This blog may help people explore some of the 'hidden' issues involved in certain media treatments of environmental and scientific issues. Using personal digital images, it's also intended to emphasise seasonal (and other) changes in natural history of the Swansea (South Wales) area. The material should help participants in field-based modules and people generally interested in the natural world. The views are wholly those of the author.
Thursday, 9 June 2011
Conservation on the Cheap?
The debate about how to halt or even reverse the decline in terrestrial UK biodiversity (especially in relation to the effects of climate change) continues apace (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/07/environment-white-paper?INTCMP=SRCH). Briefly, last year Professor John Lawton advocated the creation of 'ecological restoration zones' at a cost of £0.6-1.1 bn. These were designed to 'fill in the gaps' between the existing National Parks by controlling activities in biologically important areas without a park and by making corridors between protected areas. In a recent white paper, the government proposes generating around 12 'nature improvement areas' with 'more business and community involvement' by allocating an extra £7.5 m over 3 years (to predictable howls of protest about 'planning blight'). This doesn't sound like a necessarily ambitious programme.
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