Stephen Moss is one of Britain’s leading nature writers, broadcasters and wildlife television producers. He was the founding producer of Springwatch, and his books include A Bumper Book of Nature, a guide that encourages children to explore the great outdoors. A lifelong naturalist, he is passionate about communicating the wonders of the natural world to…
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Guest blog – A service-based environment? by Jonathan Baker
Jonathan Baker is a graduate of Bath Spa University and Imperial College London and currently a consultant at Collingwood Environmental Planning where understanding what ecosystem services are and what they mean for environmental and planning policy is a fascination. Thoughts on our evolving consideration of the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem services and what this…
NPPF
I’ve only had a very quick look at the government’s planning policy that was unveiled yesterday. It’s not my area of expertise and I would have to be led by others as to its overall impact. But I find it interesting to note that everyone seems to be claiming that they ‘won’ – which is…
Wuthering moors 6
I am very grateful to Natural England (that’s @NaturalEngland for those of you on Twitter, where you can find me as @MarkAvery) for sending me details of the Walshaw Moor management agreement. They were clearly eager that I read it, so I have, and so can you here. What do you think of it? I’d…
Proud of…?
A week ago a poll emerged which showed that the countryside is top of the list for what makes us proud to be British. Tomorrow the government will unveil its conclusions on the future of the planning system in England and it seems that the presumption in favour of ‘sustainable’ development will remain. This pleases…
Too nice?
You have one week to go before you can see the final results of the Nature of Harming ‘award’. Cast your vote now and ask your friends (you do have friends?) to cast their’s too, please. Nearly 1000 people have voted. Here, at this late stage – is some rationale to go behind it: We…
2% of people are officially stupid
2% of the public are officially stupid. That’s the only explanation for the result of a recent YouGov poll where 2% of people rate David Cameron’s government as the ‘greenest government ever’. Or perhaps, by chance, there were 35 Tory MPs in the random sample across the GB population. Given that David Cameron’s coalition government…
Wuthering moors 5
Further reading: Media House International acts for Walshaw Moor Estate Gordons solicitors act for Walshaw Moor Estate Company information on Walshaw Moor Estate Ancient history – in the old days, can you remember them?, one of NE’s predecessor organisations, English Nature, was active in protecting blanket bogs from destruction. Andy Clements, EN’s Director of Protected…
Wuthering Moors 4
The importance of UK blanket bog peat soils: Richard Benyon, 22 July 2010: Peat soils provide a wide range of ‘ecosystem services’ or functions for society, including carbon storage. UK peat soils are estimated to store around 5.5 billion tonnes of carbon, equivalent to 31 times the UK’s total annual greenhouse gas emissions if it…
Wuthering moors 3
The Heather and Grass Burning Code of 2007 may have escaped your attention although it is a quite remarkable document carrying, as it does, the logos of Defra, Natural England, the Moorland Association, the CLA, the NFU, the Heather Trust and the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation. In paragraph 10 that document clearly states that: There should…