Find out what's happening in the world of nature conservation...

 

Since before the general election the Wildlife Trusts, in partnership with other conservation organisations, have been lobbying the newly formed government to publish a White Paper on the natural environment. New legislation is badly needed as currently there is very little in existing law to encourage the restoration of damaged habitats or creation of new habitats to replace those that have been lost to development or to damaging changes in land use.

 

In the 1940s The Wildlife Trusts’ founders successfully pressed for laws to protect some of our most special habitats but these were emergency measures. These were very successful in protecting small refuges for wildlife. However in the wider landscape species continued to be lost and decline on an unprecedented scale. So now nature reserves and other protected lands have become isolated in a landscape largely hostile to wildlife. Many species struggle to survive with only small populations effectively trapped on these fragmented ‘islands’ of habitat. They are vulnerable to extinction by things like disease or environmental factors such as local flooding as well as global climate change.

 

A new framework is needed for conservationists to work with government and other partners to achieve the Wildlife Trust’s vision to connect up good quality habitats to create Living Landscapes and Living Seas. We need to join the ‘dots’ so that wildlife is able to move around our landscapes more freely, and to fully achieve this we need support from a new legislative framework to enable work on the ground to progress. 

 

The government have committed to producing a White Paper on the natural environment by spring 2011 and today have announced a public consultation to shape this document. Anyone with an with an interest in the Natural Environment White Paper is invited to give comments and submissions by 10 October 2010. The Wildlife Trusts will of course be contributing to this process and has set out what we believe needs to be the fundamental framework to achieve Living Landscapes and Living Seas.

 

---

Badgers and bovine TB

The proposed badger cull in Wales seems unlikely to go ahead, at least in the near future, following a recent court judgement. The Welsh Assembly Government had proposed to cull badgers in part of Pembrokeshire as part of a strategy for reducing the incidence of TB in cattle. They issued an order for a badger cull in spring this year, but the prder was challenged in the courts by the Badger Trust.
 
The High Court ruled that the order was unlawful for three reasons, two of which related to the technical process of producing the order. The third reason given was that the law under which the order was issued requires that wildlife can only be culled if it will result in a "substantial" reduction in disease the cull is designed to affect. In this case it was agreed that the most effective outcome of a cull of around 2,000 badgers would be a total reduction in TB in cattle in the area of 9%, which equates to a reduction by around 0.3% in the number of farms that would suffer an outbreak of TB each year. The court ruled that this was not a substantial reduction.
 
The Assembly Government still have to option of appealing to the Supreme Court, but if the judgement stands it does have potential implications for a cull going forward in England. The coalition government have said that they "will introduce a carefully managed and science-led policy of badger control in areas with high and persistent levels of bovine tuberculosis.", but the courts have made it clear that the reduction will have to be well above that expected in the Welsh trial area for a cull to proceed. For Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire it would make it highly unlikely that a cull could proceed, given the low level of TB currently in cattle in our area.

 

The Wildlife Trusts understand that bovine TB in cattle is a significant problem for farming in the UK and that action is required to combat the disease. However, we believe that science should inform any decisions made on culling. The scientific evidence does not support a cull, as the Independent Scientific Group (ISG) on Cattle TB showed in its final report (June 2007).  Its firm view was that culling badgers would not solve the problem and could even make things worse. We would like to see the results of the vaccination trials being considered before any further decisions are made, as they may present an alternative to culling. Unfortunately the new government has reduced the number of trial areas of a TB vaccination from 6 to 1, which does not help develop the science-base for an understanding of how vaccination could help in restricting bovine TB.

In their coalition agreement, the new government have committed to seeking to put a High Speed Rail system in place. Unlike the previous government’s proposal for a line from London to Birmingham, the new government proposal is to go as far north as Manchester and / or Leeds, and to alter the southern end of the route so that the line goes to Heathrow. Prior to the election the Conservative Party included the High Speed Rail proposal in their manifesto, but they committed to a consultation which would include an investigation of alternative routes to the previous government’s preferred route.

The previous government’s preferred route was published with a paper that acknowledged that there are potential environmental impacts that would result from the HS2 project. In relation to biodiversity these are identified as being the loss of various local wildlife sites, including areas of ancient woodland in the Chilterns, and land take at Long Itchington and Ufton Wood SSSI in Warwickshire, although they state that land take “has mostly been avoided by tunnelling beneath it”.

BBOWT believe that the Command Paper significantly underestimated both the direct impacts that HS2 would have on the natural environment, but also the indirect impacts from noise and visual intrusion, that would result from the proposed line. For example, much of the route in North Buckinghamshire follows an existing disused railway line. Since their abandonment these lines have developed an increasingly disproportionate wildlife interest, as they have developed high value habitats whilst availability of habitat in the surrounding land has decreased. The North Buckinghamshire line supports colonies of the nationally rare Black Hairstreak butterfly.

Two of BBOWT’s nature reserves would be affected should route following the same line as the previous government’s preferred option go forward; Calvert Jubilee and Finemere Wood. Calvert Jubilee has considerable breeding and wintering bird interest. There would clearly be a significant impact to the site during any construction phase. It is known that many bird species can habituate to long-term noise disturbance, but there is very little research available in relation to the impacts from a high speed, high frequency service such as that proposed by HS2.

As well as the two BBOWT sites that are affected the published route could also affect three Sites of Special Scientific Interest, nine Local Wildlife Sites and nine ancient woodlands. We are also aware that there would be impacts on nature reserves in the Birmingham area of the route, including significant impacts to a wildlife-rich woodland.

We believe that the approach taken in producing the very limited Assessment of Sustainability that accompanies the Command Paper was flawed, and seriously underestimated the impact of the proposal on biodiversity.

 

 back to top