2022

In the run up to the commencement of COP15 the role of protection in wildlife conservation has been promoted by a number of eNGOS so we thought it useful to consider whether nature benefits from protection – and therefore whether more is the answer.

You would think that there would be a single term to describe the removal of surface vegetation such as scrub, heather and grasses using fire. But this is not the case. There are regional terms, legislative terms and then just plainly incorrect terms resulting in nine possible descriptors for a single practice.

The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill – often termed the Brexit Freedoms Bill – and the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill (LURB) have caused much consternation amongst environmental NGOs as both have mechanisms that will result in the current EU-derived environmental legislative framework changing. But is this cause for concern? Surely it’s what was expected from Brexit?

This last quarter (July to September) has seen the policy team in England respond to three Defra consultations/calls for evidence (on the Biodiversity Net Gain metric, deer management and Green Finance) and three select committee inquiries (on ELMS progress, food security and sustainable timber).  

GWCT Chief Executive Teresa Dent was invited to give the organisation’s verdict on the government’s progress with its Environmental Land Management Scheme to the EFRA Select Committee in the Palace of Westminster.

As the food producers and the rewilders battle it out over their polarised vision of what our future landscapes should look like, it's good to see the Chairman of Natural England, Tony Juniper, talking sense about how we need to build multifunctional landscapes which deliver different layers of outcomes.

Henrietta Appleton discusses the findings from ‘Sustaining Ecosystems: English Grouse Moors’, our audit of the contribution of grouse moor management to society’s wants and needs, as expressed by goals in the Government’s 25 year Environment Plan (25YEP).

It was encouraging to see the results of a long-term study of wildlife on a large commercial arable farm which were published on Tuesday 2nd August. The results support those of the longer-running GWCT Allerton Project, which is now in its third decade.