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A round up of the top countryside, conservation, wildlife and forestry stories as chosen by the CJS Team.
Wildlife Trust calls for a wilder future for Hampshire and Isle of Wight
- Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife today launches a new campaign to
secure a wilder future for our counties Research has demonstrated that nature plays a vital role in improving
physical and mental wellbeing and yet many people are disconnected from
their natural surroundings and rarely spend time in nature.
©
Amy Lewis In a speech to members in Winchester this Saturday(27
October), Debbie Tann, Chief Executive, will say: “There’s complacency
here when it comes to the state of the natural environment.
Although our county looks green and pleasant, our wildlife is in
freefall. This is important – not just because of the incredible
plants and animals that we are losing, but because we all depend on the
natural world for our own survival and for the health of our society. We
have to act now to tip the balance in favour of nature’s recovery.” Over the past 50 years, 56% of species have declined across the UK,
with 15% now at risk of disappearing altogether. In Hampshire there have been dramatic reductions in species such as
water voles, nightingales and even common species like the large white
butterfly. This loss is being driven by intensive agriculture,
climate change, development, recreation pressure and unsustainable use
of natural resources.
UK bumblebee population trends – even common species in decline
– University of Kent Data collected by Bumblebee Conservation Trust (BBCT) volunteers to
assess the country’s changing bumblebee populations have been
analysed
in a new way for the first time at the University – and show mixed
results about their decline, with cause for concern for two species. A Common Carder bee, Bombus pascuorum, carding
hairs from a dead-nettle (University of Kent) Data was analysed for the five commonest species in the BBCT’s BeeWalk dataset.
Two of the species (Early Bumblebee Bombus pratorum and
Red-tailed Bumblebee B. lapidarius) have declined since
2011 while a further two (Common Carder bumblebee B. pascuorum and
Tree Bumblebee B. hypnorum) have increased. The Tree
bumblebee, first found in the UK in 2001, has spread rapidly across the
country. Britain’s 25 bumblebee species are some of the nation’s favourite
creatures and are also vital for the pollination of crops, garden plants
and wildflowers. However, they have suffered huge declines over the past
century: two species went extinct in the past 80 years, and eight
species are endangered. These species were known to have declined in
distribution over the long term but little was known about how bumblebee
populations have changed more recently. Hundreds of BeeWalk volunteers together walked nearly 5,000
kilometres each year to gather information about the numbers, species
and caste (queens, workers or males) of the bumblebees they saw and
identified. Statistician Dr
Eleni Matechou, of the Statistical
Ecology at Kent (SE@K) group in the School
of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science (SMSAS), devised
new methodology to analyse the data collected by BeeWalk. The new
statistical methodology uses the UK-wide aggregate data on bumblebee
detections and provides important information on each of the bumblebee
species, such as the average number of worker and queen bumblebees produced from each nest
per year.
Yesterday afternoon (29 October) the
Chancellor, Philip Hammond presented his Budget to Parliament
Budget 2018: 24 things you need to know – HM
Treasury The Chancellor has presented his Budget to Parliament – here's a
summary of what was announced. 1. Public finances have reached a turning point Since 2009-2010 the deficit has fallen by four-fifths, from 9.9% to
1.9%. Public debt peaked in 2016-17 and is now falling. On average,
spending on public services will grow 1.2% above inflation a year from
next year until 2023-24. 17. £30 billion to improve roads A £28.8 billion National Roads Fund, paid for by road tax, includes
£25.3 billion for the Strategic Road Network (motorways, trunk and A
roads). The largest ever investment of this kind. It will also help fund the new network of local roads (known as the
Major Road Network), and larger local road projects. Local authorities will receive £420 million to fix potholes on roads
and renew bridges and tunnels, and there will be a £150 million to
improve local traffic hotspots such as roundabouts.
Responses:
UK Budget announcement - our response –
Sustrans In response to the Chancellor’s
Autumn Budget announcement, Steve Brooks, Policy Director at
Sustrans, the cycling and walking charity said: “When it comes to
spending on transport, prevention is always cheaper than the cure. But
sadly this budget continues to lock Britain into a polluted, congested
future which in the long-run will cost the country billions. With the
Prime Minister’s earlier announcement of a continued freeze in fuel
duty, coupled with today’s announcement of over £25bn for the next Road
Investment Strategy, this budget will only lead to further congestion,
air pollution and poor health. A road building programme to be funded by
income from Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) is particularly alarming at a time
when climate experts call for a drastic reduction in global greenhouse
gas emissions. The Chancellor has missed an opportunity to help towns
and cities thrive and relieve some of long-term pressures on the NHS.”
CPRE reaction to the Autumn Budget CPRE has today expressed disappointment at the Government’s support
for large new road-building projects, with billions of pounds of funding
allocated for new roads in the Thames Estuary and the Oxford-Cambridge
Arc.
This scale of expenditure stands in stark contrast to the limited
investment for environmental improvements announced in the Budget today.
The world’s leading climate change experts recently estimated that we
only have 12 years to limit the worst effects of climate change, but the
Government is continuing to favour grey infrastructure over green
investment. The prioritisation of investment in road infrastructure over
sustainable forms of transport and the wider environment, coupled with
the government’s support for fracking, is completely at odds with the
urgent need to tackle climate change and safeguard our countryside for
the next generation. Tom Fyans, director of campaigns and policy at the Campaign to
Protect Rural England said: "The disparity in investment between grey
and green infrastructure contradicts the prime minister’s environmental
ambitions, and the urgent need to tackle climate change. The latest IPCC
report says we have just 12 years left to limit warming to 1.5ºC – but
by continuing to accelerate road-building, the Government is acting as
if we have 120.”
‘Gold standard’ environment pledge tarnished by lack of environmental
Budget measures – Wildlife & Countryside Link Responding to the Budget, 18 environmental groups are highlighting
their disappointment with the limited new initiatives and lack of
funding for nature announced today. Responding to the Budget, 18 environmental groups are highlighting
their disappointment with the limited new initiatives and lack of
funding for nature announced today. This absence is at odds with the
urgent need to tackle issues such as climate change, plastic pollution,
soil erosion, flooding, spiralling wildlife declines and to create a
nature-friendly farming future. Rapid, dramatic, and fully-funded environmental commitments are
needed, with only a decade to stop the massive problems of plastic
pollution and climate change hitting an irreversible tipping point, and
only 30 years of fertile soils left. Dr Elaine King, Director of Wildlife and Countryside Link, said: ‘The
Prime Minister and Secretary of State say they want to set a global gold
standard for the environment. Yet that promise has been tarnished by the
limited environmental measures announced by the Chancellor in today’s
Budget. With only a decade to turn the tide on plastic pollution and
limit the catastrophic impacts of climate change, and little longer to
save our soils, the environment must be a top Government priority if our
children, our wildlife and our planet are not to pay a terrible price.’ The other big story today (30 October):
Wildlife declines show nature needs life support, WWF warns Conservation organisation calls for new global deal for nature and
people to halt wildlife decline and tackle deforestation, climate change
and plastic pollution
Plummeting numbers of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and fish
around the world are an urgent sign that nature needs life support, WWF
warned today as the conservation organisation’s flagship Living Planet
Report 2018 shows population sizes of wildlife fell an average of 60
percent globally since 1970. Current efforts to protect nature are failing, WWF warns, because
they are not ambitious enough to match the scale of the threat the
planet is facing. The organisation is calling for a new global deal for
nature and people, backed by concrete commitments from countries and
businesses to tackle wildlife loss, climate change and development in an
integrated way. The Living Planet Report 2018, involving over 50 experts, paints a
dire picture of the state of our planet and clearly illustrates that
humans are living beyond the planet’s means and wiping out life on earth
in the process. It highlights how overuse of natural resources on land and in the
oceans, and agricultural activity, driven by human consumption, are the
dominant cause of current wildlife declines and the destruction of
forests, oceans and landscapes. It also identifies climate change and
pollution, including plastic, as significant and growing threats. It
reveals:
Full and summary versions of the report are available
here
Clock change increases deer risk on roads Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) is warning motorists to be aware of
the increased potential for collisions between deer and vehicles due to
the shorter periods of daylight. With night falling earlier, deer are more likely to venture on to the
grass verges near roadsides during peak commuting times as they browse
and feed. In response to the potential risk, SNH – in conjunction with
Transport Scotland and Traffic Scotland – are placing warning messages
on electronic variable messaging signs (VMS). From this week
until Monday 19 November, the signs will warn motorists at key locations
on the main trunk roads. These messages will be on signs on the A9, A87,
A82, A85 and the A835. It's estimated that collisions between deer and vehicles could be as
high as 9,000 per year in Scotland, resulting in 50 to 100 human
injuries. The majority of collisions take place in early evening through
to midnight, with another peak occurring from 6am to 9am. Over the past 50 years, the number of wild deer in Scotland has
increased as has their range. In the same period, the volume of road
traffic has almost doubled. This combination has led to increased
deer-vehicle collision rates across the country, with the greatest jump
occurring in Aberdeenshire, Fife and the Central Belt. This corresponds
with the rise in the populations of roe deer, which adapt well to
lowland habitats.
Watching whales from space - British
Antarctic Survey Scientists have used detailed high-resolution satellite images
provided by Maxar Technologies’ DigitalGlobe, to detect, count and
describe four different species of whales. Reported this week in the
journal Marine Mammal Science, this study is a big step towards
developing a cost-effective method to study whales in remote and
inaccessible places, that will help scientists to monitor population
changes and understand their behaviour. Each species was observed in one of their known aggregation areas,
where individuals come together to congregate: southern right whales off
Argentina, humpback whales off Hawaii, fin whales in the Pelagos
Sanctuary in the Mediterranean and grey whales off the coast of Mexico.
Already it has helped whale conservation bodies to identify 10 key
inaccessible whale populations that would benefit most from the
application of satellite imagery in studies. Lead author Hannah Cubaynes, a whale ecologist at British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and University of Cambridge explains: “This is the most detailed imagery of whales captured by satellites to date. It’s exciting that the improved resolution (now at 30 cm) reveals characteristic features, such as flippers and flukes, which can be seen in the images for the first time. Whales live in all oceans. Many areas are difficult to access by boats or planes, the traditional means of monitoring whales. The ability to track whales without travelling to these remote and inaccessible areas, in a cost-effective way, will be of great benefit to conservation efforts for whales.”
Launch of global effort to read genetic code of all complex life on
earth - The Wellcome Sanger Institute The project aims to create a new foundation for biology to drive
solutions for preserving biodiversity and sustaining human societies The Earth BioGenome Project (EBP), a global effort to sequence the
genetic code, or genomes, of all 1.5 million known animal, plant,
protozoan and fungal species on Earth, officially launches today (1
November) as key scientific partners and funders from around the globe
gather in London, UK to discuss progress in organising and funding the
project. The EBP will ultimately create a new foundation for biology to drive
solutions for preserving biodiversity and sustaining human societies. The EBP is made possible by recent and future advances in sequencing
and information technology that will enable the reading and
interpretation of tens of thousands of species’ genomes each year by
partner institutions across the globe. A greater understanding of Earth’s biodiversity and the responsible
stewarding of its resources are among the most crucial scientific and
social challenges of the new millennium. The overcoming of these
challenges requires new scientific knowledge of evolution and
interactions among millions of the planet’s organisms.
Trees for Life’s red squirrel project wins global conservation
competition - Trees for Life
Scotland’s
only entry in the Forests category of a leading global conservation
competition has won funding of more than £25,000 to help ensure the
long-term survival of Scotland’s red squirrels. Image: © Peter Cairns Trees for Life’s Reds Return initiative secured almost 7,400 votes
and widespread social media support – including from television
presenter Chris Packham – in the 2018 European Outdoor Conservation
Association vote held between 8-22 October.
Conversations are a walk in the park; communication is better outdoors, research finds - University of Manchester New research has found that conversations are better in natural
environments such as parks and gardens than indoors. The team focused on families with three- and four-year-olds, because
at these ages most children have a lot to say, but coordinating with a
conversational partner is sometimes challenging. The study ‘Responding
to nature: Natural environments improve parent-child communication’
is published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology.
Southern North Sea review of consents: draft Habitats Regulations
Assessment (HRA) - Department for Business,
Energy & Industrial Strategy
Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy is seeking
views on a draft Habitats Regulations Assessment for a review of
consented wind farms in the Southern North Sea cSAC/SCI. In January 2017 the Southern North Sea candidate Special Area of
Conservation / Site of Community Importance (cSAC/SCI) was designated
for the protection of harbour porpoise. When a new SAC is designated there is a statutory requirement for a
review to be undertaken of certain projects. As part of the review, the
competent authorities (in this case BEIS and the Marine Management
Organisation (MMO)) are required to undertake a Habitats Regulations
Assessment (HRA). The purpose of this consultation is to seek the views of all
interested parties on the draft HRA. This consultation closes at: 5pm on 13 December 2018
Click through to view the documents and take part in the consultation.
Proposals unveiled to cut red tape for divers retrieving marine litter
- defra A consultation to review and streamline the marine licensing system. As part of the government’s ongoing drive to clean up our seas,
new proposals launched today (2 November 2018) will cut red tape and
make it easier for divers to remove litter from the seabed. Until now, a marine licence may be required for divers who retrieve
litter or abandoned, lost and discarded fishing gear – known as ‘ghost
gear’ – during the course of a dive. Now, in a consultation launched today by Environment Minister Thérèse
Coffey, divers will be exempt from the current requirement to have a
marine licence – streamlining the existing regime and helping to tackle
the 640,000 tonnes of ghost gear lost in our oceans each year. The consultation also brings clarity to boat users who do not require
a licence to collect litter or ghost gear from the ocean’s surface. Chair of the British Sub-Aqua Club Alex Warzynski said: "As divers we
see first-hand the damage to the marine environment done by abandoned
and lost fishing gear along with other marine litter, and anything that
Defra can do to make it easy for divers to clean up without fear of
doing the wrong thing will help. The new proposals will also allow
harbour authorities to remove all marine litter as previously they have
only been able to remove objects that present an immediate risk of
obstruction or danger to navigation." The
consultation opens today (2 November) and runs for 6 weeks.
Defra group's strategy: creating a great place for living
- defra A strategy for the whole of Defra that sets out a shared vision, set
of strategic objectives and goals. This strategy document sets out a shared vision, objectives and goals
for the whole of the Defra group. It is intended to provide staff across the whole group of Defra
organisations (including non-ministerial departments, executive
agencies, non-departmental and other public bodies) with a clear
understanding of how the Defra group is creating a great place for
living. Our vision The Defra group is here to make our air purer, our water cleaner, our
land greener and our food more sustainable. Our mission is to restore and enhance the environment for the next
generation, and to leave the environment in a better state. This matters because enhancing nature and green spaces enhances
lives. Our wellbeing, our physical and mental health, our love of place
and landscape, and our intrinsic need for beauty, awe and wonder, are
all intimately bound up with a thriving natural environment. A healthy and resilient natural world underpins economic prosperity.
Investing in species and habitats is an investment in a sustainable
economy. Environmental services and technologies drive economic growth
and are part of a modern economy. We know better than ever before that economic growth should not come
at the cost of environmental degradation. We have a responsibility to
tackle, rather than tolerate, challenges like climate change, poor air
quality and our reliance on plastics. Read the report in full or download the PDF print version.
Scientific publications Morelly, F., Mikula, P., Benedetti, Y., Bussière, R. & Tryjanowski, P. (2018) Cemeteries support avian diversity likewise urban parks in European cities: Assessing taxonomic, evolutionary and functional diversity. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening. DOI: 10.1016/j.ufug.2018.10.011
Ben Parslew, Girupakaran Sivalingam, William Crowther A dynamics and stability framework for avian jumping take-off R. Soc. open sci. 2018 5 181544; DOI: 10.1098/rsos.181544.
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