Wuthering Moors – 29 The bigger picture

The Walshaw Moor Estate case is important in itself, and we commend again the RSPB for taking a firm stand on it, but it is also indicative of a much wider and deeper Defra malaise. If Defra is not now acting merely as the Rural Jobs and Fieldsports Department then it needs to get its…

Plastic environmentalism

The Conference speech by the new Defra Secretary of State, Owen Paterson, will have been like discordant music to the ears of the environment movement. It would be very difficult to find many working in the environment who think that the EU is perfect but it would be almost impossible to find people who think…

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…

Guest blog – Save wildlife. Stop birdwatching! by Andrew Lucas

Andrew works part-time for the Countryside Council for Wales, and is also a part-time postgraduate student at Swansea University. The views expressed here are his own.   Recently, I found myself at some traffic lights when an enormous, gleaming, silver SUV pulled up along side me.  At such moments I am insufferably smug.  Here I…