Steven’s Croft Biomass Power Station, Lockerbie. The German-owned plant requires 220,000 tonnes of trees a year

Biomadness: Biomass power station produced four times emissions of UK coal plant – Drax received £22bn in subsidies despite being UK’s largest emitter in 2023, though company rejects ‘flawed’ research – Drax: UK power station still burning rare forest wood

Drax burns the equivalent of 27 million trees annually – twice the number of trees in the New Forest. The cutting and shipping of trees to Yorkshire across the Atlantic in ships running on diesel will never be sustainable, but the story goes further than this. Multiple investigations have found that Drax uses pellets from whole logs sourced from globally important forests, including taking more than 40,000 tonnes of wood from old growth forests in British Columbia in 2023.

‘Eco-hypocrisy’ over Scotland’s biomass boiler ban, while subsidies are available to install them!

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24252775.confusion-biomass-boiler-ban-subsidies-install/

Ministers have been accused of implementing “disjointed legislation” after it emerged that new regulations effectively ban biomass boilers in new homes while subsidies worth thousands are still available to install them in existing properties, it is being reported.
Restrictions on wood-burning stoves in new build houses are part of the Scottish Government’s attempts to curb emissions of fossil fuels as part of its net-zero strategy.

The legislation also covers biomass boilers, which use sustainably sourced pellets made from woodchips, saw-dust, straw and other plant material.

However, an investigation has found that grant funding of up to £9,000 is available for biomass boilers for existing properties, when an applicant can provide evidence that a heat pump, the Scottish Government’s preferred option, is not suitable.

That means some families will be prohibited from installing the systems in their new homes, while others in existing houses are given thousands of pounds in grants and interest-free loans.

Douglas Lumsden, the Scottish Conservative energy spokesman, said ministers were preventing rural communities, where wood-burning and biomass stoves were more important, from heating their homes “while subsidising others elsewhere”.

“This latest shoddy legislation again demonstrates their contempt for rural Scotland and there’s still no Scottish Government guidance on how exemptions will work,” he said. “You can’t have one family barred from using responsibly sourced wood while offering to subsidise others.”

The Government has been heavily criticised by rural communities after the regulations came into force at the beginning of this month, stating that all new homes must be fitted with “clean” heating such as air or ground-sourced heat pump technology rather than gas or wood-burning boilers.

It later clarified that wood-burners could be built in homes but only for emergency purposes if special exemption rules were satisfied. The regulations have no effect on homes that already have wood-burning systems installed.

Anna Gardiner, policy adviser for Scottish Land & Estates, told the Sunday Post that wood-burners were the cheapest, most efficient way to warm homes in rural areas because of a ready supply of local timber.

“The gas grid present in cities such as Edinburgh and Glasgow does not exist in many rural settings,” she said. “We do not believe a ban on installing wood-burning stoves in new rural homes is suitable at present.”

A spokesman for Patrick Harvie, the net zero minister, said: “The new building standard will mean new homes are built with modern and green heating systems while allowing wood-burning systems for emergency back-up where required. This move, which follows two consultations, has been widely welcomed as a positive step forward in our fight against climate change, and was approved unanimously by the Scottish parliament, including Mr Lumsden’s party, when they considered the regulations last year.”

Scotland: Biomass plant plans under attack

By Scott Hussey | Times Online | April 25, 2010

Plans to build a network of biomass power plants in Scotland as part of Alex Salmond’s green revolution could damage the environment and cost thousands of jobs, according to a new report.

A shortage of domestic wood means that millions of tonnes of timber will have to be imported to fuel the plants, which are a key element of the SNP’s renewable energy strategy.

In addition to the carbon footprint of importing wood, the independent study warns that the surge in demand from government-subsidised biomass plants is likely to squeeze Scottish timber-processing firms out of the market.

According to the report, commissioned by the Confederation of Forest Industries (ConFor), demand for wood could exceed supply as early as next year — before the biggest biomass plants are built.

There are only a handful of the plants in Scotland, but more than a dozen are in the pipeline.

The biggest is a 225-megawatt plant in Hunterston, North Ayrshire. Others include four 100-megawatt plants at the ports of Leith, Rosyth, Grangemouth and Dundee. These four plants alone would burn four million tonnes of wood every year, almost half of Scottish timber production.

A subsidy of £8.1m was given to a 44-megawatt plant in Markinch, Fife, and £10m to a plant in Irvine, Ayrshire. The largest biomass plant in Scotland — and one of the UK’s largest — is in Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway. The £114m plant delivers 44 megawatts of energy and burns 475,000 tonnes of sustainable wood a year.

The report, by the Edinburgh-based firm John Clegg Consulting, concludes: “If new large users of British-grown wood and other wood fibre enter the marketplace, supported by subsidy, then it can only be at the expense of existing users, impacting negatively and disproportionately on sustainability, employment, carbon sequestration and mitigation of climate change.”

Stuart Goodall, chief executive of ConFor, which represents about 2,000 woodland owners and forest businesses across the UK, urged the Scottish government to reconsider its policy of subsidising biomass plants.

“Diverting wood from existing users to large-scale biomass plants will be bad for the environment and bad for jobs.

“By subsidising the dash to large-scale biomass, the Scottish government threatens to damage its own aim of a low-carbon economy — creating an artificial market that undermines its environmental and economic objectives. The policy will create a huge demand for wood that just isn’t there.”

Only 12% of Britain is covered by forest, the lowest proportion of any European country. About 20,000 workers are employed in Scotland in industries that use wood, such as saw-milling and wood-panel, paper and pulp manufacturing…

see also Barbarians at the barn: private equity sinks its teeth into agriculture also Cost-price imbalance takes toll on farm profits in 2023 and Dairy farming: private equity’s next cash cow?

Farm profits slumped by 19% in 2023, says Defra report

Eastern Daily Press 20th July 2024

Farm profitability fell by 19pc across the country last year, according to the latest government figures – illustrating the ongoing financial volatility in the sector.

Defra’s Total Income from Farming (TIFF) is a measure of the total profit from all UK farming businesses in a calendar year.

The figure for England in 2023 was £4.5bn, a fall of £1.1bn from 2022.

Defra says this decrease was mainly due to a 13.1pc fall in the value of crop outputs, which dropped by £1.5bn to £9.9bn.

“Low commodity prices combined with a poor yield resulted in substantial decreases in the value of many crop items, with wheat seeing the largest decrease at £1.2bn less than in 2022,” says the report.

These decreases follow a spike in 2022, when high global costs pushed up commodity prices due to the war in Ukraine.

Farming leaders said the latest statistics demonstrated the “volatile environment” in which food growers have been trying to make a living in recent years.

National Farmers’ Union (NFU) president Tom Bradshaw, who farms near Colchester, said: “We have moved from high commodity prices and soaring production costs in 2022 caused by the tragic situation in Ukraine, to much lower income figures in a weather-affected 2023, as commodity prices fell but production costs remained high.”

He added that, since the survey ended, farmers have been struggling with record levels of rain and flooding which has contributed to a “huge drop in confidence among farmers and put a real question mark over this year’s harvest”.

“While farmers are well used to dealing with variation year on year, the volatility we’ve seen in the last few years isn’t sustainable,” he said.

“Food security is national security, and that’s why we need the new government to be prioritising food production in its policy-making.”

Defra’s figures show agriculture’s overall contribution to England’s economy also dipped by £1bn to £10bn last year, an 8.7pc fall compared with 2022.

Total livestock output in 2023 remained at £12.4bn, but there was a small increase in income from diversification, which rose from £1.321bn to £1.393bn.

Banking Nature (2014), new WBCSD environmental markets | see also Planet of the Humans (2020) & The Bankers at the Helm of ‘Natural Capital’ 

This documentary was removed from the monoconomy channel in late 2024, early 2025 for reasons unknown – at the time it was the only online copy of this most instructive film. For the sake of humanity, and sanity, please make sure that never happens again. You know what to do. Alternative link: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1R2VuAQn7q/

Privatization Of Nature – Who is behind the new environmental wave of interest in planting forests in Afrika, making you buy rain-forest and climatic quotas for pollution? It surely wouldn’t be the same which made the last financial crises in sub prime loans?

“Buying landscapes, protecting landscapes, accumulating new landscapes-it’s a phenomenal opportunity.” -Steve Morgan, CEO, Wildlands Inc.

BANKING NATURE is a film about the growing movement to monetize the natural world: to turn endangered species and threatened areas into instruments of profit.

It’s a worldview that posits capital and markets as the planet’s salvation-turning nature into “natural capital.” In this view, the best way to protect endangered species and habitats is to assign them dollar values and measure the “ecosystem services” they provide. These services can then be converted into securitized financial products.

The results can be grotesque. In Uganda, we meet men who measure trees to determine how much carbon they store-and a banker from the German firm that sells the resulting carbon credits. Meanwhile, in Brazil, steel giant Vale destroys rainforest, replaces it with tree plantations, and reaps the benefits of environmental credits.

Can we trust the same people whose mismanagement of the mortgage market led to a global economic meltdown to safeguard nature, by turning it into financial instruments for speculators?

“Successfully outlines the theory behind ‘financializing nature’… making this complex aspect of the modern market system comprehensible… Does a real service. Recommended.”—Video Librarian

“This is a fascinating work, investigating an inventive plan to protect nature… The portrayal of both sides of this impalpable concept is laudable. Huge assembly of opponents gives this film a distinct objectivity. The work has brilliant foresight into the issues, turning points, dangers, and ethical dilemmas of the proposal. Highly recommended.”—Educational Media Reviews Online

“A beautiful and very challenging and provocative treatment of the current effort to save nature and the planet by applying market economics, models, and tools to global environmental crises such as species extinction, the loss of biodiversity, degradation and loss of whole ecosystems like the world’s rainforests, and global warming.”—Science Books and Films

Privatization Of Nature (2015)
Director: Sandrine Feydel, Denis Delestrac
Stars: Bertrand Dussy, Framboise Gommendy, Laurent Jacquet
Genre: Documentary
Country: France
Language: English (with subtitled German, French and Spanish)
Also Known As: Banking Nature
Release Date: February 3, 2015 (France)

Synopsis: We investigate the commercialisation of the natural world. Protecting our planet has become big business with companies promoting new environmental markets. This involves species banking, where investors buy up vast swathes of land, full of endangered species, to enable them to sell ‘nature credits’. Companies whose actions destroy the environment are now obliged to buy these credits and new financial centres have sprung up, specialising in this trade.

Many respected economists believe that the best way to protect nature is to put a price on it. But others fear that this market in nature could lead to companies having a financial interest in a species’ extinction. There are also concerns that – like the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008 – the market in nature credits is bound to crash. And there are wider issues at stake. What guarantees do we have that our natural inheritance will be protected? And should our ecological heritage be for sale?

Also Known As (AKA):
(original title) Nature, Le Nouvel Eldorado de la Finance
France Nature, le Nouvel Eldorado de la Finance
Germany Natur – Spekulationsobjekt Mit Zukunft
Norway Naturens Kapital
United Kingdom Banking Nature
United States Banking Nature
World-wide Banking Nature (English)

Banking Nature
Neo-Liberalism and the Defanging of Feminism, Social Engineering, Whiteness & Aversive Racism

In “Banking Nature”, directors Denis Delestra and Sandrine Feydel document the growing movement to monetize the natural world, and to turn endangered species and threatened areas into instruments of profit – 2014. 90 minutes

This film investigates the financialization of the natural world.

Protecting our planet has become big business with companies promoting new environmental markets. This involves species banking, where investors buy up vast swathes of land, full of endangered species, to enable them to sell “nature credits.” Companies whose actions destroy the environment are now obliged to buy these credits and new financial centres have sprung up, specialising in this trade. Many respected economists believe that the best way to protect nature is to put a price on it. But others fear that this market in nature could lead to companies having a financial interest in a species’ extinction. There are also concerns that—like the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008—the market in nature credits is bound to crash. And there are wider issues at stake. What guarantees do we have that our natural inheritance will be protected? And should our ecological heritage be for sale?

[Source: Via Decouvertes Production]

Grand Prize of the City of Innsbruck nature film festival. Jury statement:

“Whoever thought that capitalising natural resources could be a solution for our ecological crisis knows better now: thanks to the investigative approach of the directors. It is clear that the protection of endangered species should not be left to multinational companies and financial consultants. Although the topic is highly complex, the film remains exciting to the very end. The development to profit from nature as revealed by the film is frightening.”

Why is so much English countryside being taken out of family hands, out of management and out of access? Private equity lurks…

Following a recent petition to save the now 85% reduced Dartmoor ponies from potential extinction by DEFRA bureaucratising  common rights, its becoming clear this is by no means an isolated land grab.

Demands to take farming, forest and moorland out of production by ‘rewilding campaigns’ is leading to non-productive land being gleefully snapped up by multi-billion dollar private equity funds for ‘carbon offset’ schemes.

Four articles presented here illustrate DEFRA’s snuffing out some of England’s last remaining common rights, in the New Forest, Dartmoor and elsewhere. Then Forestry England’s new programme to take 20,000 acres out of management is further evidence of an unannounced government programme to regulate tenants, contractors, rights holders and private owners off the land.

Finally, for now, something similar is happening across the pond as campaigners are trying to protect wild horse habitat for in the US which is being eroded.

Do please share your theories, suggestions, related stories about this common rights and  land grab… and links in the comments at the bottom. Thanks

1. For 800 years, commoners have nurtured the forest. Now they are being forced out

Rob White March 31, 2024

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/property/new-forest-commoners-pushed-out-second-homes/

Gemma Hobbs began directing ponies around the New Forest from her grandfather’s shoulders when she was small. It’s been a part of her life ever since – she started saving at nine, and bought her first pony aged 11.

Now 16, she has become a commoner, the third generation to take on this ancient mantle as it is passed down through families. Several times a week, she rides into the forest to check on the animals that roam freely and preserve a National Park.

New Forest commoners are people who live in properties, rent or own land that have rights of common attached. Among them are the right to graze livestock like ponies, cattle and donkeys, the ability to let out pigs to feed, and to cut down trees for fuel, although Forestry England now provides the firewood in order to protect the forest.

In exercising these rights, commoners are crucial in preserving the forest. Their cattle, ponies and donkeys eat gorse, grass and other greenery so animals and plants can thrive. Their pigs hoover up acorns, saving livestock from internal bleeding and even death. Without them, it would be a wilderness.

“The New Forest ponies and cattle are known as ‘the architects of the Forest’,” explains Paul Walton, of the New Forest National Park Authority. “The commoners have been grazing their animals on the open Forest since before the Norman Conquest in 1066, and play a vital role in maintaining the landscape and rare wildlife which makes the New Forest so special.”

But their way of life is under threat. Because the right to common is tied to property and the land itself, the practice is directly affected by rising house prices and rents, and the influx of second homeowners. If commoners – who have been there for centuries – can’t afford to live there, then it can no longer exist.

An ancient right

One night, a neighbour called about a pony who had given birth. Gemma and her mother immediately rode in, only to discover an abandoned, orphaned foal. They adopted Velvet and bottle fed him from birth.

If that was commoning in its purest form, it’s a world away from the blindings and beheadings that these same forest floors bore witness to a millennium before.

At the start of the 11th century, the New Forest was a dangerous place. William the Conqueror declared it a Royal Forest in 1071, with a strict set of laws to ensure nothing interfered with the hunt.

Suddenly, the people who’d lived there for generations could be blinded for the crime of “disturbing a deer”. Shooting at one meant being blinded by law enforcement, while killing one attracted the death penalty. It was illegal to gather wood or build a fence, even on your own property. Centuries of tradition changed overnight.

As the early thirteenth century began, England was a febrile place under the widely unpopular King John. In trying to reclaim land he’d lost to the French, he hiked taxes and alienated the rich landowners he relied on to govern. When Magna Carta followed in 1215, it couldn’t prevent all out civil war and a legitimate threat to the monarchy.

Following his death a year later, many landowners switched sides to back King Henry III, who was just nine when he inherited the throne. A plan was needed for rural England and in 1217 the Charter of the Forest arrived and New Forest commoning began.

It would be another seven centuries before these ancient rights were even updated and they remain in place today. There are now around 650 commoners, with Gemma among the latest recruits.

“My grandparents and parents were commoners, so it started through that,” she says. “I remember sitting on my grandad’s shoulders, waving my arms and directing ponies so they didn’t run us over.”

She looks in on the ponies every few days, then in the autumn helps round them all up, check their collars, get their tails trimmed and give them a routine health check. It means she has little time for the usual socialising and hobbies of a 16-year-old.

“Animals get the time most of the time,” she says. “It’s unpredictable when you have animals out in the forest, particularly when we have sick animals. That’s twice a day every day, making it a priority. Commoning is more of a lifestyle than just a hobby.”

It’s an ever-changing, sometimes harsh environment. So far, she’s had a pony, Duchess, go missing – two years later she still hasn’t been found. Velvet, the orphaned foal, turned out to have a sibling, so they now have Whizz for company too.

Her mother, Sally Marsh, says she’s delighted to see Gemma following in the tradition.

“It’s lovely. Obviously I had a big passion for it as a child. You never know with the kids these days. With social media, the world has changed so much, but it’s still in the blood and from an early age, she’s wanted to be on a pony and help.”

The threat to commoning

Commoners’ rights are irrevocably tied to houses and land, but that is what is putting their lifestyle at risk. Wealthier people are now moving to the area and buying the land and property. In doing so, they take it away from commoners but have no intention of commoning themselves.

The average house price in the New Forest is over £600,000, higher than in any other National Park. According to Rightmove, the average rent is over £1,600 a month. Many commoners see this as an existential threat.

Andrew Parry-Norton, chair of the Commoners Defence Association (CDA) and a commoner himself, is one of them.

“We’re facing money coming down from London, paying £42,000 to £45,000 an acre. That means properties of over a million pounds. These new people aren’t going to common and most wouldn’t even understand how to look after the land.

“For younger generations of commoners [who inherit land and property], the temptation is there to take the money. Unless we can offer them a financially viable future, with properties they can afford, they’re not going to stay and do this.”

This isn’t a new problem – the CDA itself was set up in 1909 in response to people coming to the area wanting to buy land.

“All the commoners got together as it was a collective problem,” he adds. “There’s nothing like a collective enemy to bring people together. It’s like a trade union to preserve commoning and their rights.

“It’s a constant battle, but it’s our livelihood and it creates what we see in the landscape of the forest right now.”
An accidental commoner

Dr Gale Pettifer is also a commoner, albeit inadvertently. When she bought her property in 2012, she didn’t realise it had common rights until she saw the deeds. She’s enjoyed it so much since that she’s completed a PhD on the politics of “inclosure” in the New Forest.

“This is a completely different way of interacting with livestock,” she says. “You can’t pet them, so I know my ponies, they don’t necessarily know me. Lots of my friends ask what’s the point, but it’s about the conservation of the New Forest and carrying on the tradition. I absolutely love it. It’s taken over my life.”

She agrees that commoning is facing challenges and it’s part of the reason she’s joined in

“It is hugely under threat from the encroachment of leisure and recreation. It was primarily a working landscape; now there’s more and more pressure to become profitable with more and more leisure activities. Housebuilding brings pressures, more cars, more speeding, more pony deaths.

“I realised there must be other properties like mine, and people buy them and don’t exercise these rights. If I don’t, that’s how these things get lost, the rights and the knowledge.”

Inevitably, house prices are part of the conversation.

“If you’re on an average income, you’ve got no chance of buying anything in the Forest.”

That is vital to the preservation of commoning, because the rights are linked to property and land: once you sell up or leave, you relinquish your rights. There are programmes such as the Commoners Dwelling Scheme, which allows genuine commoners the right to apply to build a home outside the New Forest and carry on commoning.”

She adds: “If you want to save the forest, you have to save the commoners. If the commoners are under threat, so is the forest.”

As part of the next generation, it’s a very real fear for Gemma. She wants to set up on her own one day, but worries she won’t be able to.

“That’s the goal, but it’s really impossible. The prices have gone up because of Covid and people having second homes. Younger generations are more involved as they’ve grown up, but the price of land and housing has become extortionate.

“It’s always been part of my life, it would be like a big chunk of me missing.”

Sally says the family could only afford their current property because of the Government’s Right to Buy scheme.

“It’s growing increasingly frustrating for us. The bugbear is people from London and Cheshire buying these second homes which they barely use and using paddocks as glorified gardens. Bit by bit the forest has been eaten away. None of it would be here without the commoners.

“I haven’t got the money to buy these places and we can’t compete. Commoners are becoming a rare breed, like the ponies, because we’re being forced out of it.”

Priced out

The idea of a local tradition under threat from rising house prices isn’t unique to the New Forest. Young people in Cornish towns like Newlyn, St Mawes and Padstow are being priced out of their home towns, putting older industries like fishing at serious risk.

It’s a familiar story – an influx of tourists leads to the purchase of seaside boltholes and money-spinning holiday lets, pricing the locals out and leaving age-old traditions on life support.

Tim Bonner, CEO of the Countryside Alliance, says rising property prices is one of the countryside’s biggest drivers in social change.

“Incomers can have a positive impact on the local economy, but increased demand for rural housing has created an affordability crisis in some areas. This is not just about the increased cost of housing, but also rural wages which remain stubbornly low. The result is that young people in particular cannot afford to live in the communities that they were born and brought up in.”

Back in the New Forest, rising house prices may be both a past and present danger, but another ominously clouds the horizon of post-Brexit Britain. In the EU, commoners were paid annually for every animal under the Basic Payment Scheme. It was around £200, but it has already been halved, and will keep falling until 2026 when it stops completely.

There are options for future funding, but not until 2028 – and it will still depend on a consensus between various groups with a stake in the forest. Even if a solution is found, there’s a two-year funding gap to survive.

Seemingly under threat from all sides, can commoning survive? Andrew is convinced it can, and that it will.

“Commoners are resilient and we will get through this. We turn a negative into a positive, like when they built the A31 through the middle of the forest. Now, if disease breaks out among the animals, you have a barrier between the two sides and we can contain it.”

He adds: “I don’t feel there’ll be many full time commoners left, but people will carry on. We’ve got some who are nurses or lawyers and keep a few ponies and cows as a hobby. And there are also die-hard commoners who will work in a factory if they have to, just to subsidise their commoning.”

However, he does say it needs to be monetised.

“The Government should pay for it. But when people pay for something, they appreciate it more. If people had to make a contribution to visit here, not much, just 50p or £1, that ought to be put back into the forest.”

2. Petition launched to save the Dartmoor Hill Pony as 85% in two decades

Campaigners worry if no action is taken, the Dartmoor Hill Pony could become extinct

Ella Sampson 05 Apr 2024  Petition website

https://www.themoorlander.co.uk/news/home/1466616/petition-launched-to-save-the-dartmoor-hill-pony.html

A plea to preserve the Dartmoor Hill Pony has gained significant momentum as a petition garners close to 100,000 signatures.

The petition, titled Save the Dartmoor Hill Pony, was launched by concerned campaigners.

It urges the government to intervene and halt the alarming decline in the population of Dartmoor Hill Ponies, a distinct breed known for their resilience and adaptability to the rugged terrain of Dartmoor in Devon.

Campaigners have stated that if no action is taken, the breed is at risk of extinction.

Shockingly, statistics reveal that two decades ago, there were approximately 7,000 Dartmoor Hill ponies grazing the moors, but today, only around 1,000 remain.

Charlotte Faulkner, representing the Dartmoor Hill Pony Association, expressed grave concern saying: “The Semi Wild Pony are unlike any other ponies in the world, their rare genetics enable them to thrive and survive on Dartmoor in all weathers. If the ponies are gone, so much more will be lost, impossible to replicate what we have now.”

She also said: “As the dodo was the wrong animal in the wrong place at the wrong time, it became extinct. The ponies are the right animal in the right place so let’s make sure they do not become extinct.”

The petition calls upon the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to ensure that Natural England refrains from taking any actions that could further diminish the Dartmoor Hill Pony population, echoing recommendations from an independent review.

The petition stresses the urgent need for protective measures to safeguard these cherished animals.

Recent developments within DEFRA have shed light on the government’s recognition of the Dartmoor Hill Pony Association as the official breeders’ association for the semi-wild Dartmoor Hill Pony population.

The association has been carefully compiling a register of Dartmoor Hill Ponies on the commons, with over 700 ponies already registered, microchipped, and undergoing genetic testing.

Furthermore, in late 2023, DEFRA acknowledged the endangered status of the Semi-wild Dartmoor Hill Ponies, adding them to the Native At-Risk list.

The Dartmoor Review, published in late 2023, emphasised the genetic importance of Dartmoor’s pony population and highlighted the necessity of conservation grazing. Recommendations from the review stress the need for protective policies to prevent further decline in Dartmoor Hill Pony numbers.

3. More than 8,000 hectares ‘left to nature’ under new forest management approach

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/environment/northumberland-dorset-north-yorkshire-somerset-government-b1158820.html

Forestry England said the nature restoration project will be rolled out across areas in Northumberland, North Yorkshire, Dorset and Somerset.

Rebecca Speare-Cole 20 May 2024

More than 8,000 hectares of land will be left to nature as part of a new forest management approach to boost wildlife and biodiversity.

Forestry England, which manages more than 250,000 hectares of land across the country, said the restoration project will be rolled out in areas of four forests.

The land managers will carry out a mix of activities to help nature recover in Kielder Forest in Northumberland, Newtondale in North Yorkshire, Purbeck in Dorset and Neroche in Somerset.

Andrew Stringer, Forestry England’s head of environment, said: “We will intervene less in these four wild areas, giving nature the time and space to reshape the forest landscape.”

We are confident that whatever happens these areas will become more nature-rich, with benefits for neighbouring landscapes

The Kielder Forest, the biggest new wild area, covering at least 6,000 hectares, will be restored to a fully-functioning upland ecosystem, with the expansion of native woodland and scrub and the creation of more open habitats like peatland and natural water courses, the organisation said.

Other activities in the areas could include reintroducing lost wildlife including butterflies, rare plants, pine martens and beavers as well as wild cattle or moving fungi to restore soil.

The areas will welcome visitors but will continue to be a source of sustainable timber through an innovative model of productive forestry, Forestry England added.

“There is an exciting unpredictability about this work in our four wild areas,” Mr Stringer said.

“We simply don’t know exactly how each of them will change over time or the detail of what they will look like.

“But this uncertainty is a positive part of being experimental and allowing natural processes to shape each landscape in the years ahead.

“We are confident that whatever happens these areas will become more nature-rich, with benefits for neighbouring landscapes.”

He added that forestry will “still be an essential activity” but that over time the benefits of less intervention “will be enormous in terms of climate resilience, reversing biodiversity loss, providing greater natural capital benefits to society such as natural flood mitigation, soil health, air quality and carbon storage”.

Forestry England said the project is being funded by the Government and Forest Holidays and its teams will work alongside nature restoration and scientific data-gathering experts to analyse progress.

The soil eDNA baseline data gathered in all four wild areas will be free to access as part of Forestry England’s commitment to open data sharing, collaboration and building a strong evidence base for wilding activities, the organisation said.

4. ACT NOW: Tell Congress to Support Wild Horse and Burro Protection Reforms in 2023

https://americanwildhorse.org/act-now-tell-congress-support-wild-horse-and-burro-protection-reforms-2023-0

Late last year, U.S. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raúl Grijalva (D, AZ-03) and U.S. Representatives David Schweikert (R, AZ-06), Joe Neguse (D, CO-02), Steve Cohen (D, TN-09), Dina Titus (D, NV-01), and Brian Fitzpatrick (R, PA-01) introduced a comprehensive bipartisan bill, the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Protection Act of 2022 (H.R. 9154), which would protect wild horses and burros from slaughter, prioritize their humane management, restore western habitat, promote partnerships with American veterans and nonprofit organizations, and increase transparency within the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) and U.S. Forest Service’s (USFS) Wild Horse and Burro Programs.

This bill promoted much-needed humane, commonsense, and fiscally responsible reforms that would stop the endless cycle of removals and keep these beloved symbols of freedom in the wild where they belong. While we work to ensure this legislation is again introduced in 2023, please take a moment to keep the pressure on your U.S. Representative by asking them to support messaging in line with 2022’s H.R. 9154, the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Protection Act!

Petition launched to save Dartmoor ponies from ‘extinction’ after new rules introduced

The petition, titled Save the Dartmoor Hill Pony, was launched by concerned campaigners.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/petition-launched-save-dartmoor-ponies-32366117

Over 100,000 signatories are calling on the government to halt the decline in the number of ponies that have freely roamed for centuries. Natural England has recently introduced new rules on the moorland

The petition, titled Save the Dartmoor Hill Pony, was launched by concerned campaigners.

A petition has been launched to save the famous Dartmoor ponies – which campaigners claim are at risk of ”extinction”, and some are asking ‘are Extinction Rebellion interested?’

Nearly 100,000 signatures are calling on the government to halt the decline in the number of ponies that have freely roamed for centuries. Figures show 20 years ago there were 7,000 Dartmoor Hill ponies roaming free on Dartmoor in Devon – today there are only 1,000.

Natural England has introduced new rules on the moorland – which mean farmers will now have to pay for grazing the ponies on common land. But a petition launched by Joceline Hibbs is urging people to save the Dartmoor hill ponies from ”extinction”. Joceline said: “The DoDo became extinct through no fault of its own, just the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“This is true of the the Dartmoor hill ponies, except they are the right animal in the right place, for at least over 4,000 years, probably far longer. Help us make sure this government protects them for future generations. Defra must ensure that Natural England do not take actions likely to result in a decline in pony numbers’ as recommended by an Independent Review.”

”We are at a critical point where it is possible that they will disappear completely.” Joceline and 95,320 others are asking Steve Barclay, the secretary of state for Defra, to make sure that pony numbers do not decline. Natural England, the government’s adviser for the natural environment, has assured it has not called for a cull of Dartmoor hill ponies and that the importance of maintaining the herd has been recognised.

The petition, titled Save the Dartmoor Hill Pony, was launched by concerned campaigners.

Dartmoor ponies have lived on the moor for centuries – there are records dated back to 1012 AD. All of the moor’s ponies belong to different pony keepers, who ensure that each herd is healthy and the species are vital for the eco-system. But in January this year, Natural England published details of new moorland rules that could pose a threat to them, campaigners say.

These include payments for grazing with ponies and cattle as opposed to solely sheep. Animal welfare groups say this would also mean many Dartmoor Hill pony owners would no longer be able to continue grazing on common land (because of payments and land restrictions) – and the slaughter of the creatures could well follow.

Joceline explains how there are not many semi-wild Dartmoor ponies remaining in the area. She said: “On average there is only one in an area of Dartmoor equivalent to 40 football pitches. We must not let Defra miss this last opportunity to secure a future for England’s only remaining semi-wild pony population the Dartmoor Hill Pony herds on the commons of Dartmoor.

“The semi-wild Dartmoor hill pony is native, rare and endangered, genetically important to the equine species worldwide and a positive contributor to enhancing Dartmoor’s biodiversity in the way that they graze. But Defra’s agent, Natural England, still seeks to catastrophically reduce their numbers. We ask that government, Defra stop this happening.”

Those who have signed the petition are urging for the protection of these now-vulnerable species. One commented: “It is a scandal and frankly outrageous that the body charged with protecting biodiversity is responsible for decimating it including and especially our native ponies.

“Natural England must be investigated because I cannot believe that they serve the UK’s natural environment as they are charged with doing and for which they are handsomely paid by the taxpayer.” Another said: “These animals are native to the moorland, unlike the sheep, and they enhance the ecology, unlike the sheep. We need them to maintain the diversity of our moorland, and because they’re incredible to have around.”

A Natural England spokesman, who insisted on remaining anonymous, told Devon Live: “Natural England has not called for a cull of Dartmoor Hill Ponies. We have always been clear that ponies make an important contribution to conservation grazing on the Dartmoor commons as part of the balance of grazing animals. ”Indeed, some agri-environment agreements on the Dartmoor commons include a rare breed supplement specifically for their native pony herds.

”While these supplements have to date been available for Dartmoor ponies now that semi-wild Dartmoor hill pony have also been included on to the Rare Breed Survival Trust (RBST) watch list we await advice from Defra as to whether the rare breed supplement would also be available for hill ponies.

“The importance of maintaining the Dartmoor hill pony herd has also been recently recognised in the independent Dartmoor Review. ‘Our advice to agreement holders includes encouraging them to include sufficient ponies and/or cattle during the period May to October and to also consider the option of having year-round low level pony grazing.

“While we can advise on the grazing framework for each agreement the agreement holders themselves will need to decide how they accommodate ponies in delivering a balanced approach to the grazing animals they use on the agreement land.”

The petition, titled Save the Dartmoor Hill Pony, was launched by concerned campaigners.

https://www.change.org/p/save-the-dartmoor-hill-pony-last-chance

UK housing is worst value for money of any advanced economy, says thinktank

British properties are expensive, cramped and ageing compared with other similar economies, says Resolution Foundation

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/25/uk-housing-is-worst-value-for-money-of-any-advanced-economy-says-thinktank

Mon 25 Mar 2024

The UKs expensive, cramped and ageing housing stock fares poorly compared with other advanced countries, analysis by a thinktank suggests.
Households are paying more than other countries but getting less in return, the Resolution Foundation said.

When it comes to housing, UK households are getting an inferior product in terms of both quantity and quality, the thinktank said.

The Foundations housing outlook used OECD data to compare the UKs housing issues with other similar economies.

It said that while there was limited cross-national data on floor space, homes in England had less average floor space per person (38 sq metres) than many similar countries, including the US (66 sq metres), Germany (46 sq metres), France (43 sq metres) and Japan (40 sq metres).

The UKs housing stock is also relatively old, with 38% of homes built before 1946, the report said, compared with around a fifth (21%) in Italy and one in nine (11%) in Spain.

Older homes can be poorly insulated, leading to higher energy bills and a higher risk of damp, according to the Foundation, which is focused on improving the living standards for those on low to middle incomes.

Researchers also considered what it would cost to rent all homes incorporating what owners would pay if they rented their home at market rates to show how the market price of housing varies across different countries.

The report said: If all households in the UK were fully exposed to our housing market, they would have to devote 22% of their spending to housing services, far higher than the OECD average (17%), and the highest level across the developed economies with the solitary exception of Finland.

Adam Corlett, principal economist at the Resolution Foundation, said: Britains housing crisis is likely to be a big topic in the election campaign, as parties debate how to address the problems of high costs, poor quality and low security that face so many households.

Britain is one of many countries apparently in the midst of a housing crisis, and it can be difficult to separate rhetoric from reality. But by looking at housing costs, floor space and wider issues of quality, we find that the UKs expensive, cramped and ageing housing stock offers the worst value for money of any advanced economy.
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Britains housing crisis is decades in the making, with successive governments failing to build enough new homes and modernise our existing stock. That now has to change.

A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities spokesperson said: Housebuilding is a government priority and despite global economic challenges we remain on track to meet the manifesto commitment of delivering one million homes this parliament, and have introduced reforms to improve the planning system.

At the same time as increasing the quantity of homes we are driving up quality, with the number of non-decent homes down by 2 million since 2010.

Our landmark renters reform bill is progressing through parliament and will give tenants more security in their homes, while our 11.5bn investment in the affordable homes programme and 1.2bn local authority housing fund will help build a new generation of affordable and social housing.

Tony Blair agreed to ban fox hunting after a £1 million donation to Labour from an animal rights group, Peter Mandelson claims

The former business secretary said the group got ‘pretty transactional’

By Jason Groves – published 14 December 2023

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12866059/tony-blair-ban-fox-hunting.html

Tony Blair agreed to ban fox hunting ‘under pressure’ because of a £1million donation to Labour from an animal rights organisation, Peter Mandelson has claimed.

The former business secretary said the group got ‘pretty transactional’ and it demanded the ban ‘in return’ for the cash – which at the time was the party’s biggest ever donation.

The Labour peer, who is now an adviser to Sir Keir Starmer, did not name the group involved. However, his comments appear to be a reference to a £1million donation given by the late animal rights campaigner Brian Davies, who founded the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Lord Mandelson revealed the pressure Mr Blair was facing during a discussion about political funding on the Times Radio podcast How To Win An Election.

Asked about whether donors had ever tried to buy influence, he said: ‘I can offer you an example from 1997 when an organisation – it was a fund to do with the welfare of animals – got pretty transactional with us. It was the first and last time I can remember this.

‘They wanted a ban on hunting in return for a very sizeable amount of money. And Blair and Co were sort of reluctant obviously to enter into some sort of trade over this policy.

‘However, there were a lot of people in the party who wanted that ban – there were a lot of MPs coming and demanding it – and we got into a difficult situation where frankly we went a little bit too far – further than Blair wanted – in making this commitment in our manifesto.

‘It was, frankly, under not duress but under some sort of pressure. It wasn’t attractive and it’s not been repeated.’

His comments will raise fresh questions about political sleaze. Labour has been trying to woo wealthy donors in the same manner as it did in the run-up to the 1997 election.

Tim Bonner, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, which led the campaign against the ban on hunting, said: ‘Tony Blair has already admitted that the hunting ban was one of the legislative measures he most regrets.

‘The Hunting Act has failed at every level, not least in the damage it has caused to the countryside and biodiversity. A future Labour government should right the wrongs of the past and remove this running sore in Labour’s relationship with rural communities.’

But a spokesman for Sir Tony said it was a ‘misinterpretation’ of Lord Mandelson’s comments to suggest that Labour’s policy had been influenced by the donation.

They added: ‘There was no such agreement, he is clearly saying there were a lot of people who had passionate views on the subject.’

Labour’s 1997 manifesto pledged to facilitate ‘a free vote in Parliament on whether hunting with hounds should be banned by legislation’.

Legislation to ban hunting was not finally introduced until 2003 and did not come into force until 2005 following a titanic parliamentary battle.

In his political memoir, Sir Tony voiced regret about the ban and revealed that he had deliberately left loopholes in the legislation that would allow hunting to continue provided certain steps were taken to prevent cruelty.

He said he had not realised the ‘primeval’ passions that the ban would cause among rural communities.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare did not respond to a request for comment. The Labour Party has yet to comment on the matter.

No Farmers, No Food campaign group wins support as UK producers mull protest action

By Kevin White 8 February 2024 The Grocer magazine

UK farmers have been debating following their European colleagues’ protest action, which led to big disruption in France and across the continent last week

New campaign group No Farmers, No Food is already attracting significant support, as farmers across the UK mull following their European colleagues with protest action.

The group was established on Twitter/X a fortnight ago as a wave of protests spread across the continent over onerous environmental regulations, rising costs, competition from imports and a lack of support from supermarkets.

Farmers across the UK now appear to be eyeing similar action. The new campaign has already attracted more than 50,000 followers on the social media platform and more than 300,000 on Facebook, with countless more farmers and food industry bodies engaging with the movement behind the scenes, said founder James Melville.

Guy Singh-Watson: Supermarkets act now: Get Fair About Farming

No Farmers, No Food is pitching itself as a non-political, non-militant campaign group that seeks to “support farmers and build public opinion and support” around the type of concerns expressed by continental farmers, said Melville – who is the son of a farmer, a media commentator and communications specialist.

“What we’re trying to do is create a set of campaigns and messages the public can understand, based on what is sometimes a very, very, complicated set of issues that are differing from farm to farm,” he added, pointing to government bureaucracy and the treatment of farmers by supermarkets as key areas that needed to be addressed.

But he stressed organising protests “was not our job as a very new organisation”.

“It’s up to individual communities and farmers to decide what they want to do,” he added.

Guy Singh-Watson: Get Fair About Farming: Silence of the supermarkets

The formation of the group comes amid growing calls for organised farmer protests in the UK. Farmers in Wales are understood to be particularly open to protest action.

More than 1,000 farmers met at Welshpool livestock market last week to discuss the impact of proposed new Welsh government sustainable farming rules, which NFU Cymru warned could devastate the nation’s farming sector.

Plans by the Labour administration could lead to a 10.8% cut in livestock numbers and an 11% cut in labour on Welsh farms, equivalent to losing 5,500 jobs – costing the sector almost £200m. However, the Welsh government stresses the plans are subject to a consultation and could still change.

Kelly Seaton: huge financial pressure being piled onto farmers

Farmers at the event expressed dismay at the plans, said north Wales-based livestock farmer Gareth Wyn Jones, who is also among the supporters of No Farmers, No Food. Further meetings were expected in Wales this week.

“There are definitely whispers around protest action and an appetite for it. But we’re not quite there yet,” Jones told The Grocer.

“This is a movement of frustration, with many farmers feeling like enough is enough – the situation many are finding themselves in is unsustainable.”

Some farmers were “raring to go” on protests, he said.

However, Jones – who has also highlighted the plight of farmers on his YouTube channel – stressed the “need to keep the public on board” and for any potential action to be co-ordinated, respectful and peaceful.

“There is no point in fragmented protest,” he added. “But if we do see protests it demonstrates we are at rock bottom.”

With Tata steel having just confirmed the closure of the two blast furnaces at Port Talbot, here are a few important data points.
First, UK steel-making has collapsed faster, over the past half century, than ANY other country in the world save for Venezuela.
Pretty shocking👇

Farmers bring down Cockerill statue in Brussels protest as 1,000 tractors block roads

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/farmer-protest-tractors-eu-brussels-france-b2488790.html

Protest on day of EU summit comes as France lays out concessions to protesters leading to union bosses to call on farmers in the country to go home

Emmanuel Macron has said that Europes farming sector is facing a major crisis and needs to profoundly change its rules after more than 1,000 tractors brought part of Brussels to a standstill, calling on EU leaders to do more to support them with rising costs and environmental rules.

Background from The Guardian: Carbon offsets overstate climate benefit by 1,000%, study finds

Farmers in several countries across Europe have been blocking roads for days as part of protests, with France particularly hard hit. Speaking after a leaderss summit in the Belgian capital, the French president said that Europe is not deaf to the plight of farmers and that simplified regulations across the EU would help. The statement came after France laid out plans for some concessions to the protesters, leading to unions to call on them to go home.

Earlier in the day, farmers threw eggs and stones at the European parliament, started fires near the building and toppled a statue of John Cockerill a British-Belgian who helped Belgium’s industrial revolution who the protesters potentially mistook for someone connected to the EU. Small groups tried to tear down the barriers erected in front of the parliament a few streets from where the leaders summit was taking place but police fired tear gas and sprayed water at the farmers with hoses to push them back.

Major thoroughfares in Brussels were blocked by around 1,300 tractors, according to police. Security personnel in riot gear stood guard behind barriers where the leaders were meeting at European Council headquarters.

Background from BBC: Carbon offset, tree planting schemes pricing out farmers

If you see with how many people we are here today, and if you see its all over Europe, so you must have hope, said Kevin Bertens, a farmer from just outside Brussels. You need us. Help us!

Farmers from Italy, Spain and other European countries took part in the demonstration in Brussels, as well as continuing their protests at home. In Portugal, farmers made their way to the Spanish border at the crack of dawn to block some of the roads links between the two countries.

One of Belgiums biggest supermarket chains Colruyt said on Thursday three of its distribution centres were blocked by protesting farmers, leading to disruptions in its supply chain. Centres located in Ollignies, Ghislenghien and Halle in central western Belgium, which supply Colruyt’s Belgian shops with dry food, water and drinks, and fresh and frozen products, were no longer accessible.

At the moment, stock is still available in our shops… [but] it is inevitable that products will eventually be missing from the shelves, Colruyt said in a statement, adding that it was difficult to make definitive statements on timing as shops have different stock levels.

Background from Newsweek: Farmers Fight Back Across Europe

Colruyt Group has always focused on sourcing locally as much as possible and succeeds very well in this for many categories, the store chain said. It added it understood farmers concerns but did not see blockades as a solution to them.

In France, where farmers stepped up protests at the start of the week, the impact of dozens of blockades is also being felt, said Eric Hemar, the head of a federation of transport and logistics employers.

We did a poll among our federation members: all transport firms are impacted (by the farmers protest) and have lost over the past 10 days about 30 per cent of their revenue, because we are not able to deliver on time or with delays, he told France Info.

In his latest speech aimed at easing tensions with angry farmers, Frances prime minister Gabriel Attal earlier said France would enshrine in law the principle that it should be self-reliant in food and it will tighten import controls.

Mr Attal, speaking at a press conference, also said the government will stop imposing stricter regulation on its farmers than European Union regulations require.

It makes no sense to ban pesticides in France before such decisions are taken on an EU level. We will end this practice, he said.

Background from BBC: Climate change or market change? Cold callers shock farmers with tree-plant plea

Detailing his agenda to boost Frances agricultural sector, Europes largest, Mr Attal said it was out of the question that France would agree to the Mercosur trade deal with Latin American countries.

He also said France will step up safety checks on food imports, notably to make sure that imported foods do not have traces of pesticides that are banned in France or the EU.

The finance ministry said the new emergency measures for the sector, focused largely on supporting struggling livestock farmers and wine producers, would cost 400 million (340m), plus 200m in cash advances.

Union leaders called on their members to end the roadblocks in the wake of the speech but said this came with the condition that the promises be followed by concrete progress. They said they would give the government a three-week deadline until the start of Frances giant Salon de lAgriculture farming trade fair for the first results to show.

From Monday, were going to get to work in the prefectures and ministries to work on all the points that have been announced, said Arnaud Gaillot, the head of the Young Farmers (Jeunes Agriculteurs) union.

The protests across Europe come ahead of the European parliament elections. While the farmers crisis was not officially on the agenda of the EU summit, which focused on aid to Ukraine, an EU diplomat said the situation with the farmers was likely to be discussed later in the day.

Farmers have already secured several measures, including the blocs executive commission proposals to limit farm imports from Ukraine and loosen some environmental regulations on fallow lands, which several EU leaders welcomed as they arrived at the summit.

Free Party: a folk history of the 1990s free party movement and against the 1994 Criminal Justice Act

https://www.facebook.com/FreePartyDocumentary

Free Party: a folk history – TRAILER

https://www.docnrollfestival.com/films/free-party-a-folk-history/

All they wanted was the freedom to party. The State saw them as the enemy within.

A timely DIY indie film that follows the birth of the UK’s free party movement from the late 80s and early 90s and the social, political and cultural impact it’s had on our present times. Many Tories believed the movement’s DIY anti-consumerist lifestyles, prophetic environmental, radical, direct action anti-road protest and animal welfare ethos threatened the foundations of their neoliberal era State. The film explores the inception of the movement, a meeting between urban ravers and the new age travellers during Thatcher’s last days in power, and the explosive years that followed, leading to the infamous Castlemorton free festival in 1992 – the largest ever illegal rave, which provoked the drastic change of the laws of trespass with the notorious introduction of the Criminal Justice Act in 1994. Eschewing tired formulaic filmmaking styles and tokenistic big name DJ sound-bites, this exhilarating modern day folktale is told exclusively by those who were in the thick of it and features interviews with members of Spiral Tribe, DIY Sound system, Circus Warp, Bedlam and many others.

Colm Forde – DnR Creative Director

Dir Aaron Trinder| UK | 2023 | 107 mins

Screenings appear to be announced here on Facebook – please add a comment below if you find anywhere better to find them, thanks.