Employees at BNP Paribas Corporate and Investment Banking in the United Kingdom participated in five environmental projects taking place in Regent’s Park over the summer. The projects were all designed to support the Park in their conservation work.

The tree management project kick started the 2009 Regent’s Park summer team challenge programme. Under the guidance of one of the Regent’s Park managers, 12 volunteers worked tirelessly in the sweltering sun, pruning trees, clearing weeds and getting rid of self-set vegetation; helping to maintain one of the Park’s much-valued wooded areas.

For a second project, 9 members of staff swapped the office for the great outdoors on Tuesday 21 July. The team were tasked with clearing a meadow of invasive weeds. Working under the guidance of one of the Regent’s Park managers, the group removed thistles and weeds, thus helping the natural grasslands of the park to thrive.

On Thursday 3 September, a group of volunteers again completed back breaking work on York Bridge Island in Regent’s Park. The island is not accessible to the public and as a result used to be home to many birds and other animal species that used it as a breeding area. However, in recent years, birds were not returning to the island to nest as it was too overgrown. To maintain the area as a valuable habitat, invasive plants such as ivy and tree suckers needed to be removed from the area which is where our team of volunteers came in.

8 BNP Paribas staff volunteered their time to build nest boxes in Regent’s Park on Tuesday 11 August. Employee volunteers sharpened their do-it-yourself and problem-solving skills to create the bird boxes: cutting wood to size, assembling and nailing the sections together and improvising where necessary! Working in pairs, they created 9 bird boxes in total. The boxes will be installed in the Park in time for the 2010 breeding season.

On Tuesday, August 25th, a team of 10 volunteers worked tirelessly to recondition a number of benches that had previously been classed as unusable. The benches in Regent’s Park are one of its most important resources, at least as far as many of the park’s visitors are concerned. Often overlooked, they are much appreciated by weary visitors who have explored the Park and wish to sit and rest and watch the world go by.

Where possible, the Parks prefer to extend the lifespan of its benches rather than replace them altogether. So, following the success of our 2008 benches project, the park were delighted to see another team, with some familiar faces from last year, return for more.

Clare, from the Royal Park’s Foundation commented “Tony (the Park Manager) and I just wanted to say thank you all for your hard work… You all did a great job and the view beneath the trees just speaks for itself. That particular area of the park was crying out for some care and attention and the work wouldn’t have been achieved this year without the support of the BNP Paribas team – thank you!.”