Today 17 conservation and countryside organisations, coordinated by Wildlife and Countryside Link, wrote to DEFRA’s George Eustice to call for proper measures to limit burning on peat soils instead of the government’s weak proposals.
The organisations comprise: RSPB, Wildlife Trusts, National Trust, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Plantlife, Butterfly Conservation, Rewilding Britain, Open Spaces Society, Wild Justice, Campaign for National Parks, Freshwater Habitats Trust, British Mountaineering Council, Environmental Investigation Agency, League Against Cruel Sports, Peoples Trust for Endangered Species and John Muir Trust.
The letter and issue are covered in i news.
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Good the government need to be continually challenged on this as their current proposals flatter to deceive with most of the most vulnerable peat soils outside their current weak proposals. The proposals as they stand are a sop to the governments pals involved in DGS, a small minority activity which unfortunately affects huge areas of our uplands resulting in poor upland biodiversity, carbon release, coloured drinking water, downstream flooding and poorer river biodiversity. there are no real reasons for not tightening the proposals other than favouring a tiny minority of land owners and users over our future. In other countries we might call the governments current attitudes to this grossly inadequate, dereliction of duty and bordering on corruption.
It was pretty obvious when the ‘ban’ was announced that the delays were to allow the policy to be carefully designed to pamper to their grouse farming/shooting chums.
As I have said before and again this time one can only register utter disgust with the rubbish and deliberately misleading statements that Defra make. This does not even come close to decent halting of the burning of our moorlands. Mind you every statement Defra make these days is misleading.
So the use of neonicinotoid poisons are back, burning of our uplands will continue, lead ammunition is not made illegal, the killing of our birds of prey will continue, as will brood meddling along with many other wildlife atrocities.
The shooters of our wildlife for fun, must be rubbing their hands with glee and Eustice must be their pin up. In truth they, Eustice and Defra, are not worthy of anything but total and complete disgust.
Thank God for Wild Justice. I think they will be busy when and wherever they can be.