Last year DEFRA carried out a consultation on general licences in England – this was forced by the successful Wild Justice legal challenge of the Natural England general licences. Over 4,000 responses were received , which is quite a lot, but not so many as to justify such a long wait for any decisions from…
BLOG POSTS
DEFRA begins to reply
In response to the e-action organised by Wild Justice, Hen Harrier Action and the RSPB, voters in England are beginning to receive, via their MPs, responses from DEFRA. Having given DEFRA the opportunity to impress us all with their grasp of the subject and their fast pace of policy action these responses are very similar…
A walk in Nidderdale
It’s difficult to imagine why this land in Nidderdale might be closed on these days during the grouse shooting season – but the closure does not affect the rights of way. A land owner can restrict public access for 28 days/year without having to give any reason – this seems perfectly fair to me. There…
Birdwatch magazine’s 2020 Birders’ Choice awards
Comments Off on Birdwatch magazine’s 2020 Birders’ Choice awards
It’s that time of year when Birdwatch magazine invites its readers and the world (almost the same, surely?) to vote for their Conservation Hero of the Year, Guano Award for Environmental Harm, Book of the Year and a host of other awards. I’ve had a quick look, and some categories I find easy and others…
Speaks for itself really
Press release – Viridor and Beddington Farmlands
Beddington Farmlands habitat creation continues this autumn Viridor’s restoration of the 120-hectare Beddington Farmlands in South London is continuing with the creation of the first phase of the wet grassland habitat, including the start of a seeding programme that has seen over 150kg of seed spread across this first phase ahead of further habitat management….
Grouse moors, burning and climate change
I’m a Radio 4 addict but I missed PM yesterday as I was engaged with lawyers then, and for a lot of the day. But I caught up with this piece on climate change (starts 45 minutes into programme) and the mention of the government inactivity on banning burning on peatlands being possibly due to…
Badgers
Today Wild Justice is attempting to overturn the refusal of permission for judicial review of Natural England’s licensing of Badger culls. It’s a remote hearing and we’ll be watching by video-link (not available to the general public I’m afraid). The quickest way to hear what happened will be to sign up to the Wild Justice…
UK Biodiversity Indicators (4)
Following three earlier blog posts today (here, here and here). This is a quite spectacular graph showing the decline in public sector biodiversity spend in the UK over the last decade or so. There has been a steady increase in expenditure by NGOs but not enough to fill the spending gap left by our taxes…
UK Biodiversity Indicators (3)
Following on from two earlier blogs (here and here). Thezse two indicators from the marine environment look like they are going convincingly in the right directions – but this is defibnitely not my area of expertise so if you think differently then shout, please!