This report from WWT is good – it’s one of the best I’ve seen from them and one of the best I’ve seen from a wildlife NGO for a while.
What’s good about it? Well, it is a bit more intellectually challenging than most of the recent NGO reports and it also less politically naive.
Do I agree with all the suggestions in it? I’m not sure about that but there is nothing with which I disagree strongly so that’s a promising start. And it’s interesting enough to be worth another read or two over the next few days.
There is the usual NGO call for targets – so that government can know whether it is on track (and so can the rest of us of course).
There is a shift to using the concept of environmental justice as a reason for shaking up the system and the concept of a Brexit ‘governance gap’. This is a good way of putting it and a catchy phrase.
Read here about catchment commissioners and how land should be managed at a catchment level.
Good ideas on how agriculture and environment need to be walking hand in hand in post-Brexit England.
Have a look and then email your MP using this link to ask them to give it a look too.
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Much better, yes, and getting there – but nowhere near as good as the CLA on land management contracts. There’s still an inability to get behind the things that have to matter to politicians – there is still the 20th C tone of stopping things running right through, though a lot of the sentiments are heading towards a more positive approach. And there’s the suspicion Government may even be ahead of the game, because they appear to be taking the Natural Capital Committee seriously and it has gone a good deal further than anything here in showing that doing the sort of intelligent things in this report can benefit rather than hold back the economy.
I still fret that we are massively underplaying the wildlife and environment narrative – there is yet again no mention of the NCC’s proposal for 250,000 hectares of community forest around our towns and cities – because of the word ‘forest’ ? Because its just too big to contemplate ? but if you want a real 1st order issue, here it is – we must have more houses and from where we stand today that looks like a big environmental + the likelihood that sprawling new building will produce grotty places to live. Big green infrastructure has the potential to completely change that balance – and at the same time solve massive problems for the politicians who know they have to lead on this.
Getting behind the big agendas with a positive narrative can transform where we are today.
Rod, can you provide a link to the NCC proposal for the 250,000 ha of community forest.
Tim – yes, it is from the 3rd report of the NCC (on their website).
Prof Ian Bateman’s analysis is on page 31, box 4.1.
The list of options the Committee considered, which is really interesting, is Fig 5 on p38. Woodland close to towns and cities is one of the 5 areas where the NCC felt they had sufficient evidence to recommend action.
Many thanks for your review, Mark.
And thank you to everyone who’s joined the call to action so far – we can make a difference!