Natural Environment White Paper. My comments. No7

I've written up some comments for DEFRA based on the SWT paper  (available on their web site linked here)

DEFRA discussion paper on the Natural Environment White Paper:

Comments  based on suggestions from the Somerset Wildlife Trust and our local experiences.

1)   Which parts of the natural environment matter most to you?

It is very important that the Government takes action to protect, restore, and proactively ensure the recovery of our natural environment, for people and wildlife.

The Government should recognise the uniqueness of Somerset’s rich natural environment, and appreciate that it matters to all of us. A healthy, wildlife-rich natural environment benefits us all, and is irreplaceable.

A large scale network of high quality habitats will allow wildlife to thrive in our county in town and village, along hedgerow and verge and through fields and gardens. We must include our coastal areas and our wonderful hills for all to enjoy. By making space for nature, we will enable our natural world to become more resilient to future climate change.

2)   How do you feel you benefit from the natural environment?

Wildlife-rich landscapes and seas support our society and economy and recreational activities. A healthy, bio diverse environment provides us with a range of natural, life-supporting services, such as crop pollination, food production, flood prevention, clean air and water.

By restoring natural processes we all benefit – such as flood protection, carbon absorption, crop pollination and water filtration, so they can operate to their full potential for people and wildlife. All are fundamental to our health, well-being and a successful local economy.

3)   How do you think we could improve the natural environment?

I support the Wildlife Trusts strategy based on a Living Landscape approach to nature, which should act as guiding principles in the development of the Natural Environment White Paper.

A comprehensive strategic framework for the natural environment is required to secure the health of our natural environment.

We should protect and enlarge ‘core’ wildlife-rich areas – value and conserve existing protected places such as Local Wildlife Sites (LWS) and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) which lie at the heart of this new era for nature conservation. We should create more such areas which must not be allowed to be traded in or eroded.

We should put wildlife back on the map – map out priority areas for restoration on a landscape scale. Plan to create connections between core wildlife areas in the form of corridors and stepping stones, providing connectivity for wildlife across the landscape. Expand and buffer these areas and make the wider landscape more wildlife-friendly.

 4) What would encourage you to get involved in protecting the natural environment?

People need access to nature on their doorstep: high quality natural spaces should be available in town and country to encourage access to, and action for, the natural environment.

Ensure there is wildlife everywhere and support educational initiatives to inspire every community to develop local solutions to the particular challenges for restoring nature in their area.

The Trusts are well placed to generate a new type of partnership to act together with central and local government, agencies, the private sector and voluntary bodies to inspire and enable cross-boundary co-operation in planning and delivering a new vision for nature.

David German.

Chair of the Heart of the Levels Area Group of the Somerset Wildlife Trust

15.10.10

Natural Environment White Paper SWT views and comments No 6

The Somerset Wildlife Trust has published on its web site its views on the DEFRA consultation on the natural environment. It includes suggestions for members to use in their own comments.
October 30 th is the deadline for the receipt of comments.
Use this link:

www.somersetwildlife.org/whitepaper

or visit the SWT web site.

Costing the Earth and the Fake Plastic Sea

"Climate change" seems to be proving impossible for world governments to cope with according to press reports from the recent international conference.
Which made a Radio Four programme of special interest as it covered the growing move towards legal action against companies which can be shown to be adding to the pollution of the atmosphere and contributing to climate change. There are two episodes of the programme, the second deals with the growing problem of plastic objects floating in huge islands in the worlds oceans.
Here is a link to replay the programme:

URL:      http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/v72r3/

or click here. 

Below are the programme notes from the BBC web site copied today 14.10.10

Climate change litigation is already big news in the US and the number of environmental cases in our own courts could be about to increase. Tom Heap asks what the law can do.

"Climate change has already claimed its first victims. Displaced people from the Carteret Islands, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya and the Niger delta have already become climate refugees but from whom can they seek refuge or even compensation?
Environmental Justice Foundation is calling for legally binding agreements to protect those displaced and there are various legal cases in action that could set a precedent for compensation.
400 Alaskan residents are suing energy companies for creating a public nuisance and for conspiracy (in funding research to 'prove' there is no link between climate change and human activity). Tuvalu, the low lying nation in the pacific, has threatened to sue Australia and the United States for their contributions to climate change and in the latest and most high profile case Katrina victims are taking the big oil companies BP, Shell, Chevron Exxonmobile, to court.
So far displaced people have not been defined as refugees so they have no legal rights but countries could be expected to take a number of migrants equivalent to their contribution or compensate victims for their loss.
Myles Allan of Oxford University has set up models to predict how much climate change attributable to man has caused extreme weather conditions like the flooding here in the UK in 2000. Sophisticated modelling could make it easier to attribute blame and a recent ruling in the European Court means that victims of environmental crime should find it a lot easier to take their cases to court. Big insurance companies are already warning their clients to expect compensation suits but there is still some way to go before precedent has been set in the case of climate change and nobody knows what will happen once these floodgates have opened.
Tom Heap talks to victims of Katrina who are already taking lawsuits and flood victims in the UK on the anniversary of the 2000 flooding to find out whether the courts can really offer compensation where international governments have failed to act."

Spiders. Walnut orb- weaver. Nuctenea umbratica

I think its the time of year for watching spiders. Their webs are very obvious on a misty morning and that's why I found myself taking a few photos.

 Here is one taken in our garden shed at about 11 pm using a torch to try to focus on a quite strange looking black spider I noticed as I was putting our lawn mower away. That's my excuse for a poor picture. I am fairly sure I found its identification on the web site linked here.

Part of the description says that this spider shuns the light and hides at day. Sure enough when I went back next day it could not be seen. It is also one of the few UK spiders which can give a bite similar to a wasp sting so I will not be getting much closer. Its body looked quite like a walnut shell and quite unlike any other spider I've seen round here.

Acherontia atropos, known as the Death's Head Hawkmoth

I found it hard to accept that I was being shown a real live moth caterpillar but it was true. The third photograph shows its size and we understand it is not fully grown.  The moth itself we didnt see. Its the lava of the Deaths Head Hawkmoth.
More information can be obtained from the Somerset Moth Group.
Top picture  by John Bebbington others by Roger Harvey.
Here is a link to a photo showing the moth. Click here.

Why is it important? | Natural Environment White Paper

I hope this is self explanatory. This is a link to the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts. Here you can see the views of  others and guidance  about the consultation from the Wildlife Trusts. This should help you to make your own response to the DEFRA invitation to comment.
Click on the link:

Why is it important? | Natural Environment White Paper

Somerset Wildlife Trust AGM

The Trusts AGM is on October 16th.
Guest speaker will be Nick Baker, well known wildlife TV presenter.
Try this link to a video showing Nick in action.

Climate Change

Today I went on a visit to Plymouth.
Today the Royal Society published its brand new report entitled, " Climate Change: a summary of the science".
In Plymouth I stood on the spot where Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh and the Pilgrim Fathers all set out to sail across the Atlantic and around the world and into battle.

Now having read a little about those sailing adventures and rushed through a copy of the Royal Society  report , downloaded from the web, I am struck by a common  characteristic of all these accounts of human endeavour.

In each case history making actions and decisions were taken on very imperfect information and knowledge.

Our imagination helps us feel the act of faith of the early sailors  in for example, 1620 and now the Royal Society under pressure from Members and climate change sceptics using its resources of a wide range of highly qualified Fellows of the Society,  has reviewed the science and concludes its report with these comments:

"Paragraph  59: Like many important decisions, policy choices about climate change have to be made in
the absence of perfect knowledge. Even if the remaining uncertainties were substantially resolved, the wide variety of interests, cultures and beliefs in society would make consensus about such choices difficult to achieve. However, the potential impacts of climate change are sufficiently serious that important decisions will need to be made. Climate science – including the substantial body of knowledge that is already well
established, and the results of future research – is the essential basis for future climate projections and planning, and must be a vital component of public reasoning in this complex and challenging area"



In other words important actions almost always have to be taken with imperfect knowledge and action to respond to the scientific evidence about climate change will have to be taken.

Click here to see the RS report.

Government Consultation on the natural environment. No 5

In previous posts on this subject I've drawn attention to the full DEFRA  consultation document. But there is a simpler form which introduces the full set of questions and it is probably more likely to appeal to most people, including me, who just wants to quickly show their interest and concern about the natural environment.  It gives the following questions:

What are your views on the natural environment?

If you live in England, tell us which parts of the natural environment matter most to you and how we can best protect and enhance them.
Whether you live in a rural or an urban area, tell us your views by visiting our online survey and answering four short questions:

1. Which parts of the natural environment matter most to you?
2. How do you feel you benefit from the natural environment?
3. How do you think we could improve the natural environment?
4. What would encourage you to get involved in protecting the natural environment?

The deadline for responses is 30 October 2010.


Thus is much easier to cope with! I'll try to post my answers soon.

 

Government Consultation on the natural environment. No 4

I've just looked through all the questions in the Governments consultation document and quite honestly I will find it very hard to come up with sensible answers.
I got to  the the last one which is :

Question 15: If you could choose just one priority action for the Natural Environment White Paper

to drive forward locally, nationally or internationally – what would it be?

 I'm attending a meeting of the Somerset Wildlife Trust on Tuesday and I hope to get some guidance to bring to my Blog and to help me make a sensible submission on behalf of our local Area Group of the SWT.

The deadline for public responses is in 34 days time on Oct 30th!