Yesterday I was involved in discussions about two cases we have been following in these posts – the Humber Estuary on England’s east coast and the Kenya’s Dakatcha Woodlands. In talking about them on the same day, it dawned on me that there were some striking similarities despite their obvious difference.
They are both examples of intense development pressure posing a real risk to the natural environment – that doesn’t single them out at all - that’s a familiar pattern across so many of the stories we follow.
But both Dakatacha and the Humber’s South Banks involve land that is not fully formally designated (a real lesson that failure to designate sets up conflict – if the best sites are propoerly identified its fate is more likely to be taken into account).
There is no doubt that in both cases there is a real and compelling case for economic development – yet progress to find a way forward is frustrated by claims that the natural environment is put ahead of the future of local communities - birds being put before jobs in tabloid terms.
Communities in Kenya see proposals for developing the Dakatcha woodlands for pig farming and pineapple growing come and go trailing promises of community benefits. The latest scheme involves growing fuel-oil rich jatropha bringing jobs and benefits but sacrificing an important part of Kenya’s natural heritage.
So the latest news from the area is very encouraging – the veteran Kenyan politician and Environment Minister, the Honourable John Michuki attended a meeting to explore the issues around the controversial plans to develop the area for jatropha growing. (Here, addressing the meeting):
At the meeting he ordered work to identify zoning that will deliver development and provide the means (if it is done well – big if) to protect the importance of the woodlands. The minister congratulated the communities for having safeguarded their woodland cover so far – and called for the use of science to determine environmental decisions. A welcome and significant intervention.
Nature Kenya’s campaign has been highly influential in getting the future of Dakatcha the attention it deserves – the minister’s significant visit is testament to that.
But passions are running high and the meeting gave Serah Munguti, Nature Kenya’s Communications and Advocacy manager the chance to make clear her organisation’s position. ‘There is now hope that the minister’s words will lead to real progress, Nature Kenya has always recognised the need for investment in the area but it needs to be planned to conform to conservation principles and that local people themselves should be at the heart of that planning’.
And Serah’s words could equally apply to the Humber – it’s a message my colleagues working to secure a positive future for the natural environment alongside well planned investment are regularly giving – yet progress is often slow and blighted by perceptions that it’s easier to justify avoidable damage rather than get the plans right.
Jobs and birds please.
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Congratulations to Jamie Wardley for producing this fantastic sand sculpture – there for just a little while then lost beneath the incoming tide. (This picture courtesy of blueriverstudios)
You can see another one here – and read what it was all about. But to cut a long story short, this creative event drew attention to the fragile natural environment threatened by the development of a new coal-fired power station at Hunterston (here’s an earlier post and some more information).
We believe that this proposal is the wrong option as it will deliver a double whammy to Scotland’s environment – damage to an important wildlife site and the cranking up of carbon dioxide emissions.
I have to admit to a certain amount of envy at these great images in the sand. Years ago, as part of another campaign, I managed to organise 1200 people standing in the letters S.S.S.I in the middle of Morecambe Bay only for the light aircraft carrying the BBC and a photographer to fail to find us – and there’s only so long you can keep 1200 amused and standing still!
The campaign to stop Hunterston campaign is on facebook
You can see some more of Jamie’s art here.
Talbot Heath is chunk of high quality habitat right in the heart of Poole – it’s part of the Dorset Heaths Special Protection Area so it’s special and that’s official. There’s been a lot of work by ourselves and many others to help heathland both in terms of recreating lost areas and ensuring that the best bits are protected from development through the planning system. And it’s not just the risk of plonking houses on the site itself – but avoiding pressing too close to the edge. The flammable, sensitive habitat with its special wildlife confined to the ground (or very close to it) means the risk of disturbance and damage from dogs, cats and over-use is great and with it the loss of the species that bring heathland to life – birds like the Dartford warbler (pictured) are a real case in point.
That’s why the decision to give permission to housing close to Talbot Heath is such a big deal – it’s not just the threat to the site itself but also the signal that it sends to other communities and local authorities that it’s possible to get away with hemming in special heathland.
So we put in a request to the Secretary of State to ‘call in’ the planning application – and we’ve just heard that the call in has been issued! So if you added your voice to the request, thank you – this is a good outcome.
The call in is, inevitably, just the start. If you’ve been following the Lydd airport saga, then you’ll know we are on the same road though further down what a colleague calls the courtly dance of submissions and statements as we head towards a public inquiry in February. For Talbot Heath we await a date for the public inquiry.
So just a start – but a good day for Heathland wildlife.
Yesterday saw the publication of an important and independent review of England’s wildlife sites authored by Sir John Lawton. The report concludes that our protected areas are too small and too isolated and that this is leading to the loss of the wildlife that makes these areas special. Climate change will make the situation worse.
Here’s the news from DEFRA (and from the Guardian) where Secretary of State for the Environment, Caroline Spelman welcomed the report, in particular she said; “Sir John Lawton is right to challenge us over what it takes to address the loss of biodiversity but he is also clear this cannot be done by Government alone. Everyone from farmers, wildlife groups, landowners and individuals can play a role in helping to create, manage and improve these areas, so if ever there was a time for the Big Society to protect our natural environment, this is it.
Indeed.
We’re up for it and we launched our Futurescapes earlier in the summer, a programme that we will lead as our contribution to the revolution in thinking and scale that we need if 2020’s stop the loss and bring back wildlife is to mean anything.
The Government’s role will be smaller in the future but remains critical to the challenge of halting and reversing the loss of nature – this role will become clearer over the coming months when we learn the extent of the cuts and see the new Government’s intentions set out (for England) in the Natural Environment White Paper. The extent and targeting of the cuts will be a key signal of the Government’s ability to forge a realistic partnership with this part of the Big Society
There is still time to join over 301,000 people who have signed Letter to the Future saying don’t cut the life from the countryside.
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We’ve followed proposals to build massive (and massively damaging) barrages across several of the UK’s estuaries – the Severn, The Thames, The Mersey and even the Wash. Some of these proposals have got further than others, but they all follow a familiar pattern, initial enthusiasm, sober reflection and the realisation that the damage and costs are un-sustainable. On the Wash we are in the early enthusiasm stage. My colleague, Rob Lucking our Area Manager for the Wash and North Norfolk, attended a meeting earlier in the week and sent me this note afterwards.
‘On Wednesday I went along to a talk organised by the local branch of the Institute of Engineering and Technology. The speaker was Peter Dawe, internet entrepreneur and self-styled New Noah and the subject was his idea for a barrier across The Wash, the UK's most important estuary for wildlife, lying on England's East Coast between Norfolk and Lincolnshire.
His rationale is that as sea levels rise, sea defences will have to be raised to keep the sea out of The Fens - one of the UK's most productive agricultural areas and home to around 300,000 people. With over 200km of sea defences around The Wash and its tidal rivers, surely an easier option would be to build a barrage across The Wash. The cost of building the barrage (£1.5billion) would be offset by building in some turbines to generate electricity. Mr Dawe estimates the generating capacity of his barrage would be in the order of 1-2GW (the equivalent of Sizewell B) and said the income from energy generation would pay for the scheme embarrassingly fast'. A bit of a no-brainer you might think - protection of all that land and property and the scheme will pay for itself within a few years.
So far so good? Well experience elsewhere would indicate that it won’t be nearly as simple as that. One of the problems with tidal barriers is that they can massively increase rates of erosion of the coastline adjacent to the barrier (the impeded water has to go somewhere). The best comparable study is the Eastern Scheldt (you can find a report here as a pdf on the left hand side of the screen under the map) in The Netherlands where a storm surge barrier built in the 1980s has resulted in massive erosion of the adjacent intertidal, so much so that millions of Euros will have to be spent to defend the very land the storm surge barrier was built to protect in the first place!
Peter Dawe’s answer to the question of whether the negative impacts of his scheme on the neighbouring coastal communities in North Norfolk and Lincolnshire was a price worth paying for protecting the Fens. His answer? A resounding, and surprising yes! Not a comfortable message for the communities of Skegness, Brancaster, Wells etc.
So far, Mr Dawe’s bright idea has not attracted funding (and his estimate of £1.5 billion looks low for a barrier longer than the proposed Cardiff – Weston Severn Barrage by a factor of 10). The need for a barrier to protect the fens is unproven and not backed by the analysis of the Environment Agency. Seemingly agreeing with those challenges, but in what was probably an attempt at irony, Mr Dawe said his scheme was probably a stupid idea. For those of us who value The Wash as a fantastic natural resource and don't want to see it destroyed by a scheme that isn't required – we would agree’.
And here's a picture of the Wash - highlighting just how big an area it is.