River Love…

Today we hosted the launch of Defra’s “Love Your River” campaign on the River Itchen at Winnall Moors nature reserve.

We welcomed Richard Benyon MP, Minister for Fisheries and the Natural Environment who spent 3 hours with the Trust and partner organisations including the Environment Agency, learning first hand about the river and the conservation work being done here.

Choosing the Itchen for the launch of the campaign was highly appropriate.  It is one of only 4 chalk rivers in England designated under European legislation as a Special Area of Conservation.  As well as being exceptionally important for wildlife, the Itchen also supplies drinking water to more than half a million people and businesses in south Hampshire.  Abstraction, pollution, development, climate change and the recent drought conditions are putting this precious resource under more pressure than ever. 

Getting the chance to discuss these pressures with the Minister whilst showcasing the habitat improvements, river restoration, floodplain management and educational work the Trust is doing was extremely valuable.  With the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Environment Agency we are transforming the river and its floodplain, developing a wild fishery and engaging and inspiring local people. 

We discussed how important projects like this are for demonstrating the importance of taking a landscape-scale, catchment wide approach to conservation – delivering multiple benefits for wildlife and people (also known as “ecosystem services”).

We highlighted the ongoing pressures to the Itchen from abstraction and pollution; we talked about the plans for 80,000 new homes in south Hampshire and how supplying water for these developments without damaging the river was going to be a real challenge.  The Minister discussed with EA and Southern Water their role in reducing demand for water and promoting water efficiencies. 

Oh, and we saw kingfishers, water voles, wild brown trout, grayling and my first marsh marigolds of the year! 

Read more about the campaign here and here and our work on the Itchen here.

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Yet again the Government fail on their pledge to be the greenest …

Today’s Autumn statement by the Chancellor George Osborne amounts to a direct attack on nature and quality of life. 

Amongst the doom and gloom about the poor state of our economy were some astonishingly feeble assertions that environmental protection is placing unreasonable burdens on business and hence stifling economic growth.  

Declaring:  “we will make sure that gold plating of EU rules on things like Habitats aren’t placing ridiculous costs on British businesses,”  the Chancellor is clearly so desperate to kick start the economy he is willing to relax protection of some our most iconic landscapes.  In Hampshire this includes the New Forest, the Solent Coast, the north east Hampshire heathlands and the River Itchen.  On the Isle of Wight this includes much of the spectacular and unique coastline.

Spring in the New Forest

Today’s announcement of a Review of the implementation of the Habitats and Birds Directives is designed to “tackle blockages for developments where compliance is particularly complex or has large impacts”.  This is not only unbelievably short-sighted, it betrays the huge economic value of these natural areas. 

This is just the latest apparent u-turn on their pledge to be the ‘greenest Government ever’.  The Coalition made a promising start with the Natural Environment White Paper and the National Ecosystems Assessment – both recognising the fundamental importance of nature as crucial in underpinning the economy.  Sadly, it has all gone downhill from there.

A few weeks ago it was weakening of planning rules in the National Planning Policy Framework – then the backtracking on their pledge to designated Marine Conservation Zones.  The Government’s narrow-minded focus on the economy is risking the very things that underpin quality of life.

Does this Government want to go down in history as the Government that kick-started nature’s recovery or as the Government that tore down the long fought for protection for England’s richest wildlife sites?

The New Economics Foundation make a strong case for the need for a fundamentally different economic model that takes into account the depletion of natural resources.  Economic growth should not be achieved at the cost of our natural life support systems.  Risking our most iconic and beautiful natural areas surely cannot be part of a sustainable plan for Britain’s future.

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Also see:

http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/news/2011/11/29/wildlife-trusts-lose-patience-over-new-attack-nature

http://www.thisishampshire.net/news/9397508.Wildlife_sites____under_threat___/

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