Recent government announcements have united the UK’s leading nature charities in protest. Issues include:
- Proposals that weaken our Habitat Regulations.
- Creating large enterprise zones which will reduce the need for planning permission in areas that currently include, for example, Special Protection Areas for birds.
- Rolling back the new Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS) that encourages farmers to protect nature in favour of the old, often criticised method of paying landowners a set amount per acre of land owned.
- An ongoing drought is drying up rare chalk rivers and all of our rivers fail to meet the chemical standards set for them.
- British Woodland is becoming less diverse.
- The UK is one of the most nature depleted countries, in the bottom 10% globally and last among the G7 group.
The Royal Society For The Prevention of Cruelty to Birds (RSPB) has been leading the response. I’m not a bird photographer, so I’m using owl art for this post, owls being an old symbol of wisdom. And because art might be the only way future generations know some of the wildlife our society takes for granted.
Susan Rushton 