Manchester Airport biodiversity project wins international award

A project led by Manchester Airport that seeks to preserve the biodiversity of woodlands around the city-region has been given a prestigious Green Apple Award.

The airport’s environment team, in collaboration with TV ecologist Josh Styles’ firm, Styles Ecology, translocated a number of species including bluebells, wild garlic and wood anemones, from the Cotteril Clough ancient woodland into nearby woodlands and wild spaces. Cotteril Clough sits partly on the airport site and is Manchester’s only Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), and is closed to the public to protect its delicate ecosystem that includes a huge variety of rare native flora and fauna.

Work began in June 2024 and nine months later, the team behind the scheme have been recognised at the Green Apple Awards in London, as the National Silver Winner in the Hospitality and Travel: Conservation and Wildlife category. The awards, which have been running for over 30 years recognises the best and most innovative environmental schemes from around the world.

The movement of plant will not have any impact on the ancient woodland, as the small gaps left will naturally fill in over time, but the scheme will speed up the dispersal of these key species into woodlands in other areas of Greater Manchester and Cheshire, many of which have been degraded by human intervention and have lost the rich variety of species that they would otherwise host.

Martin Churley, Head of Environment & Sustainability at Manchester Airport, said:

“I’m incredibly proud of our environmental team for their work on this important initiative. We believe the airport has an important role to play in our neighbouring communities and that isn’t just about connecting people with the places they want to travel to – it’s about everything from creating jobs to improving infrastructure and, in this case, playing our part in creating a flourishing natural environment.

“This innovative scheme involves removing a small number of plants from key species and replanting them in other woodlands. It doesn’t have any lasting effect on the ancient woodland at Cotteril Clough, where populations of those species will continue to thrive – but it enables the spread of these species in other pockets of woodland that have become degraded by human activity, and in time it will restore their ecosystems to their natural state.”