Blogs
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GWCT News Blog
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Policy
The lessons from America on wildfire suppression are real and urgent. There is a significant policy gap in the assertions made by the IUCN, Climate Change Committee, RSPB and others that managed burning on peatland must be stopped.
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GWCT News Blog
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Hen harrier/Grouse shooting
, Policy
The recent debate on driven grouse shooting revealed two very different attitudes to management. Those opposed to banning grouse shooting regard the management of grouse moors as a constructive action supporting biodiversity and other public goods and services; those supporting a ban see management as artificial and destructive. So who is right?
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GWCT News Blog
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Farming
, Allerton Project
, Policy
Whilst farming policy has looked to embrace a more sustainable, practical future, the approach to wildlife conservation, as demonstrated by the latest pronouncements from Defra, seems to be ‘stuck in the mud’.
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GWCT News Blog
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Allerton Project
, Farming
, Policy
Seems a simple enough question, but when it comes to public policy it is more difficult. The current focus on climate change centres predominantly around carbon, with biodiversity rendered a supporting role through nature-based solutions. This raises the question: is biodiversity a good in its own right, or is it a supporting service that underpins delivery of a broad range of ecosystem services?
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GWCT News Blog
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Policy
The one thing Covid 19 has taught us well, is that prevention is better than cure. In unvaccinated, high density human populations the virus spreads like wildfire. The same can be said of high density vegetation of heather and grass in the uplands.
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GWCT News Blog
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Farming
, Farmland Ecology
, Policy
The use of pesticides is hotly debated, but arguments around it are often absolute and lack nuance. The government derogation for farmers to use the neonicotinoid thiamethoxam on sugar beet this year (dependent on evidence of potentially yield threatening levels of pests) created lots of headlines, plenty of outrage and, at the time of writing, 50,597 signatures to reverse the decision.
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GWCT News Blog
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Policy
Last month we responded to the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy‘s call for evidence on Greenhouse Gas Removals. With climate change high on the public agenda, it is important that we tackle it while ensuring livelihoods, food production and wildlife are part of the conversation.
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GWCT News Blog
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Policy
The Guardian recently reported on a study by Dr Adam Pellegrini of Cambridge University that has highlighted that wildfires are impacting on the ability of forests to capture carbon due to changes in tree density and size. Given that trees are increasingly seen as a natural climate solution, the more we can understand the consequences of afforestation the better.
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GWCT News Blog
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Policy
We say that a delay on the publication of the strategy is understandable if it helps avoid a sweeping ban on burning, which would prevent us using managed, ‘cool’ burning for the proven delivery of public benefits.
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