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Quarries offer key to
wildlife recovery
RSPB Public Relations
Department 30 November 2006
New research by the RSPB
shows transforming sites once mineral extraction has finished could
create thousands of hectares of woodland, heath, meadows and reedbeds.
The RSPB study, funded by
the Mineral Industry Research Organisation (MIRO), shows the amount of
habitat creation on former mineral sites falls far short of what chould
be achieved.
The Society is calling
for a shake-up of the planning guidance given to local authorities to
make large-scale habitat creation a recognised and priority end use for
mineral sites.
It also wants to see more
use made of agri-environment schemes, tax credits and support from
mineral operators to make habitat creation an easier and more attractive
option for landowners. Many are reluctant to see their land used for
nature conservation due to a lack of obvious income.
www.rspb.org.uk/policy/planningpolicy/quarries.asp
Key role for farmers on
climate change
Natural England 29
November 2006
A meeting of some of the
UK’s leading experts on land use and climate change heard that improving
the management of our upland peat bogs alone could reduce our greenhouse
gas pollution by up to 400,000 tonnes per year, the equivalent of
removing 2 per cent of cars from England’s roads.
Dr Pete Smith from the
University of Aberdeen presented evidence which showed that land
managers can make an important contribution to absorbing the UK’s total
greenhouse gas pollution, through converting some land to grasslands and
less intensive uses.
Dr Mark Broadmeadow from
Forest Research highlighted the role that woodlands can play in storing
carbon and how increasing the use of wood products can increase the
amount of carbon stored.
The Stern Review
recommends that, at the global level, land managers can play a vital
role by contributing around 10 per cent of the annual greenhouse gas
emissions reductions required to keep global temperature rise at a
relatively safe level.
Land managers can
contribute to mitigating greenhouse gas emissions by:
-
strengthening carbon
sinks;
-
reducing damaging
practices (such as deforestation);
-
taking-up management
that will help enhance carbon storage (such as afforestation and less
intensive agriculture); and
-
replacing fossil fuels
with bio-energy materials.
The meeting, held on 28
November 2006 and organised by Natural England, was also attended by
representatives of farmers (Jo Hughes of the National Farmers' Union)
and land managers (Derek Holliday of the Country Land and Business
Association) and Government officials.
www.naturalengland.org.uk/press/news2006/291106.htm
Livestock a major threat
to environment
FAO Rome 29 November 2006
According to a new report
published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured
in CO2 equivalent – 18 percent – than transport. It is also a major
source of land and water degradation.
Says Henning Steinfeld,
Chief of FAO’s Livestock Information and Policy Branch and senior author
of the report: “Livestock are one of the most significant contributors
to today’s most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is
required to remedy the situation.”
With increased
prosperity, people are consuming more meat and dairy products every
year. Global meat production is projected to more than double from 229
million tonnes in 1999/2001 to 465 million tonnes in 2050, while milk
output is set to climb from 580 to 1043 million tonnes.
The global livestock
sector is growing faster than any other agricultural sub-sector. It
provides livelihoods to about 1.3 billion people and contributes about
40 percent to global agricultural output. For many poor farmers in
developing countries livestock are also a source of renewable energy for
draft and an essential source of organic fertilizer for their crops.
But such rapid growth
exacts a steep environmental price, according to the FAO report,
Livestock’s Long Shadow –Environmental Issues and Options. “The
environmental costs per unit of livestock production must be cut by one
half, just to avoid the level of damage worsening beyond its present
level,” it warns.
When emissions from land
use and land use change are included, the livestock sector accounts for
9 percent of CO2 deriving from human-related activities, but produces a
much larger share of even more harmful greenhouse gases. It generates 65
percent of human-related nitrous oxide, which has 296 times the Global
Warming Potential (GWP) of CO2. Most of this comes from manure.
And it accounts for
respectively 37 percent of all human-induced methane (23 times as
warming as CO2), which is largely produced by the digestive system of
ruminants, and 64 percent of ammonia, which contributes significantly to
acid rain.
Livestock now use 30
percent of the earth’s entire land surface, mostly permanent pasture but
also including 33 percent of the global arable land used to producing
feed for livestock, the report notes. As forests are cleared to create
new pastures, it is a major driver of deforestation, especially in Latin
America where, for example, some 70 percent of former forests in the
Amazon have been turned over to grazing.
At the same time herds
cause wide-scale land degradation, with about 20 percent of pastures
considered as degraded through overgrazing, compaction and erosion. This
figure is even higher in the drylands where inappropriate policies and
inadequate livestock management contribute to advancing desertification.
The livestock business is
among the most damaging sectors to the earth’s increasingly scarce water
resources, contributing among other things to water pollution,
euthropication and the degeneration of coral reefs. The major polluting
agents are animal wastes, antibiotics and hormones, chemicals from
tanneries, fertilizers and the pesticides used to spray feed crops.
Widespread overgrazing disturbs water cycles, reducing replenishment of
above and below ground water resources. Significant amounts of water are
withdrawn for the production of feed.
Livestock are estimated
to be the main inland source of phosphorous and nitrogen contamination
of the South China Sea, contributing to biodiversity loss in marine
ecosystems.
Meat and dairy animals
now account for about 20 percent of all terrestrial animal biomass.
Livestock’s presence in vast tracts of land and its demand for feed
crops also contribute to biodiversity loss; 15 out of 24 important
ecosystem services are assessed as in decline, with livestock identified
as a culprit.
The report, which was
produced with the support of the multi-institutional Livestock,
Environment and Development (LEAD) Initiative, proposes explicitly to
consider these environmental costs and suggests a number of ways of
remedying the situation, including:
Land degradation –
controlling access and removing obstacles to mobility on common
pastures. Use of soil conservation methods and silvopastoralism,
together with controlled livestock exclusion from sensitive areas;
payment schemes for environmental services in livestock-based land use
to help reduce and reverse land degradation.
Atmosphere and climate
– increasing the efficiency of livestock production and feed crop
agriculture. Improving animals’ diets to reduce enteric fermentation and
consequent methane emissions, and setting up biogas plant initiatives to
recycle manure.
Water – improving
the efficiency of irrigation systems. Introducing full-cost pricing for
water together with taxes to discourage large-scale livestock
concentration close to cities.
These and related
questions are the focus of discussions between FAO and its partners
meeting to chart the way forward for livestock production at global
consultations in Bangkok this week. These discussions also include the
substantial public health risks related to the rapid livestock sector
growth as, increasingly, animal diseases also affect humans; rapid
livestock sector growth can also lead to the exclusion of smallholders
from growing markets.
www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000448/index.html
Report card warns of climate change impacts now present throughout our
seas
Defra Press release
509/06 29 November 2006
A report highlighting
just how far climate change has already impacted the United Kingdom's
marine environment, and what might happen in the future, is to be
published today.
Rapidly following-on from
the publication of the Stern Report, which documented the economic case
for tackling climate change, the Marine Climate Change Impacts
Partnership (MCCIP) has produced a new 'Annual Report Card' (ARC)
focusing on the marine environment.
The report card strongly
suggests that marine climate change will have important consequences for
all elements of our marine environment, with significant impacts on the
biological diversity, cleanliness and safety, and commercial
productivity of our seas.
The Annual Report Card
concludes that:
- we are observing large
changes in our marine environment that are driven in part by climate
change. These changes are altering the amount, variety and distributions
of marine species at all levels of the marine ecosystem, from plankton
through to fish and top predators such as seabirds.
- in particular,
increasing sea surface temperature is having a major impact on marine
ecosystems, with an apparent northwards shift of some 1000km of
warm-water plankton (with a similar retreat of cold-water species) and
an increased abundance of warm water species of fish being observed in
our seas.
- interactions between
different parts of the marine ecosystem are complicated and exactly how
the whole system ties together and responds to change is as yet not well
understood.
The general level of
scientific understanding on marine climate change impacts is currently
low, with large knowledge gaps plainly evident. Even in such areas as
pollution monitoring, where data have been collected for a long time,
the monitoring methods used are not designed to detect the impacts of
climate change. For many commercially important activities, such as the
operation of ports, shipping and the farming of fish, there is a notable
lack of scientific understanding with regards to how climate change will
impact upon these industries.
The Marine Climate Change
Impacts Partnership (MCCIP) includes a wide range of stakeholders,
including academics, government, and non-government organisations. It
was launched in March 2005 by government and the devolved
administrations as part of a response to Charting Progress: An
Integrated Assessment of the State of UK Seas
www.defra.gov.uk/environment/water/marine/uk/stateofsea/index.htm
Detailed briefings
on all the topics covered in the report card can be found on the MCCIP
website
www.mccip.org.uk/
Wildlife feels the heat too
Wildlife Trusts 29
November, 2006
A report launched today
by The Wildlife Trusts, calls for urgent Government action to prepare
wildlife for climate change. The report – A Living Landscape – has a
four-point plan which maps the way forward in countering climate change
and restoring the UK’s battered ecosystems, for both wildlife and
people; from inner cities to rural communities.
Stephanie Hilborne, chief
executive of The Wildlife Trusts, says: "The UK’s wildlife will be
dramatically affected by climate change and we can’t afford to ignore
it. For wildlife to be able to cope, and to prevent a collapse in the
number and variety of UK plants and animals, we need to restore and
create ‘living’ landscapes”.
www.wildlifetrusts.org/index.php?section=news&id=1749
Natural England welcomes ratification of European Landscape Convention
Natural England 21
November 2006
Natural England will be
working with government and others in England and across UK to develop
an implementation strategy to help promote and develop the principles of
the ELC further through our own work and advice, and with stakeholders
and the public.
Natural England’s
Director of Policy Andrew Wood said: “This is good news for landscape
and Natural England. Effective, forward looking sustainable planning and
management of landscapes everywhere will be at the heart of Natural
England’s work, for the delivery of a better natural environment and the
wider benefits that distinctive landscapes brings to people and places.”
The ELC defines landscape
as ‘an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of
the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors’. It is based
on the premise that landscape, whatever quality, whether rural or urban,
built or natural should be recognised, understood and fully integrated
into policy and decision-making. It recognises that landscape has
important cultural, ecological, environmental and social dimensions and
is a key element of achieving sustainable development.
The UK is recognised as
already putting much of the principles of the ELC into practice. Our
distinctive landscapes contribute to our identity and reflect local
cultural influences as well as ecological diversity. This is shown
through the Joint Character Area map of England and also through the
well established practice of using landscape character assessment to
inform local policy making.
www.naturalengland.org.uk/press/releases/211106.htm
EU
parliament wants members to adopt marine protection plans
EU business 14 November
2006
The European Parliament
made a call to the 25 member states to establish marine protection zones
by 2012 in order to ensure its maritime waters are in "good ecological
shape".
Eurodeputy Marie-Noelle
Lienemann, France, drafted the program requiring member states establish
measures to guarantee the protection and conservation of the EU's 70,000
kilometers (45,000 miles) of coastline. Measures to be included are
reestablishing biodiversity, progressively eliminating pollution and
ensuring economic and tourist activities are environmentally
sustainable.
Marine strategies should
be in place by 2014, bringing forward target dates originally set in the
EU Marine strategy issued last June. The program will be discussed by EU
environment ministers on the 17 December.
The Commission strategy -
Framework for Community action in the field of Marine Environmental
Policy can be downloaded from the European Parliament site:
www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/064-12636-317-11-46-911-20061113IPR12517-13-11-2006-2006-false/default_en.htm
www.eubusiness.com/Environ/061114175313.vxstkztj
Controversy as wild-goat cull begins to protect gardens and national park
Guardian
13 November & icWales 14 November 2006
A quarter
of the wild goats of Snowdonia will be culled by a marksman employed by
Gwynedd Council. The cull, conducted secretly last week in Coed Dinorwic
forest, overlooking Snowdon, is expected to be followed by major culls
next year on National Trust land and in the Rhinog mountains.
A
committee of landowners and conservationists from the National Trust and
the Snowdonia national park, claim feral goat numbers have almost
doubled in the last five years to around 500. More than 300 of the
animals now populate the slopes around the village of Nantgwynant,
giving it the densest wild goat population in the UK.
The wild
goats are accused of coming down off the high mountains, marauding
through gardens and eating flowers, knocking down walls and eating
saplings in protected woods.
Animal
Aid Wales has complained about the cull and is urging the public to
write letters of objection to the National Trust and to boycott its
properties. The British feral
goat research group are concerned at the loss of what they believe are
British 'primitives' because the Snowdon goats may trace their origins
back in a continuous line to the late ice age.
Britain used to have as many
as 250 herds of wild goats, now thought to be fewer than 50.
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329625823-121569,00.html
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_method=full&objectid=18090057&siteid=50082-name_page.html
A 'natural' health service
Natural England 8
November 2006
Natural England today
launches its health campaign, the first of its four national campaigns
to reconnect people with the natural environment.
Natural England is
working closely with the BBC and over 300 other partners to help deliver
Breathing Places, a campaign to mobilise more than a million people, who
are not currently active in the environment sector, to get involved at
thousands of wildlife friendly green spaces across the country.
Natural England’s health
campaign will encourage:
-
More people to get more
health benefit from regular contact with the natural environment
wherever they live.
-
Health professionals to
make more use of the natural environment as part of the total health
care they give to their patients.
-
Professionals who
manage public open spaces to improve the amount and quality of green
space near where people live.
Natural England will do
this by building a coalition of environmental, educational, scientific,
health and community organisations to bring the environment to the
forefront of the health agenda.
Dr William Bird, Natural
England’s health adviser, added: "Increasing evidence suggests that both
physical and mental health are improved through contact with nature. Yet
people are having less contact with nature than at any other time in the
past. This has to change!"
www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces
www.naturalengland.org.uk/press/releases/081106.htm
England's biodiversity:
progress report
DEFRA
News release Ref: 471/06 2 November 2006
A major
report is launched today that details the important progress that has
been made in conserving England's biodiversity.
“Working
with the grain of nature – taking it forward” celebrates how far we have
come since 2002, but also importantly details what needs to be done in
the immediate future to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2010.
The
report, presented by The England Biodiversity Group is published in
tandem with an update of the important indicators that are used to
measure the progress of the England Biodiversity Strategy. Six of the
seven indicators with established data now show a positive trend, whilst
the seventh (populations of wild birds) has stabilised.
Key
findings from the report include a substantial increase in the
investment into the management of water and wetland sites. Future
priorities include continued improvements of water quality in rivers,
canals and lakes; and a common framework for wetland restoration in the
wider countryside.
June 2005
saw the launch of a new Government policy for Ancient and Native
Woodlands in England, which places these woodlands at the heart of
forestry policy. Future priorities include ensuring that woodland,
forests, trees and related open habitats make an increasing contribution
to functional ecosystems and to the quality of peoples' lives.
In March
2006 the Government set out plans for the Marine Bill to provide a new
framework for the management of our coasts and seas. This will come into
effect during the course of this parliament
The UK
became the first EU member to formally designate all of its terrestrial
sites of community importance under the Habitats Directive (CD
92/43/EEC) designating all 608 sites of Special Areas of Conservation.
Full
copies of the indicators update and the report itself can be found at:
www.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-countryside/biodiversity/biostrat/index.htm
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