Life for the medieval peasant was certainly no picnic. His life was shadowed by fear of famine, disease and bursts of warfare. His diet and personal hygiene left much to be desired.
But despite his reputation as a miserable wretch, you might envy him one thing: his vacations.
Ploughing and harvesting were backbreaking toil, but the peasant enjoyed anywhere from eight weeks to half the year off.
The Church, mindful of how to keep a population from rebelling, enforced frequent mandatory holidays. Weddings, wakes, and births might mean a week off quaffing ale to celebrate, and when wandering jugglers or sporting events came to town, the peasant expected time off for entertainment. There were labour-free Sundays, and when the ploughing and harvesting seasons were over, the peasant got time to rest, too.
In fact, economist Juliet Shor found that during periods of particularly high wages, such as 14th-century England, peasants might put in no more than 150 days a year. As for the modern American worker? After a year on the job, she gets an average of eight vacation days annually.
A history of dwindling vacation days
It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way: John Maynard Keynes, one of the founders of modern economics, made a famous prediction that by 2030, advanced societies would be wealthy enough that leisure time, rather than work, would characterize national lifestyles. So far, that forecast is not looking good.
What happened? Some cite the victory of the modern eight-hour a day, 40-hour working week over the punishing 70 or 80 hours a 19th century worker spent toiling as proof that we’re moving in the right direction.
But Americans have long since kissed the 40-hour working week goodbye, and Shor’s examination of work patterns reveals that the 19th century was an aberration in the history of human labour. When workers fought for the eight-hour working day, they weren’t trying to get something radical and new, but rather to restore what their ancestors had enjoyed before industrial capitalists and the electric light bulb came on the scene.
Go back 200, 300, or 400 years and you find that most people did not work very long hours at all. In addition to relaxing during long holidays, the medieval peasant took his sweet time eating meals, and the day often included time for an afternoon snooze.
“The tempo of life was slow, even leisurely; the pace of work relaxed,” notes Shor. “Our ancestors may not have been rich, but they had an abundance of leisure.”
Many American workers must keep on working through public holidays, and vacation days often go unused. Even when we finally carve out a holiday, many of us answer emails and “check in” whether we’re camping with the kids or trying to kick back on the beach.
Some blame the American worker for not taking what is her due. But in a period of consistently high unemployment, job insecurity and weak labour unions, employees may feel no choice but to accept the conditions set by the culture and the individual employer.
In a world of “at will” employment, where the work contract can be terminated at any time, it’s not easy to raise objections.
It’s true that the New Deal brought back some of the conditions that farm workers and artisans from the Middle Ages took for granted, but since the 1980s things have gone steadily downhill. With secure long-term employment slipping away, people jump from job to job, so seniority no longer offers the benefits of additional days off. The rising trend of hourly and part-time work, stoked by the Great Recession, means that for many, the idea of a guaranteed vacation is a dim memory.
The consequences of constantly working
Ironically, this cult of endless toil doesn’t really help the bottom line.
Study after study shows that overworking reduces productivity. On the other hand, performance increases after a vacation, and workers come back with restored energy and focus. The longer the vacation, the more relaxed and energised people feel upon returning to the office.
Economic crises give austerity-minded politicians excuses to talk of decreasing time off, increasing the retirement age and cutting into social insurance programs and safety nets that were supposed to allow us a fate better than working until we drop. In Europe, where workers average 25 to 30 days off per year, politicians like French President Francois Hollande and former Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras have sent signals that the culture of longer vacations is coming to an end.
But the belief that shorter vacations bring economic gains doesn’t appear to add up.
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) the Greeks, who face a horrible economy, work more hours than any other Europeans. In Germany, an economic powerhouse, workers rank second to last in number of hours worked. Despite more time off, German workers are the eighth most productive in Europe, while the long-toiling Greeks rank 24 out of 25 in productivity.
Beyond burnout, vanishing vacations make our relationships with families and friends suffer. Our health is deteriorating: depression and higher risk of death are among the outcomes for our no-vacation nation. Some forward-thinking people have tried to reverse this trend, like progressive economist Robert Reich, who has argued in favour of a mandatory three weeks off for all American workers. Congressman Alan Grayson proposed the Paid Vacation Act of 2009, but alas, the bill didn’t even make it to the floor of Congress.
Speaking of Congress, its members seem to be the only people in America getting as much down time as the medieval peasant. In recent years, they’ve gotten upward of 239 days in vacation time.
Not content with making millions landless in the 18th century through enclosure, a new Treasury unit is now stealing Britain’s remaining family farmland, for Blackrock
Five suggestions to Save British Farming:
set up a charitable fund to pay off distressed farmers’ inheritance bills;
institute a chain of collectively owned farm shops in every market town to act as a mini supermarket for seasonal produce;
demand boycotts of supermarkets and/or products where price fixing is taking place, robbing farmers;
blockade factory farms and mass mechanised greenhouses owned by front companies for private equity firms;
set up a direct action group to occupy and obstruct individuals and businesses which are destroying UK family farming.
How’s that for a start. Please email me or add your own suggestions in the comments at the bottom.
No Socialist distancing
Simon Fairlie’s Land Magazine follows the Socialist Workers Party and George Monbiot , dancing to the World Economic Forum’s global finance capitalism tune
STROUD: 02Jan24: Tony Gosling takes a look at UK Green ‘social justice’ campaigns’ extraordinary distancing themselves from farming’s grassroots, and unwitting sucking up to a Swiss-based oligopoly who want corporations to rule the world
2022 to 2024 were a terrible year for The Land Magazine. The two founding editors were evicted from their home at Monkton Wyld near Lyme Regis. Simon Fairlie through the kangaroo courts in the Autumn of 2024 while Gill Barron was bullied out of the same rural community the year before.
The screaming irony now is the four individuals who hoofed Simon out of Monkton Wylde as residents and trustees simply walked away from their roles and the community … just a couple of weeks after Simon drove his last van-load of belongings away from his, and the magazine’s beautiful old home.
But Gill and Simon did considerably better than ‘One Man and his Dogger’ Robin Page, author, journalist, national advocate for wildlife-friendly farming who was evicted in 2021 from the eight-figure valued Countryside Restoration Trust he founded and built up over decades. He died 18 months later, of cancer, and a broken heart.
Simon Fairlie founded The Land Magazine in 1996 which began, after The Land Is Ours successful six-month long Guinness occupation in Wandsworth. As ‘Land Essays’, the ‘long read’ version of The Land Is Ours newsletter, it was always, as now, an occasional publication but in the last decade or so it has failed to address the contradictions in the ‘zero carbon’ agenda, such as new forest burning power stations, soaring living costs and more recently the supermarket and energy price-fixing assault on Britain’s family farms.
In the 2020s, sadly, my contributions, even to the Land Mag’s. letters page, have been spiked. The editorial has turned decidedly anti-livestock, anti game-hunting or poaching, backing the WEF’s discredited Rewilding’ programme (now Robin’s CRT is conveniently out of the way) promoted by George Monbiot’s partner, Rebecca Wrigley. Keeping it, top-down and where possible foundation funded, in the Davos family.
No Charmer: Starmer The Farmer Harmer
November and December 2024 saw two unprecedented family farmer protests at Westminster with around 10,000 turning out to a lobby called by the NFU in November and 6-700 tractors filling Whitehall, as the DEFRA select committee asked why the Treasury hadn’t just ended business rollover relief where millionaires were using farmland as a tax dodge, in the run-up to Christmas.
Taking farms off families is against everything social justice or environmental campaigners believe in. Yet in the 2025 Land Magazine [see below] Simon argues that the demise of small farms since 1984 is because there hasn’t been inheritance tax on larger farms. One wonders if he actually talks to or knows any farmers, who will tell him that a whole raft of price and ever-changing ‘variety’ policies and punitive penalties, imposed by supermarkets, have been cutting deep into margins right across farming ever since Thatcherism.
Families, and the secure tenure, such as freehold and copyhold, they have passed down, have been the bedrock of national food security since hunter-gatherers began to establish farming in England 6,000 years ago. It was the increasing surpluses these families produced, as they honed their craft over countless generations, that allowed for towns to grow and civilisation to flourish.
Ideally smallholdings and market gardens should be viable but that’s not been the case roughly since the 1970s, again since Thatcher and the supermarkets took over. You could argue today’s bigger farms, over 750 acres say, should be taxed, over 1000 definitely … but not ONLY if they are in individual ownership. Families who intend to pass their land or homes on to their children are ALWAYS the best stewards of the land.
Taking it off families starts to sound like the son of the Nazi nuclear bomb scientist Klaus Schwab’s ‘You will own nothing, and be happy’ brigade again. The big institutional and feudal landowners, including Crown Estate, Duchys of Cornwall & Lancaster, Church of England, Ministry of Defence, Forestry England, Duke of Westminster etc etc all have their land in trust or Ltd companies so will avoid the tax these family farmers have to pay.
Rachel Reeves is not John McDonnell. When Jeremy Corbyn was bounced out of winning the 2017 General Election by Labour party apparatchiks and the London media, a new finance capitalism friendly Labour party under the iron grip of Starmer and Reeves arrived.
The good old 2003 illegal war party, with Blair and Campbell major figures behind the scenes, was approved fit to govern, by good King Charles and the City of London. When the high priest of finance capitalism Blackrock’s Larry Fink was schmoozed by Reeves and Starmer Downing Street in November 2024.
The Family Farm Tax is part of a much wider post-war attack by global finance capitalism, which accelerated under Thatcher, on people who work land they own, to feed us. Added to skyrocketing energy prices, ridiculous supermarket demands, etc, all brought about through fascist price-fixing, land put on the market to pay the tax or just to escape the ridiculous hours and negative margins, benefits…? Those who finance: solar farms, giant automated planting/harvesting greenhouses, factory farmers, industrial agriculture, carbon offset firms, those clear-cutting forestry as a biofuel. The list goes on and on as far as a speculator with pound signs in their eyes can dream.
But more importantly we are witnessing the beginning of a further wave of enclosure. This time, land is not being stolen from peasants by large farmers. Its beginning the move from private, into corporate hands. And The Land Magazine, and Land Workers Alliance, along with traditional left-wing workers groups such as the SWP are cheering it on. ‘You see those farmers all vote Tory’. ‘Why shouldn’t they pay inheritance tax just like everyone else’.
Simon Fairlie has become George Monbiot lite. Simon still clings to that cruel anti-vegan trope, meat-eating, and is therefore not 4th Reich WEF extremist enough for the Guardian. Which, while everything is done to keep Simon on side, remains the George Monbiot domain.
Nevertheless… I’m not here to sell you anything, I’m the sort of editor who will invite all sides to the dinner table. So, over to Simon…
The “Family Farm Tax”, might there be up-sides?
By Simon Fairlie, December 2024
In the Spring of 1920 Sir Nicholas Bacon of Raveningham Hall in Norfolk wrote to the tenants farming his land:
It has unfortunately become necessary for me to follow the course already pursued by many landowners — that is, of selling a considerable portion of my estate . . . Heavy war taxation, the great increase of Death Duties of last year’s budget, the increased cost of living, and the growing up of my family, for whom provision must be made, compel this step. I can only hope that many of my tenants may be able to purchase their farms, and so not leave their homes.
The four years that followed the First World War witnessed an unprecedented shift in landownership, something akin to land reform. “England is changing hands,” The Times observed. To counteract inheritance tax and other expenses, large numbers of aristocratic farming estates were sold off. No one knows exactly how many acres, and claims that “a quarter of England changed hands” may be exaggerated. What is known is that:
owner-occupation increased from 10.9 percent of the cultivated area of England and Wales in 1914, to 36 per cent of the cultivated area in 1927 . . . roughly one quarter of the cultivated area changed from being tenanted land to being land owned by the farmers.
Many of Britain’s independent family farms owe their existence to increased death duties, first introduced by the Liberal Lord Harcourt in 1894 and reinforced by Lloyd George twenty- five years later. It is somewhat ironic then, that many of these farmers are now vociferously opposed to parallel increases in Inheritance Tax, made in the Labour Government’s Autumn Budget. Agricultural property inheritance tax relief has been removed, theoretically from all farms valued at over £1 million, though after allowances for spouses etc this is more likely to equate to £3 million. The Government states that some three quarters of all farms will be unaffected, but nonetheless the National Farmers’ Union has dubbed the move “the Family Farm Tax”. Its President, Tom Bradshaw claims to have
heard about distressed elderly parents who are having to apologise to their children in tears for something that isn’t their fault, telling them they’re sorry because they feel they’re now a burden on the family.
Besides the need to plug the much vaunted £22 billion budget shortfall, some of the thinking behind the new Labour Government’s assault on Inheritance Tax relief can be traced to the work of the French economist Thomas Piketty and others, who have noted that rising wealth inequality is fuelled by the flow of inheritances from one generation to the next. The ratio of personal wealth to national income is rising and over the last 20 years the value of property and land has increased far faster than wages or inflation.
Nowhere is this tendency more noticeable than in the farming sector which is inherently dependent on land and property. A 200 acre farm worth in the region of million, might yield an annual net income of only £25,000, just one percent or even nothing at all other than the available subsidies. In such cases the real profit lies in the increasing value of the property, and many farm-owners are simultaneously underpaid workers and fat capitalists. Under these frankly bonkers economic conditions, failing farmers throw in the towel and cash in, while successful ones engross their holdings, leading to the consolidation of assets that is endemic to unregulated capitalism. As farms get bigger and economies of scale increase, the margins dictated by the supermarkets decline and another cohort of farms finds it impossible to make ends meet, and so it continues.
The National Farmers’ Union, which is at heart a landowners’ union, knows only too well how to exploit this schizoid role, posing to the public as the defender of the hard-pressed food producer, while advocating policies that benefit the engrossing landowner, and that is precisely what it is doing in respect of the “Family Farm Tax”. Since 1984 the regime of exemption from Inheritance Tax has accompanied the loss of around half of the farms under 100 hectares in England and Wales and an increase in those over 200 hectares. To claim that removing the exemption for the largest farms will threaten family farms is brazen hypocrisy.
How much impact this measure will actually have is hard to say, but if it goes any way towards breaking up large holdings, and releasing land onto the market that is cheaper and more accessible to new entrants, that is very much to be welcomed. The total area of land currently coming onto the market
around 150,000 acres in 2023 is less than a quarter of the area traded in 1950, and an even smaller proportion of the area that changed hands in 1920.
Only one caveat has been voiced by the Tenant Farmers’ Association, representing farmers whose hard work boosts the largest landowners’ incomes, and who may find the land they rent sold to pay off Inheritance Tax. Its Chief Executive, George Dunn has written:
“The £1 million tax-free exemption may help small owner occupiers, but it will not help small tenant farmers on large estates, particularly those occupying under insecure Farm Business Tenancies. The Chancellor of the Exchequer must think again. The 2026 legislation must include a provision to exempt land let for 10 or more years. Without this provision, we could see the loss of many small family farms”.
Alternatively some of the money raised could be used to help fund any such tenants who wished to buy the property.
Simon Fairlie is founder, now co-editor of TheLandMagazine.org.uk and the printed mag with Mike Hannis (Kingshill), Gill Barron and SM Parsons
SOURCES
J.Beckett and M.Turner “End of the Old Order? FML Thompson, the Land Question, and the Burden of Ownership in England” AgHR 55,11.
Anthony B Atkinson, “Wealth and Inheritance in Britain from 1896 to the Present”, LSE OnLine, 2018.
A property company linked to Guy Hands has agreed to sell 36,000 military homes to the UK’s Ministry of Defence for almost £6bn, signalling an end to a long-running battle between the billionaire and the government.
Annington will hand over its 999-year lease on the 36,347 homes, known as the Married Quarters Estate, to the MoD and receive £5.99bn in return – almost twice as much as Hands’ private equity company Terra Firma paid for Annington more than a decade ago, but less than the £8bn the homes were valued at last year.
The sale ends court proceedings brought by Annington over planned housing reforms. In September, the company took a legal fight with the UK government to the European court of human rights over fears it could lose significant sums as a result of the new Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act. It also launched a challenge in the high court on the same grounds.
In 1996, under the then defence secretary, Michael Portillo, the Conservative government sold 57,400 houses used by military service men and women and their families to Annington for £1.7bn – making the company the biggest residential property owner in England and Wales.
The MoD rented back the homes on a 200-year lease at a discount but also agreed to pay for their maintenance and refurbishment.
Annington refurbished and sold nearly 20,000 homes.
In 2012, Terra Firma bought Annington from the Japanese investment bank Nomura Holdings for £3.2bn. Hands, one of Britain’s highest-profile private equity investors, launched Terra Firma in 2002 and has since made more than £15bn in investments, including the record company EMI, Tilia Homes and Welcome Hotels.
In January 2022, the MoD said it was hoping to take back full ownership of the homes through enfranchisement rules under existing leasehold legislation.
The MoD said the deal brought back military housing into public hands and ended a “huge annual rental bill” to save about £230m a year.
John Healey, the defence secretary, said: “There is still a lot of work to do to deliver the homes our military families deserve, and these problems will not be fixed overnight. But this is a decisive break with the failed approach of the past and a major step forward on that journey.”
Ian Rylatt, the Annington chief executive, said the sale represented a new chapter for the estate and “ends a costly and distracting legal dispute, allowing everyone to move forward”.
Accommodation for service personnel and their families is “shocking”, as issues with damp and mould persist, according to a report from the Commons defence committee published last week.
It found that two-thirds of the homes for service families “need extensive refurbishment or rebuilding” along with a third of the homes rented by individuals. The family homes are part of the Annington portfolio, but the government is responsible for their maintenance.
Last year, the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, which is responsible for maintaining and servicing military accommodation, was given £400m to tackle mould, damp and other problems.
The report found that its contracts resulted in “poor contractor performance, poor quality of maintenance and repair work, and a poor lived experience for many serving personnel and their families”.
The MoD will transfer 159 homes worth £55m to Annington within 12 months as part of a pre-existing agreement.
Contracts were exchanged in relation to the £5.99bn sale on Monday and the deal is expected to close on 9 January. The sale proceeds will be used to pay down Annington’s debt, with another portion distributed to shareholders, including UK pension funds and sovereign wealth funds.
The firm, which has 1,600 other rental properties, also plans to reinvest in the UK property market.
set up a charitable fund to pay off distressed farmers’ inheritance bills;
institute a chain of collectively owned farm shops in every market town to act as a mini supermarket for seasonal produce;
demand boycotts of supermarkets and/or products where price fixing is taking place, robbing farmers;
blockade factory farms and mass mechanised greenhouses owned by front companies for private equity firms;
set up a direct action group to occupy and obstruct individuals and businesses which are destroying UK family farming.
How’s that for a start? Please add your own suggestions in the comments below. www.tlio.org.uk
There has been a huge surge in wealthy individuals and institutions buying up farmland across England, according to new analysis, with a parallel drop in the amount of agricultural land actively used for farming.
Farmers have been descending on Westminster to protest Labour’s new inheritance tax rules, which could threaten to close a well-used tax loophole for the wealthy.
Thousands of agricultural workers have been protesting in central London, with Tom Bradshaw, the president of the National Farmers’ Union, saying he has “never seen the united sense of anger” there in the industry today.
Speaking to reporters en-route to Rio de Janeiro, the prime minister reinforced the point that the overwhelming majority of farmers would be exempt from the changes, suggesting this message may not be getting through.
“Obviously, there’s an issue around inheritance tax and I do understand the concern.
“But for a typical case, which is parents with a farm they want to pass on to one of their children, by the time you’ve taken into account not only the exemption for the farm property itself, but also the exemption for spouse to spouse, then parent to child, it’s £3 million before any inheritance tax will be payable.
“Over the £3 million, it’s then 20 per cent rather than the usual rate and it’s payable over 10 years.”
Data collected by property consultants Strutt & Parker show farmers are increasingly being squeezed out of the agricultural land market by wealthy investors.
While non-farmers were responsible for less than a third of farmland purchases in 2010, by last year this had risen to 56 per cent.
In the last year alone, 400,000 hectares (988,422 acres) of agricultural land has been taken out of use for farming.
The analysis is linking this to financial advice that recommends the potential tax breaks of investing in farmland.
MPs Why didn’t Treasury abolish business rollover relief, rather than put inheritance tax on farmers?
Jeremy Moody, secretary and adviser at Central Association for Agricultural Valuers, added that the tax changes would not discourage companies from snapping-up farmland, adding: “It is only individuals who die.”
Hundreds of farmers in tractors descended on Westminster to protest, while MPs heard less than half of estates claiming agricultural relief made any income from farming in five years
Farmers in tractors staged another protest over the government’s inheritance tax changes – despite fresh claims large landowners are the big winners from current rules.
Hundreds descended on London, with go-slow demonstrations on dual carriageways in a number of other places. It marked a second day of action in the wake of Rachel Reeves’s Budget announcement that farms worth more than £1million will pay 20% inheritance tax from 2026.
Farmers called the change “another kick in the teeth”, while some backed cutting off food supplies in the new year as “wake up call”.
It came as MPs scrutinising the shake-up heard more than half those claiming a lucrative tax break to avoid death duties have “no involvement in farming in any way”.
The 20% inheritance tax rate – half that for everyone else – replaces two types of relief worth up to 100%.
Dr Arun Advani, director of Centre for the Analysis of Taxation, told the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee: “Less than half of the estates who are claiming agricultural relief have any income from farming anywhere in the five years before death.”
About 44% of the claims are from people you would think of as farmers.”
The others, he said, are “a mix of people who own a house and some pony paddocks or who own land and let it out to a lot of people but are not involved in any farming in any way.”
The Mirror revealed this month how a quarter of all England’s farmland belongs to just 2,500 owners. The highly respected Institute for Fiscal Studies says those paying more tax under the changes would be heavily concentrated among large wealthy landowners.
But Dr Advani warned, at 20%, the inheritance tax rate still made it attractive for the wealthy to buy up agricultural land, pushing up prices for genuine smaller family farmers who want to work the land themselves.
Jeremy Moody, secretary and adviser at Central Association for Agricultural Valuers, added that the tax changes would not discourage companies from snapping-up farmland, adding: “It is only individuals who die.”Tom Bradshaw, president of the National Farmers’ Union, claimed Ms Reeves had refused to meet.
War and Theft: The Takeover of Ukraine’s Agricultural Land exposes the financial interests and the dynamics at play leading to further concentration of land and finance.
The total amount of land controlled by oligarchs, corrupt individuals, and large agribusinesses is over nine million hectares — exceeding 28 percent of Ukraine’s arable land. The largest landholders are a mix of Ukrainian oligarchs and foreign interests — mostly European and North American as well as the sovereign fund of Saudi Arabia. Prominent US pension funds, foundations, and university endowments are invested through NCH Capital, a US-based private equity fund.
Several agribusinesses, still largely controlled by oligarchs, have opened up to Western banks and investment funds — including prominent ones such as Kopernik, BNP, or Vanguard — who now control part of their shares. Most of the large landholders are substantially indebted to Western funds and institutions, notably the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the World Bank.Western financing to Ukraine in recent years has been tied to a drastic structural adjustment program that has required austerity and privatization measures, including the creation of a land market for the sale of agricultural land. President Zelenskyy put the land reform into law in 2020 against the will of the vast majority of the population who feared it would exacerbate corruption and reinforce control by powerful interests in the agricultural sector. Findings of the report concur with these concerns. While large landholders are securing massive financing from Western financial institutions, Ukrainian farmers — essential for ensuring domestic food supply — receive virtually no support. With the land market in place, amidst high economic stress and war, this difference of treatment will lead to more land consolidation by large agribusinesses.
The report also sounds the alarm that Ukraine’s crippling debt is being used as a leverage by the financial institutions to drive post-war reconstruction towards further privatization and liberalization reforms in several sectors, including agriculture.
War And Theft: The Takeover of Ukraine’s Agricultural Land
by Frédéric Mousseau and Eve Devillers. For The Oakland Institute, PO Box 18978 Oakland, CA 94619 USA
The war in Ukraine has been at the center stage of foreign policy and media reports since February 2022. Little attention, however, has been given to a major issue, which is at the core of the conflict – who controls the agricultural land in the country known as the “breadbasket of Europe?”This report addresses this gap – identifying the interests controlling Ukraine’s agricultural land and presenting an analysis of the dynamics at play around land tenure in the country. This includes the highly controversial land reform that took place in 2021 as part of the structural adjustment program initiated under the auspices of Western financial institutions, after the installation of a pro-European Union (EU) government following the Maidan Revolution in 2014.
With 33 million hectares of arable land, Ukraine has large swaths of the most fertile farmland in the world. 1 Misguided privatization and corrupt governance since the early 1990s have concentrated land in the hands of a new oligarchic class. Around 4.3 million hectares are under large-scale agri- culture, with the bulk, three million hectares, in the hands of just a dozen large agribusiness firms.
In addition, according to the government, about five million hectares – the size of two Crimea – have been “stolen” by private interests from the state of Ukraine. The total amount of land controlled by oligarchs, corrupt individuals, and large agribusinesses is thus over nine million hectares, exceeding 28 percent of the country’s arable land. The rest is used by over eight million Ukrainian farmers.
The largest landholders are a mix of oligarchs and a variety of foreign interests – mostly European and North American, including a US-based private equity fund and the sovereign fund of Saudi Arabia. All but one of the ten largest landholding firms are registered overseas, mainly in tax havens such as Cyprus or Luxembourg. Even when run and still largely controlled by an oligarch founder, a number of firms have gone public with Western banks and investment funds now controlling a significant amount of their shares.
The report identifies many prominent investors, including Vanguard Group, Kopernik Global Investors, BNP Asset Management Holding, Goldman Sachs-owned NN Investment Partners Holdings, and Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages Norway’s sovereign wealth fund. A number of large US pension funds, foundations, and university endowments are also invested in Ukrainian land through NCH Capital – a US-based private equity fund, which is the fifth largest landholder in the country.
Most of these firms are substantially indebted to Western financial institutions, in particular the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) – the private sector arm of the World Bank. Together, these institutions have been major lenders to Ukrainian agribusinesses, with close to US$1.7 billion lent to just six of Ukraine’s largest landholding firms in recent years. Other key lenders are a mix of mainly European and North American financial institutions, both public and private. Not only does this debt gives creditors financial stakes in the operation of the agribusinesses, but also confers a significant level of leverage over them. This was evidenced by the debt restructuring of UkrLandFarming, one of Ukraine’s largest landholders, which involved creditors including the Export-Import agencies of the US, Canada, and Denmark, among others, and led to important organizational changes including layoffs of thousands of workers.
This international financing directly benefits oligarchs, several of whom face accusations of fraud and corrupt dealings, as well as the foreign funds and firms associated as shareholders or creditors. Meanwhile, Ukrainian farmers have had to operate with limited amounts of land and financing, and many are now on the verge of poverty. Data shows that these farmers receive virtually no support compared to agribusinesses and oligarchs.
The Partial Credit Guarantee Fund established by the World Bank to support small farmers is only US$5.4 million, a negligible amount compared to the billions channeled to large agribusinesses.
In recent years, Western countries and institutions have provided massive military and economic assistance to Ukraine, which became the top recipient of US foreign aid – marking the first time since the Marshall Plan that a European country holds this top spot.
As of December 2022, less than one year into the war, the US has allocated over US$113 billion to Ukraine, including US$65 billion of military aid, 8 which is more than the entire budget of the State Department and USAID globally (US$58 billion).
The report details how Western aid has been conditioned to a drastic structural adjustment program, which includes austerity measures, cuts in social safety nets, and the privatization of key sectors of the economy. A central condition has been the creation of a land market, put into law in 2020 under President Zelenskyy, despite opposition from a majority of Ukrainians fearing that it will exacerbate corruption in the agricultural sector and reinforce its control by powerful interests.
The findings of the report validate this concern, showing that the creation of a land market will likely further increase the amount of agricultural land in the hands of oligarchs and large agribusiness firms. The latter have already started expanding their access to land. Kernel has announced plans to increase its land bank to 700,000 hectares – up from 506,000 hectares in 2021.
Similarly, MHP, which currently controls 360,000 hectares of land, seeks to expand its holdings to 550,000 hectares. MHP is also reportedly circumventing restrictions on the purchase of land by asking its employees to buy land and lease it to the company.
Additionally, by supporting large agribusinesses, international financial institutions are in effect subsidizing the concentration of land and an industrial model of agriculture based on the intensive use of synthetic inputs, fossil fuels, and large-scale monocropping – long shown to be environmentally and socially destructive.
By contrast, small scale farmers in Ukraine demonstrate resilience and a great potential for leading the expansion of a different production model based on agroecology, environmental sustainability, and the production of healthy food. It is Ukraine’s small and medium-sized farmers who guarantee the country’s food security whereas large agribusinesses are geared towards export markets.
In December 2022, a coalition of farmers, academics, and NGOs called on the Ukrainian government to suspend the 2020 land reform law and all market transactions of land during the war and post- war period, “in order to guarantee the national security and preservation of territorial integrity of the country in wartime and post-war reconstruction period.”
As explained by Prof. Olena Borodina of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU), “Today, thousands of rural boys and girls, farmers, are fighting and dying in the war. They have lost everything. The processes of free land sale and purchase are increasingly liberalized and advertised. This really threatens the rights of Ukrainians to their land, for which they give their lives.”
At a time of tremendous suffering and displacement, wherein countless lives have been lost and massive financial resources spent for the control of Ukraine, this report raises major concerns about the future of land and food production in the country, which is likely to become more consolidated and controlled by oligarchs and foreign interests.
These concerns are exacerbated by Ukraine’s staggering and growing foreign debt, contracted at the expense of the population’s living conditions as a result of the measures required under the structural adjustment program. Ukraine is now the world’s third-largest debtor to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) 17 and its crippling debt burden will likely result in additional pressure from its creditors, bondholders, and international financial institutions on how post-war reconstruction – estimated to cost US$750 billion – should happen.
These powerful actors have already been explicit that they will use their leverage to further privatize the country’s public sector and liberalize its agriculture.
The end of the war should be the moment and opportunity for just the opposite, i.e. the redesign of an economic model no longer dominated by oligarchy and corruption, but where land and resources are controlled by and benefit all Ukrainians. This could form the basis for the transformation of the agricultural sector to make it more democratic and environmentally and socially sustainable. International policy and financial support should be geared towards this transformation, to benefit people and farmers rather than oligarchs and foreign financial interests.
Here’s PM Starmer’s NFU 2023 speech which has got so many farmers fuming. By imposing inheritance tax in the October budget his promises to support family farms and stabilise the market for food… all broken
This is a turning point in British history, he predicts. “People will come to realise this is a ‘closure of the mines’ moment for UK agriculture, in the same way it affected those mining towns for generations, it will change rural Britain and the British landscape forever. It knocks on to everything in market towns, the local shops, the pubs, the schools, the livestock auctioneers, the suppliers, the drivers – the lot. Family farms are just the base of the pyramid. The ‘£1 million’ sum exposes it. It’s not just short of the mark, it’s ten times short of the mark.”
Clive Bailye has always known that farming is a long game. As a child, it was one of the first lessons his father taught him as they trampled around their family’s fields in south Staffordshire. A generation before, Bailye’s father had been taught the same by his father, who began with just two acres after the Second World War.
‘Some talk about going on strike, refusing to let food leave their farms … but everyone’s terrified of being imprisoned for being the one to organise it,’ says farmer Clive Bailye
Optimism is at the heart of things. You sow crops with planning, caution and a small dose of hope. You harvest with one eye on the next year, and the year after that. And in lean times, you have to remind yourself that things will always get better. Recently, as farmers across the UK have been hit by all manner of blights – the climate emergency, geopolitical strife, ever more powerful supermarkets, Brexit repercussions – he’s found comfort in that attitude.
Then opposition leader, Sir Keir Starmer, addresses 2023 NFU Conference in Birmingham
“This is a multigenerational, long-term vocation. You can’t make money in a single year, and it doesn’t work on a single generation,” Bailye says. “[Farmers] have been on our knees, but you keep the next generation in mind and think, ‘It might not be working for me, but think ahead. It will get there eventually, even if it’s 200 years.’” He sighs. “Well, after this, that’s just not the case anymore. This is the end of the line.”
The “this” Bailye refers to is Labour’s Budget announcement that from April 2026, it will reform the Agricultural Property Relief (APR), which allows farmers to easily pass their businesses to the next generation, by introducing a 20 per cent tax rate on the value of all farms and businesses worth more than £1 million. It is an inheritance tax tweak that seems not just ill thought-out but, to some at least, wilfully capricious. Farmers are united in disbelief and outrage; behind them, a chorus of high-profile support grows more and more vociferous. If Labour felt taking on farmers would be easy, they may now be thinking twice.
“Rachel Reeves. I literally daren’t comment,” wrote Jeremy Clarkson – who is, among other things, surely the loudest and most influential voice in British agriculture these days – to his eight million followers on X. He eventually did dare, of course. “Farmers. I know that you have been shafted today. But please don’t despair. Just look after yourselves for five short years and this shower will be gone.”
Clarkson’s neighbour, the popular YouTuber and farmer Harry Metcalfe, simply called it “the end of family farms in the UK”. Rachel Johnson, the writer and broadcaster, asked if it is “really worth f—ing family farms, undermining food security, forcing land clearances and fire sales of agricultural assets, breaking the continuity of generations of stewardship, just to raise a measly £500 million to chuck into the black hole?”
James Rebanks, the bestselling author and upland farmer, also took to social media to rail against various decisions and betrayals – both by Labour and Conservative governments – against the farming community. “The damage done to these relationships will last for a very long time – it’s a disaster of epic proportions,” he said, as well as referring to the UK as “one of the stupidest countries on earth when it comes to [agricultural] policy”.
And Kirstie Allsopp, the TV property presenter, wrote that Reeves has “f- – – -d all farmers, […] destroyed their ability to pass farms on to their children, and broken the future of all our great estates. The Government has zero understanding of what matters to rural voters.” Later she wondered aloud what all this meant for The Archers.
Bailye, 51, is less sweary but, being in the direct line of fire, even more distressed. He variously calls it a “kick in the teeth”, a “kick in the b- – — ks” and a “complete blindside” for farmers like him. The 750 acres of combined arable crops he farms near Lichfield was inherited from his father, who took it over from his father. Through sweat and toil, judicious borrowing and wise investments, each generation “worked, made a profit, paid their taxes and managed to grow the business a bit”.
But that was then. “I’ve got two boys, one’s 13 and one’s 11, and they’ve shown an interest but I’ve never known whether they’d take it on after me. Well, I do know now: it isn’t available to them. And quite frankly I’d encourage them to do absolutely anything else, given the way we’re treated by governments.”
In Bailye’s view, Labour’s decision to treat farmers as excessively wealthy types who aren’t paying their fair share suggests the Government has fallen for the great fallacy about his livelihood: that because farmers have vast lands, usually a big old house and some very expensive machinery, they must be stinking rich.
“The idea of ‘farmers pretending they’re poor’ is ridiculous. In terms of asset wealth, there’s no getting away from the idea that if you own a farm, and you have the equipment to farm, you have significant asset wealth. But you can’t live off assets. You live off the profits those assets generate, and typical farming returns, if you’re good at it and smart with subsidies and know what you’re doing, you’re doing well if you’re getting 1 or 2 per cent return on investment.
“That doesn’t make people wealthy when it comes to putting food on the table and keeping the lights on. There are family farms with well in excess of £1 million in assets that are living below the poverty line, and certainly far less than the living wage. But that’s a difficult thing to get across to the general public if you see a farmer in his big house and shiny tractor.”
Victoria Vyvyan, president of the Country Land and Business Association, called Labour’s move “nothing short of a betrayal” of the agricultural community, given now-Secretary of State Steve Reed had last year said: “We have no intention of changing [Agricultural Property Relief].”
Vyvyan added that an estimated 70,000 family farms could be hit by the new rules: “This puts dynamite beneath the livelihoods of British farming, and flies in the face of growth and investment.” Tom Bradshaw, president of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), agreed, calling it a “disastrous Budget for family farmers”, especially since there was a “shameless breaking of clear promises [that] will snatch away the next generation’s ability to carry on producing British food, plan for the future and shepherd the environment.”
How agricultural property relief works
You can pass on some agricultural property free of inheritance tax, either during your lifetime or as part of your will.
Agricultural property that qualifies for agricultural relief is land or pasture that is used to grow crops or to rear animals.
It also includes:
Growing crops Stud farms for breeding and rearing horses and grazing Trees that are planted and harvested at least every 10 years (short-rotation coppice) Land not currently being farmed under the “habitat scheme” Land not currently being farmed under a crop rotation scheme The value of milk quota associated with the land Some agricultural shares and securities Farm buildings, farm cottages and farmhouses
These do not qualify for agricultural relief:
Farm equipment and machinery Derelict buildings Harvested crops Livestock Property subject to a binding contract for sale
Source: Gov.uk
Bailye is now having to face his own future. His parents, who still own the land, are alive, albeit elderly and in ill health. “When things pass to me, to pay that tax bill I’d have no choice but to sell at least 20 per cent of the assets passed to me, and what would be left wouldn’t be a viable farm, or I’d have to borrow to pay that tax bill, but with 1 per cent returns, you can’t afford the interest, never mind the repayments. No bank would lend it. So I’d have no choice but to sell the lot. And that would be it,” he says.
Even if he could secure that loan or make the business viable again, the next generation only inherits a burden. “Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that you did manage to get through that, why would you want to pass that on to your own children for them to go through the same? You wouldn’t. It’s removed any incentive to invest in UK agriculture whatsoever.”
In his spare time, Bailye runs the Farming Forum, a website he calls “Mumsnet for farmers”. On Thursday it was ablaze with “thousands” of apoplectic agricultural workers and landowners at a loss as to why they have been targeted. Bailye now wonders what form of protest they’ll take. “You’ve got a demographic of people now who I think feel they have very little to lose. And there are very few industries that have the ability to literally shut down the economy. I mean, can you imagine just a thousand tractors driving, quite legally at 20mph, at rush hour, on main roads? You’d grind the country to a halt,” he says.
“Others talk about going on strike, refusing to let food leave their farms. But can they afford to do that? Everybody wants to do something, but everyone’s terrified of being imprisoned for being the one to organise it…”
Family farmers are, he concedes, “a small minority”, but they are also the vital warp in the fabric of rural communities already under profound stress. Rip that out and the whole lot falls apart, Bailye says, leaving behind only vast “megafarms” or, more likely, former family farmland that will “will inevitably fall into the hands of large corporations and institutional investors that really will have no desire to farm it”.
“They’ll be far more interested in potential development, energy uses and carbon offsetting – all the other uses for farmland that I don’t think most people want. And the irony is that those companies will probably be non-UK or based offshore and not even paying tax anyway…”
This is a turning point in British history, he predicts. “People will come to realise this is a ‘closure of the mines’ moment for UK agriculture, in the same way it affected those mining towns for generations, it will change rural Britain and the British landscape forever. It knocks on to everything in those towns, the local shops, the pubs, the schools, the livestock auctioneers, the markets, the suppliers, the drivers – the lot. Family farms are just the base of the pyramid. I just cannot believe this wasn’t thought through, and the ‘£1 million’ sum exposes it. It’s not just short of the mark, it’s ten times short of the mark.”
On Thursday, farmers on social media were sharing a clip of a politician making very sound points to an audience at the NFU conference just last year. He seemed to get it: “Losing a farm is not like losing any other business, it can’t come back. That’s why the lack of urgency from the Government, the lack of attention to detail, the lack of long-term planning… It’s not on, you deserve better than that.”
The speaker was Sir Keir Starmer. Bailye has now shared the clip himself. “And frankly, the last prime minister who told lies like that had to resign,” he says.
Across the country, farmers have been hit by an almighty, sudden blight. But as always, they’ll play the long game. The next general election is in 2029. Starmer and Reeves may have just sown the seeds of revolt.
British monarchy ‘committed genocide against our people,’ said independent lawmaker Lidia Thorpe.
October 21, 2024 By Noah Keate
King Charles III was heckled by an Australian senator who accused the visiting U.K. monarch of “genocide.”
Lidia Thorpe, an Aboriginal independent lawmaker for Victoria, interrupted proceedings and approached the stage as Charles concluded his speech at Parliament House in the capital city of Canberra.
“This is not your land, you are not my king!” she said.
“You committed genocide against our people,” Thorpe added. “Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us — our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people. You are a genocidalist.”
Charles was heckled for around a minute before the senator was escorted away by security. The king and other attendees, including Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, remained seated and did not comment on the incident.
It occurred during Charles’ first visit to Australia since ascending to the throne in 2022, and the first visit to the country by a British monarch since 2011.
Australia, a former collection of British colonies, federated and became an independent nation in 1901 but remains a constitutional monarchy with the Charles as its head of state — though in practice his rule is purely symbolic, with no role in Australian day-to-day governance.
Support for an Australian republic is divided, according to polls. Buckingham Palace officials writing on behalf of Charles said earlier this month that “whether Australia becomes a republic” is a “matter for the Australian public to decide.”
Thorpe released a statement Monday arguing that Australia should ditch the monarchy and establish a treaty with indigenous First Nations people.
“The crown invaded this country, has not sought treaty with First Peoples, and committed a genocide of our people,” she said. “King Charles is not the legitimate sovereign of these lands.”
Australia narrowly rejected becoming a republic in 1999, although Charles’ visit has not been without controversy.
WHO IS STOP BOTLEY WEST? www.stopbotleywest.com Stop Botley West Campaign contact@stopbotleywest.com
Mission Statement
The Stop Botley West Campaign (a private company limited by guarantee) is a community group of volunteers dedicated to protecting the heritage, environment and amenities of Oxfordshire from significant and long-term damage caused by the proposed Botley West Utility-Scale Solar Power Station. We will achieve this by stopping or significantly reducing the scale of the Botley West proposal while promoting alternative renewable energy solutions to achieving the decarbonisation of Oxfordshire’s economy.
We believe our ambitious climate targets must be achieved sustainably by:
* Achieving the right balance between clean energy, nature preservation and food security
* Using the full range of renewable energy solutions including community solar farms and solar on rooftops and brownfield sites as well as energy saving measures for homes, industry and transport
* Promoting the health and wellbeing of all our citizens.
The Town of Woodstock and the Villages of Begbroke, Bladon, Cassington, Church Hanborough, Combe, Cumnor, Eynsham, Farmoor, Filchamstead, Freeland, Kidlington, Long Hanborough, North Leigh, Tackley, Wootton, Worton, Yarnton and the fringes of Oxford at Botley all lie within 2km of the site. The Community Consultation Zone comprises 22,000 households with nearly 11,000 of those being within 1.5km of the site.
The Chair of Stop Botley West is Prof. Alex David Rogers
Contact details for the Stop Botley West Central Team:
General enquiries: contact@stopbotleywest.com
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United Kingdom
Rewilding Britain Timeline – Partners George Monbiot and Rebecca Wrigley’s Cover For Private Equity’s Global Enclosure By Stealth … and pantheism?
Across the UK, in Holland and as far away as India and New Zealand farmers are protesting. Here in the UK DEFRA’s new ‘environmental’ requirements known as Biodiversity Net Gain force farmers to take about 15% of land out of production, putting many who are surviving on slim profit margins out of business, and off the land.
The spin is that farming is incompatible with wildlife, but the sinister end result is upland and downland, woods, pasture and arable land are becoming just tens of thousands of acres of distressed assets forced to market to be snapped up by private equity. Hang on. Farming, after all, and the surplus food it provides, formed the basis, 4,000 or so years ago, of civilisation.
‘I thought they were my friends’
This is particularly worrying because it appears to have been so well-planned, so pre-meditated… Though post-WWII, US-style industrial agriculture is more destructive, before the 1930s, traditional non-pesticide, non-chemical fertiliser farming, with horses and horse-muck, always left plenty of space for wildlife.
“…when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing the harvest.”: 1 Corinthians 9:10.
So whilst producing vast food surplus to feed a growing empire, the staunch Anglican-Nonoconformist Christian culture ensured God’s England and its wildlife were respected. Poachers were treated harshly, but manorial rabbit warrens, dovecotes, wild boar and deer provided common-sense reserve of village protein in times of unrest, or famine.
Until 2021 there was a successful charity that celebrated this. The Countryside Restoration Trust (CRT), founded by journalist Robin Page, championed the integration of farming and wildlife. The CRT, however. was clobbered in a nasty 2021 hostile takeover which arguably killed heartbroken Robin who’d seen his life’s work wrecked by ruthless Rewilding carpetbaggers.
China and the developing world have roundly beaten Western Finance Capitalism at its own game. But blocked economically and militarily, where will the West’s voracious rent-seekers turn? The answer is, of course, to consolidate their domestic monopolies, predate on domestic Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and middle-class asset owners. Quietly placing family farmers right in the crosshairs.
Old markets, squeezed dry, are rebranded as new markets in ‘Carbon Credits’, then, which King Charles personally benefits in terms of offshore wind and carbon trading regulation. But these are nothing but a great deception, a sophisticated excuse for global elite asset managers and high-priests of globalisation… to privatise the earth and bring in formalised digital human slavery.
It doesn’t seem to matter that Agenda 2030/COP/WEF rewilding of wolves in Germany has been such a disaster. Nor that it’s only a matter of time before one of the hundreds of reintroduced wolf packs kill a wandering German child or two. Wolf welfare is elevated above human welfare, this, my friends, is pantheism.
Nietzsche was Adolf Hitler‘s guru, and butter wouldn’t melt in Monbiot and Wrigley’s mouths.
Rewilding Britain’s Timeline of Lies and Treachery
Understanding the recent increase in “Rewilding” initiatives in Cornwall by examining a wider global “Rewilding” agenda.
Nigel Sumpter
CONTENTS
1 Introduction to this Working Paper
2. Rewilding Initiatives
2.1 What is “Rewilding”
2.2 Summary
3. Two Organisations key for understanding current Rewilding initiatives
3.1 The World Economic Forum (The WEF)
3.2 The United Nations (The UN)
3.3 The 2019 Strategic Partnership Framework between The WEF and The UN.
4. Timeline of Rewilding related initiatives
4. Timeline of key international initiatives relating to rewilding.
4.1 1970s to 1990s: Some foundational elements of current Rewilding Initiatives
4.2 2000 to date: Global reiteration and reinforcement of he preceding Rewilding principles
5. Taking Farmland Out of Food Production for “Climate Change” mitigation and/or Rewilding
5.1 International Taking Farmland Out of Food Production
5.2 Europe Taking Farmland Out of Food Production
5.3 Britain Taking Farmland Out of Food Production
5.4 Cornwall Taking Farmland Out of Food Production
6. Cornwall: Some other recent examples of local level rewilding initiatives
7. Addendum
7.1 Some comments on how rewilding can be a mechanism for wealth transfer.
7.2 World Human Population Reduction – “to save the planet”
7.3 Some guides to Agenda 2030:
1: Introduction to this working paper
This working paper considers a marked recent increase in local “rewilding” initiatives using the example of Cornwall and examines how they are/may be driven by a wider global agenda.
Representative text extracts from readily available public sources are arranged into a broadly chronological order. This presents an overall picture of the key initiatives that are part of a global agenda including “rewilding” and their impacts from global down down to local level. These quoted text extracts are highlighted in Italics.
Links are provided against many of the representative text extracts to allow deeper enquiry.
(CAPITAL NOTES IN BRACKETS) offer comment and queries for the reader to consider.
Underlined and/or in bold in the text extracts where introduced and considered of particular significance are: Names – of individuals and organisations, Policies, Initiatives etc
2: “Rewilding”
2.1 What is “Rewilding”
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rewilding_(conservation_biology)
Definition: “Rewilding” , or re-wilding, activities are conservation efforts aimed at restoring and protecting natural processes and wilderness areas. Rewilding is a form of ecological restoration with an emphasis on recovering the geographically specific set of ecological interactions and functions that would have maintained ecosystem dynamics prior to human influences. This may require active human intervention to achieve.”
Origin: “The word “rewilding” was coined by members of the grass roots network Earth First!, appearing in print by 1990, and was refined and grounded in a scientific context by conservation biologists Michael Soulé and Reed Noss. According to Soulé and Noss, rewilding is a conservation method based on “cores, corridors, and carnivores.” The concepts of cores, corridors, and carnivores were developed further in 1999. Dave Foreman, Earth First! co-founder, subsequently wrote …about rewilding as a conservation strategy”.
Note: Earth First! co-founded by Dave Foreman, referred to in the Wikipedia extracts above, has been described as an extreme Eco-Terrorist group [this is not true, Earth First is a pagan-oriented non-violent direct action (NVDA) group which hold regular open gatherings, ed.]. As set out below in the timeline section Dave Foreman wrote the influential “The Wildlands Project” published by The Club of Rome in 1992 which is substantially about Rewilding and the intrinsically necessary management of the human population . Recommendations in the “The Wildlands Project” are foundational to current global Rewilding Policies embodied in the likes of Agenda2030 “The Sustainable Development Goals” which is signed up to by 178 Governments worldwide. The foundational 1992 The Wildlands Project’s recommendations for rewilding go hand in hand with radical control of human populations into just 25% of the land including relocation into “Sustainable” cities.
2.2 Summary: On the face of it some degree of selective “Rewilding” proposals in their own right seems a perfectly reasonable option to consider to address loss of flora, fauna and habitat arising from human activities such as historic and ongoing clearance of original wild forests and other habitats to allow for agricultural land use, urbanisation and resource exploitation along with hunting mostly larger wild animals to extinction as either food sources or if perceived as dangerous.
This brief study however concludes that the current global to local “rewilding” imperative substantially arises from the global United Nations (UN)’s Agenda2030 “The Sustainable Development Goals” and in particular Sustainable Development Goal 15 (SDG15) “Life on Land”.
Agenda2030 is supported by it’s 178 signatory world Governments who are bound to implementing all 17 SDGs. This appears to be integrated with other global initiatives of The World Economic Forum (WEF) such as the “The 4th Industrial Revolution” and “The Great Reset” .
A key part of advocating and advancing implementation of this overall global agenda globally down to local level , including rewilding, is through the “Strategic Partnership Framework” signed in 2019 between the UN and the WEF .
The UN, WEF and signatory world Governments, along with private and public stakeholder organisations and individuals are due to meet in September 2023 to discuss how to accelerate delivery of this overall global agenda some aspects of which involve rewilding.
The “rewilding” element of Agenda 2023 SDG 15 “Life on Land” appears to have evolved from being fundamentally founded on the extreme rewilding recommendations embodied in the 1992 Wildlands Project, published as noted earlier by The Club of Rome and written by Dave Foreman co-founder of Earth First! The later organisation also as noted earlier being regarded as among the most extreme eco-terrorists of the time.
The Club of Rome, publisher of the Wildlands Project is said to express a desire for One World Government. The World Economic Forum have also promoted One World Government. The United Nations (UN) who it has been said are increasingly moving in some respects toward being a component of a One World Government approach(eg UN Secretary-General’s remarks at the 2017 World Government Summit : https://www.un.org/youthenvoy/2017/02/secretary-generals-remarks-world-government-summit-qa/.)
None of these bodies are elected or accountable to the people and there appears to be little opportunity or offer of public consultation on the Agenda 2030 measures, including Rewilding, or the seemingly related “4th Industrial Revolution” or “Great Reset” measures.”
2009 December Telegraph “There’ll be nowhere to run from the new world government” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/janetdaley/6845967/Therell-be-nowhere-to-run-from-the-new-world-government.html)
2010 May Martin Edward. One World Governance – A Common Purpose? “[Would these global agreements] sweep away any consideration of what was once assumed to be the most basic principle of modern democracy: that elected national governments are responsible to their own people – that the right to govern derives from the consent of the electorate. There’ll be nowhere to run from the new world government.” https://www.ukcolumn.org/article/one-world-governance-common-purpose
3. Organisations central to understanding current Rewilding initiatives:
3.1 The World Economic Forum (The WEF)
World Economic Forum (WEF) – From Wikipedia March 13, 2022: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Economic_Forum : The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation….founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation is mostly funded by its 1,000 member companies – typically global enterprises with over US$5 billion in turnover, & views its own mission as “improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas”.
Also: North Western Research Institute (NWRI) “The Forum suggests that a globalised world is best managed by a self-selected coalition of multinational corporations, governments and civil society organizations ..which it expresses through initiatives like the “Great Reset”. ” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za4Q8WXI4vQhttps://nwri.org/world-economic-forum/
Rewilding is listed on the World Economic Forum’s website. The WEF say: “..In the future, food will be produced more intensively in fewer areas”, and “less productive land will be used for rewilding”, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/10/what-is-rewilding-nature/ “Rewilding has gone global, and rewilding projects are growing in more than 70 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, Latin America and North America.” “The Global Rewilding Alliance, which was created in 2020, says rewilding the Earth will “stabilize the climate, halt mass extinction, and reduce the risks of new pandemics”. (THE LATTER COMMENT REF PANDEMICS SEEMS BIZARRE? – DOES IT HINT AT THE COVID19 ‘PANDEMIC’ BEING LINKED TO THE WEF AND THEIR GREAT RESET?)
1992 – ongoing. The WEF has claimed to be able to insert it’s Young Global Leaders (YGLs) into world Governments to deliver WEF policies (presumably including Rewilding). Already in the first year of WEF’S Young Global Leaders (YGL)training programme, 1992, a number of highly influential candidates were elected. Among 200 selected were global profiles such as Angela Merkel, Tony Blair, Nicolas Sarkozy, Bill Gates, Bono, Richard Branson (Virgin), Jorma Ollila (Shell Oil), and José Manuel Barroso (President of the European Commission 2004–2014) (Personal conversation has suggested that around half of the current members of the Cabinet of the current British Parliament may be WEF trained YGLs.) Klaus Schwab, head of the World Economic Forum, has claimed that the WEF have penetrated many world government cabinets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOuLQDRCexshttps://geopolitics.co/2022/02/22/world-economic-forums-young-global-leaders-revealed/https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/03/meet-the-2021-class-of-young-global-leadershttps://expose-news.com/2022/01/05/ernst-wolff-world-economic-forum/
2030 March The Expose News: “Obscured by noble-sounding verbiage, the text of the World Economic Forum’s Agenda 2030 hides a hideous truth. When you look past the “sustainable development” jargon, it’s clear they want to take away your goods, such as electrical appliances, motor vehicles and even property rights.” https://expose-news.com/2023/03/05/what-you-need-to-know-about-agenda-2030/
2023 February Video: “Whitney Webb | What is the World Economic Forum?” Investigative journalist Whitney Webb reveals the inner workings of the World Economic Forum (“WEF”), the driving force behind The Great Reset. “The World Economic Forum (WEF) plays a significant role in guiding international developments in the interests of the business community.” ..”These are dreams where the powerful stay powerful, and the underclasses continue to toil and suffer. ..to solidify corporate control over the governments’ of the world”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za4Q8WXI4vQ
3.2 The United Nations (The UN)
The United Nations, referred to informally as the UN, is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and serve as a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations
“Within the UN’s Sustainable Policy, which Britain has adopted, we find the objective to remove private ownership whilst at the same time we also find the objective to re-wild the countryside – the UN envisions that most of the people in the world will be living in cities by 2050.”
2021 September Expose news: “Building an Empire – The United Nations Using the World Economic Forum to Roll Out Its Agenda”. “A key facet of that action plan is to push the agenda down to the most local levels in society. There are multiple paths and they all lead to a ‘One World Government’. ” https://expose-news.com/2021/09/14/building-an-empire-the-united-nations-using-the-world-economic-forum-to-roll-out-its-agenda/ “…as explained in James Jaeger’s documentary (below). Although it’s lengthy at 2.5 hours, it’s well worth watching as it gives a deeper understanding of the Agenda, how it’s being implemented and its local and global impact. While watching you will find you are able to draw parallels to what is happening in your own locality.” 2020 July James Jaeger’s documentary “UNSUSTAINABLE – The UN’s Agenda For World Domination” https://archive.org/details/2020-unsustainable-the-uns-agenda-for-world-domination. “The UN says “sustainable development” is simply the “Environmental Movement” reconfiguring the planet into a safe, green world. Others maintain it’s the forced inventory and control of all land, water, minerals, plants, animals, building projects and human beings on the planet. In other words, a blueprint for what many fear could morph into a totalitarian World Government. So what’s the real agenda behind Agenda 21?” . 2.5 hours long, it gives a deeper understanding of the UN and it’s agenda, how it’s being implemented and its local and global impact. While watching you are able to draw parallels to what is happening in your own locality.” (Including Rewilding initiatives.)
3.3 The 2019 Strategic Partnership Framework between The WEF and The UN to deliver Agenda 2030 “The Sustainable Development Goals”,globally down to locally (including SDG15 and Rewilding) .
2019 June The United Nations (UN) and The World Economic Forum (WEF) signed the “Strategic Partnership Framework” between them to accelerate the implementation of UN Agenda 2030 which under it’s Sustainable Development Goal 15 (SDG15) titled “LIFE ON LAND” promotes Rewilding. …. Agenda 2030 is a ..”global movement, co-ordinated through a global to local action plan.” A key facet of that action plan is to push the Agenda down to the most local levels in society. This would include pushing Rewilding (under SDG15) from globally down to locally – eg in Cornwall.
2021 September Expose News. “The United Nations (“UN”) “unites” the governments of 193 countries of the world. The World Economic Forum (“WEF”) “unites” 1,000 of the world’s largest corporations. The two are joined by a strategic partnership to implement the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030. An agenda which aims to control every aspect of our lives.” https://expose-news.com/2021/09/14/building-an-empire-the-united-nations-using-the-world-economic-forum-to-roll-out-its-agenda/ (UN/WEF Strategic Partnership Framework in the embedded video from approx -9.5minutes)
In the late ’90s at the World Economic Forum annual meeting, the then-head of the UN, Kofi Annan, essentially said that the World Economic Forum had been in part responsible for what he referred to as a silent revolution at the UN, where the UN, instead of championing the public sectors of the world (which is how most people think of the UN) they would instead begin to prioritise the needs of the businesses of the world … multinational corporations … over the past several decades the World Economic Forum being a major part of this. The United Nations has been pushed to essentially prioritise corporate needs over public needs.
2022 October Expose News. The U.N. & World Economic Forum are using each other to implement ‘Agenda 2030’ & ‘The Great Reset’ “The United Nations (“UN”) “unites” the governments of 193 countries of the world. Whilst the World Economic Forum (“WEF”) “unites” 1,000 of the world’s largest corporations. The two are joined by a strategic partnership to implement the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030. An agenda which aims to control every aspect of our lives. ” https://expose-news.com/2022/10/21/un-wef-agenda-2030-great-reset/
2023 March Expose News. “…a strategic alliance WEF entered into with the United Nations (“UN”) in 2019, which called for the UN to “use public-private partnerships as the model for nearly all policies that it implements, most specifically the implementation of the 17 sustainable development goals, sometimes referred to as Agenda 2030”.”(which includes Rewilding) https://expose-news.com/2023/03/05/what-you-need-to-know-about-agenda-2030/
4. Timeline of key Rewilding related initiatives
4.1 1970s to 1990s: Foundational elements of current Rewilding initiatives
1972 “Limits of Growth” Report – published by The Club of Rome (see introduction for comment ref CoR aims of eg Global Government). Main author Dennis Meadows is an honorary member of the Club of Rome and a member of the World Economic Forum. The Limits to Growth is a 1972 book about the computer modelling of exponential economic and population growth with finite resource supplies. Funded by the Volkswagen Foundation and commissioned by the Club of Rome https://archive.org/details/TheLimitsToGrowth/mode/2up It advocates an up to 86% reduction in human population (without saying how) The impacts from too large a human population are established in this report and appear to remain part of the underlying arguments around rewilding. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limits_to_Growth : After reviewing their computer simulations, the research team came to …. conclusions (including):”It is possible to alter these growth trends and to establish a condition of ecological and economic stability that is sustainable far into the future. The state of global equilibrium could be designed so that the basic material needs of each person on earth are satisfied and each person has an equal opportunity to realize his individual human potential.” The introduction goes on to say: ” These conclusions are so far-reaching and raise so many questions for further study that we are quite frankly overwhelmed by the enormity of the job that must be done.” (THE UNEXPECTED ORIGIN OF THE ‘CLIMATE CRISIS’ “Jeffery Jaxen takes a deep dive into the origin of the ‘climate crisis’ narrative, highlighting the Club of Rome’s hand..) – ‘Climate Change’ is widely presented as among the justifications for Rewilding. Includes background to Club of Rome coming to publish the Limits of Growth & reference to selection of ‘Climate Change’ as a possible justification for establishing global government. https://thehighwire.com/ark-videos/the-unexpected-origin-of-the-climate-crisis/)
1973 A Thames Television UK documentary on the Club of Rome’s The Limits to Growth explained that “only through complete control of societies can catastrophe be avoided and that a coming revolution should be planned.” https://archive.org/details/limits-to-growth-documentary-1973
Video of Dennis Meadows in 2017 talking about Limits of Growth (45 yeas after it’s publication & reasserting the Limits to Growth report’s recommendations): https://youtu.be/Dbo6uvJBtZg The video shows Meadows musing over his hopes that the population reduction by 86% of the world population could be accomplished peacefully under a “benevolent” dictatorship. He said: “We could have eight or nine billion, probably, if we have a very strong dictatorship which is smart … and [people have] a low standard of living … But we want to have freedom and we want to have a high standard of living so we’re going to have a billion people. And we’re now at seven, so we have to get back down. I hope that this can be slow, relatively slow and that it can be done in a way which is relatively equal, you know, so that people share the experience.”
Expose News – MARCH 2023 Retrospective review: “The Limits to Growth is deeply flawed yet advocates used it to claim societies need to be completely controlled to avoid catastrophe. It may have been the first computer model and the first to fuse global temperature with variables like population growth, resource loss, and the under-defined category of ‘pollution’..”: https://expose-news.com/2023/05/13/the-limits-to-growth-is-deeply-flawed/)
1976 UN Conference on Human Settlement. Principle of “Sustainable Development” publicly aired in effect the principle of state control over private property for wider good.
1987 Our Common Future Report (commonly known as The Brundtland Report) was published. (UN had in 1983 appointed an international commission to propose strategies for “Sustainable Development” and it had originally been written by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Switzerland.). The term Sustainable Development was first introduced to the world in the pages of a 1987 report “Our Common Future” produced by the United Nations World Commission on Environmental and Development, authored by Gro Harlem Brundtland, VP of The World Socialist Party. The term was first offered as official UN policy in 1992, in a document called UN Sustainable Development Agenda 21, issued at the UN’s Earth Summit, today referred to simply as Agenda 21. In signing, each of 178 nations pledge to adopt the goals of Agenda 21 https://nwri.org/agenda-21/https://thenewamerican.com/print/un-agenda-2030-a-recipe-for-global-socialism/Conservation
Biological diversity is the subject of Chapter 15 of Agenda 21. Agenda 21’s aim initially had been to achieve global sustainable development by 2000, with the “21” in Agenda 21 referring to the original target of approach the 21st century (this was not achieved). (since directly translated recently into Agenda 2030 as Sustainable Development Goal 15. (SDG15) “Life on Land” https://youtu.be/rTE-3Fl7wgg.
1992 “Beyond the Limits” updates the findings of Limits of Growth Report https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_the_Limits “Beyond the Limits is a book continuing the modeling of the consequences of a rapidly growing global population that was started in the 1972 report Limits to Growth.” “A sustainable future will require profound social and psychological readjustments in the developed and developing world.” “Current crop yields can only sustain the world’s population at subsistence levels, …”
1992 UN Agenda21 signed by USA during the Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro
1992 The Wildlands Project was published and remains an influential source for several key aspects of current global rewilding policies. Author Dave Foreman was founder of Earth First which has been described as the most militant eco-terrorist organisation on the earth. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlands_Network : The Wildlands Network (formerly known as “Wildlands Project”) https://jmm.nu/united-nations-wildlands-project/https://americanpolicy.org/2020/04/07/the-wildlands-project-and-the-biodiversity-treaty-agenda-21-the-early-days/https://americanstewards.us/the-wildlands-project-returns/ On Page 15 of the The Wildlands Project it says: “We must convert (ie Rewilding) at least 50% of the land area of North America to Wilderness off limits to Human Beings.” he continues that “Those Core Wilderness Areas are to be interconnected by Wilderness Corridors also off limits to human beings. Those Wilderness areas are to be surrounded by Buffer Zones that may have limited resource use under the supervision and permitting of the Central Government in collaboration with Non Government Organisations (NGOs). Human population is to be resettled into the remaining 25% of the land into communities described as “Sustainable Communities”. (NOTE: SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES APPEAR TO CORRESPOND TO THE CURRENT INITIATIVE OF “15 Minute Cities”)
1992 UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). 16 pages long only and described by some as principles only, bland and vague (eg Henry Lamb: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vW9ORaIR_w ). Signed by 150 World Leaders. President George Bush refused to sign the Treaty but not long after President Bill Clinton (Al Gore was then Vice President ) did sign it. Key features include: Nations will create a sytem of protected areas – seemingly not controversial as 12% of USA land area was already protected. CBD Article 25 – ‘There shall be created a Conference of the Parties (ie established annual COP) that shall create a subsidiary body that shall produce a Global Biodiversity Assessment (GBA)
1994 1st Conference of the Parties (ie COP1) in Berlin- which arose from the recommendations of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) report of 1992. At COP1 the U N Environment Programme present to COP1 a report titled: “A Global Biodiversity Assessment” (GBA),
1994 A Global Biodiversity Assessment” (GBA) report. 1140 pages long and explains how to implement the Convention (or Treaty) on Biological Diversity. The last 200 pages deals with a system of protected areas. The last 200 pages, section 13, of the Global Biodiversity Assessment, deal specifically with a system of protected areas (see page 915) which are core wilderness areas surrounded by buffer zones. The Global Biodiversity Assessment Report on Page 773 proposes a substantial reduction of the world population (but does not specify how) https://archive.org/details/united-nations-agenda-2030-global-biodiversity-assessment-1995/page/773/mode/2up The Global Biodiversity Assessment Report on Page 993 says the recently published 1992 Wildlands project, the controversial long-term strategy (100 or 200 years), (see above) is the central theme of protected areas… to expand natural areas (ie in effect by Rewilding) to cover as much as 30% of the US land area. (Note: ’30 by 30′ ie: 30% by 2030 is now a key UN Sustainable Development theme). https://archive.org/details/united-nations-agenda-2030-global-biodiversity-assessment-1995/page/993/mode/2up
1994, The campaign that blocked the international signing and adoption of the The Global Biodiversity Assessment as a binding treaty (including internationally mandated human population reduction -along with rewilding) : A detailed account of the nail biting campaign that at the last minute blocked the adoption of the treaty – with what could have mandated extensive Rewilding and population relocation & reduction is on this link: https://nwri.org/the-wildlands-project/un-biodiversity-treaty-and-the-wildlands-project/ “On July 19, Dr. Michael Coffman, a Director of Maine Conservation Rights Institute, and a regional director for the Alliance for America, was in Washington talking to Senator Mitchell’s staff and to Senator Dole’s staff, trying to convince them that the Treaty would have the effect of making the “Wildlands Project,” the objective of the Treaty’s implementation. The study revealed the existence of a draft of the Global Biodiversity Assessment, required by the Treaty, and the identification of the “Wildlands Project” (which includes extensive Rewilding) as a primary mechanism for Treaty implementation.” “…..about an hour before the Senate debate, Voight received a call from Mitchell’s office reporting that the Treaty would be withdrawn.”
1995 Video : Eco Fraud – An Interview With Dr. Michael S. Coffman on the On Target show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNkgjcosteM He discusses a wide range of environmental issues that are being used to scare people into being willing to give up their Constitutional protections to “save” themselves by creating “global governance”. From 34 minutes he discusses the UN’s plan to protect biodiversity in the Convention on Biological Diversity will not only reduce biodiversity, but will lock up to half of America into wilderness reserves and corridors. Dr. Michael Coffman was an author, researcher, speaker, and founding contributor to the fight against Agenda 21 Sustainable Development. He was President of Environmental Perspectives, Inc., and Executive Director of Sovereignty International. Dr. Coffman played a key role in stopping the ratification of the Biodiversity Treaty in the US Senate. He died in 2017.
1996 Video: Henry Lamb talking at the 1996 Granada Forum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vW9ORaIR_w Henry Lamb was the first to discover Agenda 21 and sound the alarm. He wrote the book ‘The Rise of Global Governance, and Agenda 21’. He also produced a series of videos on Agenda 21. Each stand as invaluable tools for anyone wanting to know where this evil agenda came from and why it must be stopped. Lamb died in 2012.
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NOTE: DELIVERY OF AGENDA 21 WAS INTENDED TO HAVE BEEN COMPLETED BY THE BEGINNING OF THE 21st CENTURY – IE BY THE YEAR 2000, BUT WAS NOT. THE ABOVE PRE- 2000 UN & CO INITIATIVES (INCLUDING THEIR REWILDING ASPECTS) INCLUDING AGENDA 21 APPEAR TO HAVE BEEN MOSTLY SUBSTANTIALLY RETAINED, REITERATED AND REAFFIRMED, SOME ALMOST VERBATIM, IN THE CURRENT AGENDA 2030 & GENERALLY IN CURRENT UN & WEF POLICY AS SUMMARISED IN THE POST 2000 CONTINUATION OF THE TIMELINE BELOW.
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4.2 2000 to date: Global reiteration of Agenda 21 as Agenda 203 and expansion of the preceding Rewilding principles
2003 July 15 to date. WEF has been listed as a participant of the UN’s Global Compact . Global Compact is a mechanism to advance the global goals of the UN. https://unglobalcompact.org/what-is-gc/participants/10162-World-Economic-Forum
2011 June . Rewilding Europe was formally established as an independent, not-for-profit foundation (ANBI status) registered in the Netherlands. “Rewilding is being practised at scale across Europe. The application of rewilding principles, models and tools is delivering measurable, demonstrable, and sustained benefits for nature and people. With many actors we create a Europe that is richer in nature and more resilient to climate change. Rewilding Europe currently incorporates two limited liability companies, the Rewilding European Capital B.V. and the Rewilding Europe B.V”..https://rewildingeurope.com/
2014 August USA Tea party against Agenda21 (An example of push back against Agenda 21) “In recent years the United Nation’s Agenda 21 policy has become the rallying cry for many in the Tea Party who believe that the U.N. threatens American sovereignty. This concern led to the introduction of anti-Agenda 21 legislation in 26 states in 2012 and 2013”. “…The United Nations Agenda 21 is a comprehensive plan of environmental extremism, social engineering and global political control… This United Nations Agenda 21 plan of radical so-called “sustainable development” views the American way of life of private property ownership, single family homes, private car ownership, individual travel choices and privately owned farms as destructive to the Environment…” https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2014/08/08/stopping-the-uns-agenda-21-policy-on-sustainable-development-has-become-a-rallying-cry-for-the-tea-party-across-the-u-s/
2015 Rewilding Britain established Rewilding Britain is an independent charity committed to catalysing rewilding and influencing rewilding policy across all of Britain. We are the first and only country-wide organisation in Britain focusing on rewilding and the amazing benefits it can bring for people, nature and climate. Rewilding Britain’s current motto is: ” 30% BY 2030″ Rewilding Britain’s vision for achieving 30% by 2030 is to expand the scale, quality and connectivity of our native habitats through: The creation of core rewilding areas across at least 5% of Britain. https://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/about-us/manifestohttps://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/about-us/who-we-are-and-how-were-run/our-fundinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rewilding_Britain World Economic Forum on Rewilding Britain: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09/rewilding-better-than-tree-planting-britain-forests “…rewilding Britain could absorb even more CO2 than tree planting” “…support marginal upland farming in shifting from low-productivity sheep and deer ranching to rewilding.” https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/CE003335 Income: £1,802,042. Rewilding Cornwall (currently only a subset of the Rewilding Britain website) https://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/local-network/cornwall-rewilding-network “A Cornwall Rewilding Network is currently at the planning stage. We will release more details here once it has been launched.”
2015 United Nations (“UN”) Sustainable Development Summit. Agenda 2030, also known as the “Sustainable Development Goals”, is a set of goals decided upon at the United Nations (“UN”) at the 2015 Sustainable Development Summit. Agenda 2030 takes all of the goals set by Agenda 21 (including those relating to Rewilding) and re-asserts them as the basis for “sustainable development”. Goal 15. Protect, restore (ie Rewilding) and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss” became Agenda 2030 SDG15 “Life on Land”: Three of the UN’s foundational documents appear to continue to at least in part inform the aims of Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goal 15 (SDG15) ie the 1992 Biodiversity Treaty; the 1992 Wildlands Project and the 1995 Global Biodiversity Assessment (all three are as referred to earlier in the timeline above showing the continuity of intentions including tose of rewilding. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/implementing-the-sustainable-development-goals/implementing-the-sustainable-development-goals–2 ”
2019, June The UN-WEF Strategic Partnership Framework was signed to accelerate the implementation of Agenda 2030. The WEF represents the financial “elites.” https://expose-news.com/2022/10/21/un-wef-agenda-2030-great-reset/ The United Nations (“UN”) “unites” the governments of 193 countries of the world. Whilst the World Economic Forum (“WEF”) “unites” 1,000 of the world’s largest corporations. The two are joined by a strategic partnership to implement the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030 an agenda which aims to control every aspect of our lives. None of these organisations or companies has officials which represent the people. We have not elected them into office to govern or make decisions on our behalf. And, no electorate has been asked if their goals are our goals or if their goals will create the world we, the people, want. Within the UN’s Sustainable Policy, which Britain has adopted, we find the objective to remove private ownership whilst at the same time we also find the objective to re-wild the countryside – the UN envisions that most of the people in the world will be living in cities by 2050. https://expose-news.com/2021/09/14/building-an-empire-the-united-nations-using-the-world-economic-forum-to-roll-out-its-agenda/
2020 The Global Rewilding Alliance, was created.
2020 Boris Johnson promising to rewild a third of the country by 2030. “Boris Johnson has promised to restore to nature 30 per cent of Britain by 2030 as he signs a biodiversity pledge with other UN leaders…. “https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09/27/boris-johnson-commits-restoring-nature-30-per-cent-britain-2030/
2020 January The World Economic Forum issued a report entitled “Nature Risk Rising. Why the Crisis Engulfing Nature Matters for Business and the Economy.” “Our research shows that $44 trillion of economic value generation – more than half of the world’s total GDP – is moderately or highly dependent on nature and its services and is therefore exposed to nature loss. Together, the three largest sectors that are highly dependent on nature generate close to $8 trillion of gross value added (GVA): construction ($4 trillion); agriculture ($2.5 trillion); and food and beverages ($1.4 trillion). This is roughly twice the size of the German economy. This is particularly bad news when put next to the current measurements of global warming.” https://247wallst.com/energy-economy/2020/01/19/wef-more-than-half-of-global-gdp-linked-to-nature-and-at-risk/
2020 November Global Rewilding Alliance created https://globalrewilding.earth/take-action “….global partners include the IUCN, World Bank, World Resources Institute, World Economic Forum and Society for Ecological Restoration.” “As part of the planning for WILD11 (11th World Wilderness Congress), our many collaborators worked with us to create the Global Charter for Rewilding the Earth which is the foundation for the Global Rewilding Alliance that is now an official implementing partner of the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration. WILD will act as secretariat and facilitator of this Global Rewilding Alliance. “A prime aim of the Alliance will be to get official recognition, through inclusion in language and global action plans, of the term and concept of “rewilding“ as the most advanced form of restoration and as the best and most cost-effective nature-based solution in solving the dual climate/biodiversity crisis.” The World Economic Forum () state: “The Global Rewilding Alliance, which was created in 2020, says rewilding the Earth will “stabilize the climate, halt mass extinction, and reduce the risks of new pandemics” (NOTE: NO EXPLANATION APPEARS TO BE OFFERED REGARDING HOW REWILDING WILL REDUCE THE RISK OF NEW PANDEMICS) . https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/10/what-is-rewilding-nature/
2020 December The Guardian “2022: the year rewilding went mainstream – and a biodiversity deal gave the world hope” “Away from Cop15, rewilding came to the fore in 2022, with projects across the globe, from the reintroduction of bison and cluster rewilding in the UK to big ambitions in Argentina, lessons learned in the Netherlands and the US, and the 10th Rewilding Europe project launched. Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellie Goulding were two celebrities who expressed their support for the movement during the Age of Extinction’s Wild world project.” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/26/2022-the-year-rewilding-went-mainstream-and-a-biodiversity-deal-gave-the-world-hope
2021 WEF meeting at Davos, ..since when WEF has publicly discussed how these goals can be used to achieve King Charles’ “Great Reset.” https://expose-news.com/2022/09/20/meet-the-great-reset-king-charles-iii/ Charles launched three related instruments at Davos 2020: the Terra Carta, the Sustainable Markets Initiative and the Sustainable Markets Council. The Terra Carta is a 17-page “Earth Charter” created by Charles and released on 11 January 2021.The voluntary framework commits companies and investors to ensure their businesses are aligned with preserving the world’s biodiversity – protecting 50% of the biosphere by mid-century- and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. (50% – a figure originally mentioned in 1992 Wildlands Report – and would presumably have to include substantial Rewilding to be achievable.)
2021 “After taking office, President Biden signed an executive order announcing his America the Beautiful plan to conserve 30% of US land and water by 2030. He challenged Americans to collaboratively “conserve, connect, and restore (ie rewild) the lands, waters, and wildlife upon which we all depend” at a national scale ” (US Departments, p. 9: Here, we take a major step in advancing President Biden’s plan by envisioning a bold and science-based rewilding of publicly owned federal lands….: https://americanstewards.us/the-wildlands-project-returns/
2021 June “UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration”. The objective of the UN Decade is to “build a strong, diverse global movement towards a sustainable future by accelerating restoration (ie including rewilding) through building political momentum for restoration (ie including rewilding) and thousands of practical initiatives. The official launch of the UN Decade was on World Environment day, 5 June 2021, and the initiative will last through 2030, which also is the deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals and the timeline scientists consider the last chance to prevent catastrophic climate change. Lead agencies are the UN Environment Programme and the FAO with “collaborating agencies”: UNFCC (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change), CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity), UNCCD (UN Convention to Combat Desertification), UNECE (Un Economic Commission for Europe) and UNESCO. Other global partners include the IUCN, World Bank, World Resources Institute, World Economic Forum and Society for Ecological Restoration (ie including rewilding) . https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/06/1093362 https://www.unesco.org/en/ecosystems-restoration-decade
2021 October. In Your Area Newsroom. Friends of the Earth believe that rewilding areas of Cornwall is not only good for the environment and wildlife but could also help create some 6,860 green jobs in the Duchy by 2030. https://www.inyourarea.co.uk/news/cornwall-has-potential-to-be-largest-rewilding-area-in-england/
2021 November UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCC) COP 26 WEF: Climate change summit: What is COP26 and why does it matter? https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/05/cop26-un-climate-change-summit/ , “In the fight against climate change, the UN says time is fast running out. So COP26, the United Nations climate summit, is an opportunity to agree to global action that’s seriously overdue.” “The World Economic Forum estimates that nature is responsible for half of global GDP ($44 trillion) and that shifting to a nature-positive economy in key sectors could create 395 million jobs by 2030.”
Climate Crisis Report: “10 Ways Rewilding Can Help Beat the Climate Crisis” https://rskgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/rewilding-climate-change-report.pdf A report by RSK presented at COP26.”In November 2021, the UK is hosting COP26, so all eyes will be on us as we seek to deliver against our climate commitments and recover from the coronavirus pandemic”. “Why does Britain need to rewild? Britain is one of the most ecologically depleted nations on earth. Once, species like bears and wolves roamed wild but we’ve seen populations of our most critical species plummet by 60% since 1970. Agricultural intensification, ever expanding urban development and an increasingly polluted environment have all taken their toll …” https://rskgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/rewilding-climate-change-report.pdf
2021 December The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP 15 (The 15th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP15) took place in Kunming, China. In January 2021, the CBD published a 21-point draft of the agreement, which commits signatories to protect at least 30% of the planet, control invasive species, and reduce pollution from plastic waste and excess nutrients by 50%. https://www.cbd.int/decision/cop/?id=13394 The first part concluded negotiations on a post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.
2022 March “Living within Limits”. Video. The Club of Rome: The Limits to Growth + 50 years on: Global equity for a healthy planet – Anniversary Webinar Series | , (94 mins) https://youtu.be/ItLNPn4rXxU
2022 Oct World Economic Forum & rewilding: “Rewilding: letting nature do its own thing.” , https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/10/what-is-rewilding-nature/ “The Global Rewilding Alliance, which was created in 2020, says rewilding the Earth will “stabilize the climate, halt mass extinction, and reduce the risks of new pandemics” (AN UNUSUAL CLAIM PERHAPS?)… “Rewilding can help combat climate change and reverse species extinction, Rewilding Britain says.”
2022 December COP15 – the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (“UNCBD”) conference. (COP15 took place in a virtual format, from 11-15 October 2021. The second part of COP 15 was a face-to-face meeting in Kunming, China, from 25 April-8 May 2022.) The plan to “expand natural habitats and corridors to cover as much as 30% of the land area” as was originally proposed in the 1992 The Wildlands Project and reiterated and reinforced in the the 1994 Global Biodiversity Assessment is what is currently now being called the 30 by 30 plan (Note: that The 1995 Global Biodiversity Assessment also proposes a substantial reduction of the world population (but did not specify how) . 30 by 30 is now incorporated in a so-called “New Deal for Nature” which will involve new investments or financial markets worth about $10 trillion over this decade being created to provide opportunities for businesses to “engage” with the plan. Shortly after COP15 concluded, the Indigenous Environmental Network issued a statement which also exposed the private commercial interests planning to profiteer from “Mother Earth.” https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/indigenous-people-seek-stronger-land-rights-cop15-nature-talks-2022-12-08/ 30 by 30 has been described as: .. the biggest land grab in history marketed under the guise of “protecting biodiversity.” Survival International estimates that the plan will displace around 300 million indigenous people worldwide from their native lands and forests in the name of “conservation.” And it will make a very few very rich while doing so.
2023 April An announcement has been made by the World Economic Forum (“WEF”) that World leaders will be gathering together later this year (September) to “accelerate the implementation of Agenda 2030,”. “The United Nations (UN) and the WEF appear frustrated by a lack of progress made towards their “Great Reset” ideology, alongside Agenda 2030,..!” https://www.legitgov.org/world-economic-forum-says-it-will-accelerate-implementation-globalist-agenda-2030
2023 May WHO’s draft text of WHO CA+ (Comprehensive Agreement+) proposes COP (Conference of the Parties) to be established as in effect an unaccountable unelected international bureaucracy. Option 8a “One Health” would cover rewilding etc. See UK Column News 6th June 2023 from 1hour: https://www.ukcolumn.org/video/uk-column-news-5th-june-2023
—————————————————————————————————————————- 5. Taking Farmland Out of Food Production for “Climate Change” mitigation and/or Rewilding
Predicated on the claim that it will both tackle “Climate Change” and/or restore(rewild) nature there appears to be a global push for taking land out of food production often with a stated intention to restore (rewild) it to a natural state. This has started to be actioned relatively recently.
(NOTE: THERE HAS BEEN GROWING COMMENT THAT THE CONCEPT OF “MAN MADE CLIMATE CHANGE” HAS BEEN PROMOTED AS A JUSTIFICATION FOR GLOBAL GOVERNANCE OR GOVERNMENT & APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN SELECTED AS A (SUPPOSED)CRISIS THAT WOULD LEND JUSTIFICATION TO A ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT BY THE CLUB OF ROME IN 1968 FROM SEVERAL GLOBAL CRISIS OPTION .
RECENT STUDIES HAVE CONFIRMED THE LINK BETWEEN CO2 AND GLOBAL WARMING – BUT SUGGESTING THAT THE WARMING COMES FIRST FOLLOWED LATER BY RISING CO2. THE PREDICTIONS OF VARIOUS COMPUTER MODELS OVER THE LAST 50 YEARS CAN NOW BE TESTED AGAINST WHAT HAS ACTUALLY HAPPENED AND MOST IF NOT ALL ARE INCREASINGLY BEING SHOWN TO HAVE BEEN WHOLLY UNRELIABLE IN PREDICTING THE PRESENT DAY SITUATION HENCE ARE ALSO LIKELY TO BE UNRELIABLE IN PREDICTING THE FUTURE AND SO WITH SUCH LOW TO NON EXISTENT PREDICTIVE RELIABILITY ARE UNFIT AS A BASIS FOR LOCAL, NATIONAL OR GLOBAL POLICY AND ACTIONS.
THE ABOVE IS CONSIDERED TO BE A TOPIC IN IT’S OWN RIGHT AND SO IS NOT EXAMINED IN THIS WORKING PAPER BUT SOME STARTING POINTS FOR THE READER’S SELF STUDY INCLUDE: https://clintel.org/ – over 1,500 leading world scientists challenge the narrative of “Anthropogenic Climate Change” – Climate Intelligence (CLINTEL) is an independent foundation that operates in the fields of climate change and climate policy. CLINTEL was founded in 2019 by emeritus professor of geophysics Guus Berkhout and science journalist Marcel Crok. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0Z5FdwWw_c Annual GWPF Lecture – Patrick Moore (scientist & founder of Greenpeace) – Should We Celebrate Carbon Dioxide?
5.1 International Taking Farmland Out of Food Production
2017 January Dr Adrian Colston: Blog. “Catastrophe in uplands farming…..” “…in October 2015, the Dartmoor National Park Authority invited Monbiot to come and speak on rewilding to the biennial National Parks Conference [2]. His used of words such as ‘sheepwrecked’ and ‘the white plague’ to describe his views of the sheep grazing regimes on Dartmoor caused widespread offence amongst the farming community [3] but won him many supporters from elsewhere.” https://adriancolston.wordpress.com/2017/01/10/the-politics-of-rewilding-on-dartmoor/
2022 April Report by Ice Age Farmer Biden pays farms to STOP – EU out of feed – Meat taxes & chicken permits – Up to you to GROW FOOD!Even as Biden and Trudeau announce food shortages, farmers are being paid to stop farming. Chickens are now designated illegal animals, due to bird flu (diagnosed by a fraudulent PCR test), also justifying millions of birds being culled in the UK and France. The EU is culling livestock as they run out of animal feed, and in the UK, cows are being exterminated due to a lack of farmworkers. Meanwhile, the Netherlands is seriously considering a meat tax. https://www.sott.net/article/466391-Ice-Age-Farmer-Report-Biden-pays-farms-to-STOP-EU-out-of-feed-Meat-taxes-chicken-permits-Up-to-you-to-GROW-FOOD
2023 February. World Health Organisation (WHO)’s Pandemic Accord Will Give It Control Over U.S. Livestock and Food Supply Parties must acknowledge “the creation of the Quadripartite” to “better address any One Health-related issue.” The draft states explicitly that the “Quadripartite” consists of the WHO—whose top three donors include the U.S., Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the People’s Republic of China—the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Organisation for Animal Health, and the United Nations Environment Programme. https://earlking56.family.blog/2023/02/24/whos-pandemic-accord-will-give-it-control-over-u-s-livestock-and-food-supply/
2023 April. The People’s Voice. WEF Orders Governments To Start Limiting Food To Fight Climate Change – The People’s Voice. Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum has been laying groundwork to begin starving the people it considers useless and has now ordered governments in the West to begin attacking the food supply. (https://thepeoplesvoice.tv/wef-orders-governments-to-start-limiting-food-to-fight-climate-change/)
2023 USA This Administration’s Agenda Is To CONTROL The FOOD And To CONTROL The PEOPLE”! 30 x 30 Biden Bill – don’t let our farmers die. Rumble (https://rumble.com/v2h6rte-this-administrations-agenda-is-to-control-the-food-and-to-control-the-peopl.html)
2023 The United Nations and Private Land Ownership – Setting the Stage for Farmland Expropriation. It certainly appears that society is on the cusp of major change, particularly if the ruling class gets its way. One of the goals of Agenda 21 is to end private property ownership and all farming of animals by 2050. https://twitter.com/wef/status/799632174043561984?s=21
2023 April Australia – Globalist Plans to Steal Farmland & Regional Land THE REAL AGENDA BEHIND THE VOICE TO PARLIAMENT: Exposing the Globalist’s Plan to Steal Australian Farmlands and Regional Land. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese vows, “I’m here to change the country.” It is not a vow, but a threat. https://stephenreason.substack.com/p/the-real-agenda-behind-the-voice Stephen Reason: https://stephenreason.substack.com/p/the-real-agenda-behind-the-voice?r=17nqkb
The forced land acquisition will not end with farmland. Forest, parklands, nature reserves, coastlines will be geo-fenced and permanently restricted — deemed “sacred,” and non-traversable, forevermore. You will not dare trespass on the Globalist’s newly acquired land; indeed, you will not even venture beyond the radius permitted by your carbon credit allocation. https://telegra.ph/THE-REAL-AGENDA-BEHIND-THE-VOICE-TO-PARLIAMENT-Exposing-the-Globalists-Plan-to-Steal-Australian-Farmlands-and-Regional-Land-04-10 (https://ctreaderbot.vercel.app/a/CsW7tyl42ifh3DY.html)
2023 YouTube: Farmland WARS: The Global TAKEOVER of America’s Land | Glenn TV | Ep 244 There’s a world war raging right now between globalist and nationalist authoritarians. All sides want absolute control, https://youtu.be/M5WBTDJyDug) https://thefederalist706261013.wordpress.com/2022/04/02/chickens-are-now-illegal-animals-in-the-new-world-order/https://mrtrueman.posthaven.com/governments-pay-farms-to-stop-farming-eu-out-of-feed-meat-taxes-and-chicken-permits
2023 May Democrat USA President Joe Biden’s “climate czar” John Kerry is calling for farmers to stop growing food in order to meet the administration’s radical “net zero” goals for lowering “emissions.” Kerry, Biden’s Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, issued the warning during a green agenda conference in Washington D.C. During the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) AIM for Climate Summit, Kerry told the audience that “we can’t get to net zero, we won’t get this job done, unless agriculture is front and centre as part of the solution.” Kerry warned attendees that his and other world leaders’ “lives depend” on farmers ceasing their operations. https://slaynews.com/news/john-kerry-farmers-stop-growing-food-meet-net-zero-goals-emissions/
2023 May Expose news. John Kerry: “Destruction of farming is front and centre in the fight against climate change,” says. “Kerry’s narrative to starve people by cutting off their food supplies to save people from starving seems bizarre. But that’s because the agenda he’s promoting uses climate and greenhouse gas emissions as a smokescreen. … He was accused as far back as 2011 of being the US Senate’s “most globalist-oriented insider” when he was named as one of 12 members of the newly formed “Super Congress.” https://expose-news.com/2023/05/31/destruction-of-farming-is-front-and-centre/
5.2 Europe Taking Farmland Out of Food Production
2022 December Netherlands’ Land Grab: If there’s one thing bureaucrats like to do it’s to push people around but Dutch farmers aren’t having it. Government leaders claim that the radical restructuring of Dutch farming is necessary for the good of the environment. However, facts suggest that this has little to do with the environment and much to do with centralising power. https://expose-news.com/2022/12/15/if-theres-one-thing-bureaucrats-like-to-do/
2023 February “Irish farmers warn of an uprising if Government continues with “vicious” measures to meet net-zero targets” “Ireland will need to quadruple its afforestation targets, reduce its livestock by 30% and re-wet 90% of reclaimed land if the agricultural sector is to meet net-zero targets.” https://expose-news.com/2023/02/15/irish-farmers-warn-of-an-uprising-net-zero-measures/
2023 March. Netherlands’ Land Grab: Dutch farmers are not safe yet. After the stunning victory in the elections in the Netherlands this week, some are warning that the BBB’s seats may not be sufficient to stop the Dutch government’s land grab. https://expose-news.com/2023/03/18/netherlands-land-grab-dutch-farmers-are-not-safe-yet/
2023 March Tucker Carlson interviews Dutch Farmer rep: WAR ON FARMERS Could Lead To Mass Starvation. Learn How To Protect Your Family WAR ON FARMERS Could Lead To Mass Starvation | Learn How To Protect Your Family https://rumble.com/v2j1w4i-war-on-farmers-could-lead-to-mass-starvation-learn-how-to-protect-your-fami.html
2023 March “Netherlands’ Land Grab: Dutch farmers are not safe yet” https://expose-news.com/2023/03/18/netherlands-land-grab-dutch-farmers-are-not-safe-yet/
2023 May The Expose. Netherlands Land Grab: Dutch farmers prepare for a battle. Despite the election results and the outrage, the Dutch government is pushing ahead with its plans to destroy Netherlands’ agricultural sector. (https://expose-news.com/2023/05/17/dutch-farmers-prepare-for-a-battle/)
2023 May The Expose. Netherlands’ Land Grab: What is driving the Dutch nation to attack itself and destroy the bedrock of its society? Under the plans, farmers will be offered financial compensation to stop farming. However, the deal isn’t a “willing buyer willing seller” deal, the term farmers are being threatened with is “compulsory farm buyouts.” https://expose-news.com/2023/05/06/netherlands-land-grab-what-is-driving-the-dutch/
2023 May Ireland. “The Department for Agriculture has said a report outlining a 200,000 reduction in dairy cows was a “modelling document”. It was reported yesterday that cows would have to be culled at a cost of €600,000 to taxpayers over the next three years to meet climate emissions targets. Together beef and dairy account for around two-thirds of the country’s agricultural output with around 90 per cent of the produce exported.” https://forums.mixedmartialarts.com/t/absolute-insanity-ireland-to-cull-200-000-cows-for-climate-goals-200m-yr-cost/3831309
Irish government proposes culling 200,000 cows to meet climate targets “The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association called the deal a “sellout” that would make many farms unviable. Cutting emissions by a quarter will drive many farms into bankruptcy” https://expose-news.com/2023/06/01/irish-government-proposes-culling-200000-cows/
2023 “The Battle Is Over” DEVASTATING NEWS For Farmers Just Announced. Massive ‘forced’ Farm Closures to go ahead!! This latest shocking, but not surprising news will significantly contribute to massive food shortages and massive increases in food prices across Europe over the coming years!! After appeals from the Dutch farmers, the EU has finally passed a law for the forced closure of farms in the Netherlands which is the number one, most productive, farming country on planet Earth! All orchestrated by the WEF, under the fake claim that Nitrogen fertilisers which create CO2 creates global warming, which is stated to be ‘fake science’ by many independent climatologists (i.e. not the climatologists funded by the global elites) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-HI_Np9xFQ
5.3 Britain Taking Farmland Out of Food Production
October 2018 Cambrian News “A project to ‘rewild’ a massive area of north Ceredigion and the Dyfi Valley, including parts of the sea in Cardigan Bay, has been slammed as “cultural imperialism”. https://www.cambrian-news.co.uk/news/rewilding-plan-is-urban-values-forced-on-a-rural-welsh-area-102678
2019 October Daily Post. “Farming anger forces Rewilding Britain to pull out of Summit To Sea project in Mid Wales “A project to ‘rewild’ a massive area of north Ceredigion and the Dyfi Valley, including parts of the sea in Cardigan Bay, has been slammed as “cultural imperialism”. “A statement by Rewilding Britain this morning confirmed it was withdrawing from the scheme followed feedback from farming unions and local communities.” https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/local-news/rewilding-britain-summit-sea-wales-17119541
2020 March. Friends of the Earth wants to double UK woodland cover by 2050 – to tackle the climate emergency and make more space for nature. Increasing tree cover is an essential part of a range of measures needed to fight climate change. While woodland currently covers 13% of the UK, approximately 70% of the UK is farmland. It’s clear that if we’re going to double tree cover, some of this farmland will need to be converted into woodland. https://policy.friendsoftheearth.uk/insight/finding-land-double-tree-cover
February 2020 Daily Mail “War of the wild: How trendy metropolitan eco-zealots with close ties to Boris Johnson are set on driving out traditional farming and ‘rewilding’ the land” “…an experiment in ‘rewilding’ — a trendy, but for some, highly controversial form of land management in which large areas of countryside are allowed to revert to nature. Popular with conservationists (but hated by many farmers) it boasts many powerful supporters in the UK. They believe removing land from agricultural production can help fight climate change and reverse the catastrophic decline in wildlife populations we have suffered in recent decades. Boris Johnson’s Government, currently formulating a farm-subsidy policy for life outside the EU, seems particularly keen. Indeed, large amounts of public money could be diverted from traditional farming and used to help rewild the British countryside.” https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8057699/How-trendy-metropolitan-eco-zealots-set-driving-farming-rewilding-land.html
2021 September BBC 24 “A major new project aims to rewild an area of more than 500,000 acres (202,343ha) in the Highlands. Over a period of 30 years, mountains, hills, glens and forests would be left to natural processes. Moray-based charity Trees for Life is working with Rewilding Europe, along with 20 landowners and six organisations on the project.” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-58663615
2021 Mail Online (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10374283/Anger-rewilding-plan-hand-millions-farmers-plant-trees.html)
2021 May P&J Newspaper, Scotland. Leading Scottish farmer sounds warning over planting trees on productive farmland. “Similar reports from Scotland: farms being shut down in order to “rewild” them and plant trees. Ironically this farmer is worried it will end up INCREASING carbon footprint, to then have to import all food. Mr Connon said: “I am receiving fresh calls every week from despairing farmers and crofters across Scotland telling me of another farm or estate destined for tree planting. “The more of Scotland’s limited productive land that shifts from farming to forestry, the more we are likely to simply offshore our emissions or even increase our carbon footprint.” https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/farming/3141586/leading-scottish-farmer-sounds-warning-over-planting-trees-on-productive-farmland/
2022 January Daily Mail Fury at plan to hand millions to farmers to turn 741,000 acres of land into nature reserves as ‘rewilding cult’ loved by Carrie’s pals the Goldsmith brothers forms centre of shake-up George Eustice launches £2.4billion-a-year plan replacing EU’s £2.4bn common agricultural. Farmers and landowners will be paid for planting trees and restoring wetlands in 15 new nature reserves. The ‘landscape recovery scheme’ will eventually cost the taxpayer £800million a year from 2028. But there are concerns about risk to food security and policy will benefit Britain’s richest landowners. Farmers say Boris Johnson’s ‘mad’ obsession with rewilding will drive smaller farmers out of business. Ministers claim plans will turn 741,000 acres into wildlife habitats in 20 years and will not risk food supply https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10374283/Anger-rewilding-plan-hand-millions-farmers-plant-trees.html
2022 January The Spectator “The problem with rewilding. Humans have shaped Britain for thousands of years”Under new plans, just announced by Environment Secretary George Eustice, farmers and landowners in England could be paid to turn large areas of land into nature reserves and restore floodplains.” https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-problem-with-rewilding/
2022 May UK “Farmers Being Paid to Stop Farming”. “It is hard to fathom the UK government’s recent lump-sum- exit- scheme that effectively bribes farmers to retire and turn over their land to woodland, whilst a potential world food crisis looms according to the IMF (International Monetary Fund).” https://libertytactics.co.uk/farmers-being-paid-to-stop-farming/
2022 January ITV News. “Farmers and landowners to be paid to rewild English countryside” https://www.itv.com/news/2022-01-06/farmers-and-landowners-to-be-paid-to-rewild-english-countryside
2022 The Independent. Enormous tree-planting push will turn farmland into forests to hit net-zero goals. “A major tree-planting push by the government to help the country reach its climate goals will be the biggest in 50 years and could result in some farmland currently used for livestock being repurposed to create new woodlands.” https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/tree-planting-forests-woodlands-farming-b1845086.html
2023 March Devon Live. Farmers fear plans to remove livestock from Dartmoor “Natural England says that the relationship between farming, nature and other impacts like climate change are “not in balance” Dartmoor Natural England: Reflections from Wes Smyth, Natural England’s Area Manager, on how we ensure Dartmoor’s unique wildlife is preserved. https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/farmers-fear-plans-remove-livestock-8262004
2023 April Expose News: “A report produced by Oxford University and Imperial College London for the UK Government reveals that all airports will be ordered to close, eating beef and lamb will be made illegal, and construction of new buildings will not be permitted in order to meet the legal commitment of zero emissions by 2050. According to the report this will require the public to never eat beef or lamb ever again. To do this national consumption of beef and lamb will drop by 50% between 2020 and 2029. Then between 2030 and 2049 beef and lamb will be “phased out. However, the timeline of events may speed up significantly because the Government enshrined a new target in law in April 2021 to slash emissions by 78% by the year 2035.” https://expose-news.com/2023/04/12/all-uk-airports-must-close-in-the-name-of-climate-change/
5.4 Cornwall Taking Farmland Out of Food Production
2023 February Cornwall Live. “Moors plan leaves Cornwall farm families fearing for their livelihoods” Farmers in west Cornwall say they are being “treated like dirt” and feel not heard amid proposals which could see vast swathes of farmland taken out of production. https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/moors-plan-leaves-cornwall-farm-8094536
2022 November Cornwall Live. An area of over 3,000 hectares stretching from St Just to St Ives has been earmarked for protection by Natural England in recognition of its national importance for wildlife. However, with around 13% of that area being farmland, some farmers on Penwith Moors say that new restrictions on their land could threaten their livelihoods, forcing them to sell up. https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/gallery/west-cornwall-farmers-fear-natural-7810160
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6. Cornwall: Some recent examples of local level rewilding initiatives
2019 October “Massive plans for a Forest for Cornwall covering 8000 hectares” “The aim is to plant trees to use the carbon emitted by homes, business and machines” https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/massive-plans-forest-cornwall-covering-3420536 “Forest for Cornwall (F4C) has been chosen as one of only two new Woodland Creation Partnerships funded by Defra’s Nature for Climate Fund.” https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/environment/countryside/forest-for-cornwall-programme/forest-for-cornwall-and-landowners-farmers-and-businesses/woodland-creation-partnership-funding/
2020 June Cornwall Wildlife Trust backs new form of protection for the sea and call on Government for ambitious delivery plan for Highly Protected Marine Areas within a year from June 2020. “In Highly Protected Marine Areas, on the other hand, all damaging activities including fishing, dredging, construction and sea angling would be banned.” https://www.cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk/news/cornwall-wildlife-trust-backs-new-form-protection-sea-and-call-government-ambitious-delivery
2019 Cornwall Council report: ‘Climate Change Action Plan’. In the Introduction on page 4 at 1.4 says that “..a fifth of our agricultural land must shift to alternative use”. On page 18 refers to “Cornwall’s … availability of grassland’s suitable for afforestation”. On page 26 under 5.8 ‘Balancing Interventions’ refers to “.. rewilding of previously managed land” (types of previous land use not specified)
2021 March Forest for Cornwall F4C https://www.gov.uk/government/news/defra-announces-funding-boost-and-new-partnership-with-forest-for-cornwall Press release: Defra announces funding boost and new partnership with Forest for Cornwall. Funding boost and new woodland creation partnership formed between Defra and Forest for Cornwall.
2021 October “Cornwall has potential to be largest rewilding area in England” “Cornwall has the potential to lead the way in England when it comes to rewilding and regenerating woodlands. According to new findings by environmental charity Friends of the Earth, in partnership with Rewilding Britain, there are 69,598 acres of potential natural regeneration in Cornwall, making it the largest local authority in England for any rewilding projects. Nationally more than a million acres of new tree cover could be created simply by letting existing woodland regenerate and spread.” https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/moors-plan-leaves-cornwall-farm-8094536 Analysis carried out by Tim Richards from TerraSullis on behalf of environmental charity Friends of the Earth, in partnership with Rewilding Britain also identified the local authority areas with greatest potential for natural woodland regeneration, which include Cornwall, Harrogate and Northumberland. https://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/news-and-views/press-releases-and-media-statements/million-acres-of-new-woodland-in-england-say-friends-of-the-earth-and-rewilding-britain
2021 The National Trust in Cornwall- https://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/19981416.woodland-helston-planned-details-meeting-cattle-market/ Currently, the six-hectare site consists of three fields of improved grassland. Note: Personal conversation with National Trust staff at the public consultation indicated there were other areas also intended for conversion to woodland as farm tenancies came to an end – ie when they would normally be renewed. It is understood that more farms are to be considered for large scale tree planting as tenant’s contracts come up for renewal.
2021 October Falmouth Packet: “Rewilding in Cornwall could help Council hit climate targets” https://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/19679725.rewilding-cornwall-help-council-hit-climate-targets/
2022 Rewilding Cornwall on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rewildingcornwall/
2023 Cornall Science Community: “Rewilding is a progressive conservation strategy that goes beyond protecting natural areas. It aims to restore areas of land to their natural states.” https://cornwallsciencecommunity.org/2023/02/19/species-loss-and-rewilding-in-cornwall/
2023 Cabilla, Bodmin Moor – “KICK STARTING REWILDING”: “Natural processes will be kick started on the site through initial interventions. This will include the removal of sheep grazing from most of the site to allow vegetation to naturally regenerate. Other grazing animals will be introduced in low numbers to mimic natural grazing, including Belted Galloway cattle, Cornish black pigs and Dartmoor ponies. Internal fencing will be removed to allow animals to move throughout the farm. The natural regeneration of woodland on site, especially the expansion of existing ancient oak woodland and temperate rainforest, will be encouraged through changes to grazing pressure. Deer management will also be undertaken to reduce pressure on tree saplings. This will be supplemented with additional tree planting, with 100,000 native trees proposed.” https://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/rewilding-projects/cabilla-cornwall
2023 March “Rewilding. It’s a buzzword. But could keystone species that once shaped Britain – from beavers to boar to bison – be the key to tackling the nature and climate crises?” Text by Award-winning television producer, nature writer and conservationist, Benedict Macdonald, now working as Head of Nature Restoration at Real Wild Estates, a company specialising in restoring nature at scale for landowners, NGOs and communities, https://www.cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk/blog/benedict-mcdonald/rewilding-cornwall-where-wild-things-are-or-could-be
2023 April Cornwall Wildlife Trust open to public on zoom panel discussion event: ‘Rewilding. Our last hope or a current craze.’ On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP4igEEiLA4
2023 April. UK Column from 40 to 45 minutes. Natural England & re-wilding in Cornwall: https://www.ukcolumn.org/video/uk-column-news-5th-april-2023
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7.0 Addendum
7.1 Some comments on how rewilding can be a mechanism for wealth transfer.
Below are a few extracted comments from links used in the document above where financial benefit to “the elite” from rewilding is indicated.
30 by 30 is now incorporated in a so-called “New Deal for Nature” which will involve new investments or financial markets worth about $10 trillion over this decade being created to provide opportunities for businesses to “engage” with the plan.
30 by 30 has been described as: .. the biggest land grab in history marketed under the guise of “protecting biodiversity.”
2021 November, The World Economic Forum estimates that nature is responsible for half of global GDP ($44 trillion) and that shifting to a nature-positive economy in key sectors could create 395 million jobs by 2030. https://rskgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/rewilding-climate-change-report.pdf
7.2 World Human Population Reduction – “to save the planet”
Whilst human population reduction “to save the planet” does not seem to have reappeared formally in writing in UN or WEF public documents since activists in 1994 blocked the signing as a Treaty the UN’s Global Biodversity Assessment (which included substantial human population reduction) the issue has continued to be aired. For example:
2020 WEF Davos meeting: Jane Goodall, British Ambassador for Peace to the United Nations, at the WEF forum at Davos in 2020 said, “We can solve climate change by depopulating the earth by a mere 7.5 billion people. We cannot hide away from human population growth. Because it underlies so many of the other problems. All these things we talk about wouldn’t be a problem if there was the size of population there was 500 years ago” Video: https://twitter.com/Resist_05/status/1550377992563503105https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/must-watch-unearthed-video-shows-animal-rights-activist-jane-goodall-calling-depopulating-earth-solve-climate-change-video/
2022 December Expose news. “Self-appointed elites want far fewer people in the world and they have wanted this for a long time” “The depopulation agenda has been festering behind the scenes for a long time and now it is coming out in the open and going mainstream.” https://expose-news.com/2022/12/31/self-appointed-elites-want-far-fewer-people/
2023 May Expose news “Jane Goodall is not a kindly grandmother; she is a promoter of eugenics and reduction of the world’s population to 450 million” “To convince the public the UN’s “30 x 30” goal is a “good thing,” the World Economic Forum (“WEF”) and the World Wildlife Fund (“WWF”) have chosen three leading influencers – Greta Thunberg, Jane Goodall and David Attenborough – to market the ideology under the guise of a “New Deal for Nature.” https://expose-news.com/2022/12/29/jane-goodall-is-not-a-kindly-grandmother/
7.3 Some guides to Agenda 2030:
2023 June UK COLUMN. Interview: https://www.ukcolumn.org/video/unpicking-agenda-2030-climate-change-and-more-sandi-adams
2022 November UK COLUMN. Agenda 2030, — Good 3 part video resume: Part 1 For one mother, a brief meeting with Bill Gates led to conducting a dedicated investigation of the Global Biodiversity Assessment (from 10 minutes 30 seconds) https://www.ukcolumn.org/video/agenda-2030-part-1 Part 2 – the current SDG15 “Life on Land” is discussed from circa 50 minutes & Limits to Growth from circa 1hour 5 minutes. https://www.ukcolumn.org/video/agenda-2030-part-2. Part 3 . Land being taken away from Farmers for rewilding from circa 39 minutes 50 seconds & from 45 minutes UN/WEF Strategic Partnership to accelerate implementation of the 17 Agenda 2030 SDGs (including SDG15 Life on Land which includes Rewilding) https://www.ukcolumn.org/video/agenda-2030-part-3).
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End of working paper
Ploughing and harvesting were backbreaking toil, but the peasant enjoyed anywhere from eight weeks to half the year off.
It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way: John Maynard Keynes, one of the founders of modern economics, made a famous prediction that by 2030, advanced societies would be wealthy enough that leisure time, rather than work, would characterize national lifestyles. So far, that forecast is not looking good.
Go back 200, 300, or 400 years and you find that most people did not work very long hours at all. In addition to relaxing during long holidays, the medieval peasant took his sweet time eating meals, and the day often included time for an afternoon snooze.
Study after study shows that overworking reduces productivity. On the other hand, performance increases after a vacation, and workers come back with restored energy and focus. The longer the vacation, the more relaxed and energised people feel upon returning to the office.
‘I thought they were my friends’
