Blogs

Members and regular readers of our messages about the success of bottom-up approaches to nature conservation will be aware that we call those private land managers, working conservationists.  But in truth we probably should also be emphasising the value of farming conservationists.

On 30th May GWCT Newsround reported on a think piece by Hong Jiang a PhD student at York University which asked how we achieve the expansion of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECM) in line with the ambitions of COP15 and the new post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). The GBF commits to 23 action-orientated targets by 2030.

Is the focus on carbon distracting from the benefits of considering soil health in the round?

What are the parties promising our farmers and land managers?

There were two Westminster Hall debates recently that considered our nature crisis – one on species recovery led by Sarah Champion MP (Lab) and one on biodiversity loss led by Dr Caroline Lucas MP (Green Party). Both covered many of the usual concerns about the causes of the declines in our species and rightly expressed concern that the government is not addressing some of the ‘low regret’ options that would support recovery.

I suspect you wonder what I am talking about! These are common, colloquial names for the bittern and woodcock and in some respects are very evocative. Apparently a bluiter is a person or thing that makes a dull, heavy sound – a descriptive of the bittern’s boom I deduce – and bogsucker probably reflects that the woodcock feeds in soft ground using its long bill.

Bracken has become a contentious subject for land managers as, whilst it has some benefits, where it is invasive and becomes dominant it can have a range of negative impacts which have required its perpetual control through both chemical and mechanical means.

So, the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill has passed through Scottish Parliament, marking nearly seven years of scrutiny, originating with the implementation of the Werritty Grouse Management Review in 2017.

If we hoped for some respite from the weight of policy consultations, bills and legislation that confronted us in 2023, the barrage has continued unabated so far this year.

I have been asked to present on the need to balance conservation with access at a conference on Public Rights of Way. This has instigated me to consider what the network of paths across our landscape means – why do they exist?