT JOIN swt_page_routes pr ON p.pageID=pr.pageID LEFT JOIN swt_settings s ON s.settingID='siteOffline' UNION SELECT NULL AS pagePath, pr2.routePattern, pr2.routeRegExp, pr2.templatePath AS pageTemplate, pr2.routeOrder, NULL AS siteOffline FROM swt_page_routes pr2 WHERE templateID!=0 ORDER BY routeOrder ASC, pagePath ASC
1783704652.82110.0279Matched route: news/[slug:s]
1783704652.82130.0002Server address: 216.73.217.88
1783704652.82130Using master page: /templates/pages/blog/post.php
1783704652.82140Page arguments: 
Array
(
    [0] => /news/happy-birthday-brighton-biosphere
    [s] => happy-birthday-brighton-biosphere
    [1] => happy-birthday-brighton-biosphere
)
1783704652.82170.0004 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783704652.8230.0013 [86] SELECT DISTINCT settingID, settingValue FROM swt_settings WHERE userID=0
1783704652.82510.0021 [1] SELECT locationID FROM swt_shop_tax_locations WHERE locationIsHome=1 LIMIT 1
1783704652.82590.0008INSERT INTO swt_shop_cart(memberID,locationID,currencyID,cartPricing,cartProperties) VALUES(NULL,'1',47,'standard','[]')
1783704652.82850.0026 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22869508
1783704652.82930.0007 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22869508
1783704652.83020.0009 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_sales WHERE saleFrom<='2026-07-10 17:30:00' AND saleTo>'2026-07-10 17:30:00' AND saleActive=1 AND saleDeleted IS NULL ORDER BY saleOrder ASC
1783704652.83310.0029 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='happy-birthday-brighton-biosphere')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-10 17:30:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 10
1783704652.83610.003 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1783704652.83960.0035 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postID=900 AND postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-10 17:30:00'
1783704652.84460.005 [13] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_sections ORDER BY sectionTitle ASC
1783704652.84580.0011 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blogs ORDER BY blogTitle ASC
1783704652.84680.0011 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=56 LIMIT 1
1783704652.84780.0009Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783704652.8480.0003 [162] SELECT catID, catPath FROM swt_categories
1783704652.8490.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-10 17:30:00' AND postSlug='happy-birthday-brighton-biosphere'
1783704652.86930.0203Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783704652.870.0006 [250] SELECT country, countryID FROM swt_shop_countries WHERE countryActive=1 ORDER BY country ASC
1783704652.87170.0017Using template: /templates/pages/attributes/seo.html
1783704652.87190.0002 [1] SELECT regionID, regionTemplate, regionPage, regionRev AS rev FROM swt_content_regions WHERE regionKey='Banner image' AND (regionPage='/news/post' OR regionPage='*')
1783704652.87270.0008 [nil] SELECT * FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, c.regionID, idx.pageID, c.itemJSON, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_content_index idx JOIN swt_content_items c ON idx.itemID=c.itemID AND idx.itemRev=c.itemRev AND idx.regionID=c.regionID JOIN swt_content_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev AND idx2.indexKey='_order' WHERE ((idx.regionID=104 AND idx.itemRev=0)) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev ) as tbl GROUP BY itemID, pageID, itemJSON, sortval, regionID ORDER BY sortval ASC
1783704652.87410.0015 [82] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageDepth >=0 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783704652.87740.0033 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783704652.87810.0007 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783704652.88050.0024Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template.html
1783704652.88060.0001 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783704652.88140.0008 [4] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783704652.8820.0006 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783704652.88530.0033 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783704652.88680.0015 [7] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783704652.88770.0009 [9] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783704652.89120.0035 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' OR pageSortPath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783704652.89490.0037 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageHidden=0 AND pageNew=0 AND pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition
1783704652.89740.0024 [1] Using template: /templates/navigation/breadcrumbs.html
1783704652.89810.0007Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783704652.89840.0004 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='1' LIMIT 1
1783704652.89940.0009Using template: /templates/blog/author.html
1783704652.89990.0005 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='happy-birthday-brighton-biosphere')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-10 17:30:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 1
1783704652.90310.0032 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1783704652.90380.0007 [1] Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783704652.90770.0039Using template: /templates/blog/comment_form.html
1783704652.90880.0011 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_comments WHERE 1=1 AND postID=900 AND commentStatus='LIVE' ORDER BY FIELD(webmentionType, 'like', 'repost', 'comment', NULL) ASC, commentDateTime ASC
1783704652.96020.0514 [0] Using template: /templates/blog/comment.html
1783704652.96040.0002Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783704652.96070.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='1' LIMIT 1
1783704652.96150.0008 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/what-we-do' OR pageSortPath='/what-we-do' LIMIT 1
1783704652.96220.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-002' LIMIT 1
1783704652.96270.0006 [7] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-002%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783704652.96490.0022 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783704652.96550.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783704652.96760.0021 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783704652.96880.0012 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1783704652.96940.0006 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1783704652.96990.0006 [38] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783704652.97240.0025 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783704652.9730.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783704652.9750.002 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783704652.97820.0032 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/visit' OR pageSortPath='/visit' LIMIT 1
1783704652.97910.0008 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-004' LIMIT 1
1783704652.97970.0007 [30] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-004%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783704652.98230.0025 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783704652.98290.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783704652.98510.0022 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783704652.98790.0029 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1783704652.98870.0008 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1783704652.98930.0006 [11] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783704652.99160.0023 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783704652.99220.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783704652.99410.0019 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783704652.99540.0013Request time: 0.2051
1783704652.99540Process time: 0.2049
1783704652.99540Memory: 1.6248