9 March 2006
Bring together support for agriculture and forestry to help meet the huge environmental challenge, says Coed Cadw
Rural Development Plan is a good start, but it fails to recognise the scale of the environmental challenge, says Coed Cadw (the Woodland Trust), in consultation response
The time has come to end the artificial distinction between farmland and forestry, says Coed Cadw (the Woodland Trust), the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity, in its response to the public consultation on the Rural Development Plan for Wales, which ends this week.
The Rural Development Plan is hugely important document, outlining the Welsh Assembly Government’s strategic approach to rural development for next six years. Coed Cadw has submitted its response, and has flagged up the following four points:
• Coed Cadw feels the time has come to bring together public support for agriculture and forestry. In Scotland, agri-environmental and woodland grant schemes are now being integrated, in line with the European guidelines. Coed Cadw would strongly support this, as a major step towards a more integrated, holistic and intelligent way of managing our countryside. The artificial distinction between farmland and woodland has existed for too long, and should go.
• Coed Cadw does not feel that the consultation draft fully acknowledges the scale of the environmental challenge, particularly in the light of the reality of climate change. The Assembly’s document states that “over 30% of agricultural land is under sustainable environmental management”. This implies that just under 70% of it is not. The huge decline in farmland birds along with the loss of irreplaceable ancient woodland, around 50% of what remained in the 1930s, and the reality of climate change, underline the fact that biodiversity is today under threat as never before. The Rural Development Plan needs to help address these pressures in terms of adaptation and by protecting, extending and buffering wildlife habitats.
• The document places very little emphasis on the role, and the potential role of the voluntary sector in delivering environmental improvements and thereby contributing towards the economic regeneration of rural areas. Last year, for example, Coed Cadw acquired nearly half of Wentwood (1), Wales’ largest ancient woodland site, in order to restore the site to its former broadleaved glory, helping to a difference on a landscape scale, and using the site as a showcase of how planted ancient woodland sites can be restored so as to offer substantial public benefits.
• Coed Cadw strongly supports the principle that farmers should receive payments in return for providing benefits to the public, protecting and enhancing wildlife habitats, protecting archaeological remains, ensuring access etc. Some observers have suggested that state support for farming through the CAP is likely to be progressively reduced over the coming decade. Coed Cadw would strike a note of caution, however. The Assembly’s recently published Environmental Strategy includes a whole raft of outcomes, relating to biodiversity, hydrology and landscape, which are utterly dependent on how the land is farmed. As far as we know, no one has carried out research to determine how much it might cost to ensure these outcomes in the absence of agricultural support, and we feel it would be a grave mistake to assume that these outcomes could be achieved more cheaply without it.
“The rural environment is a hugely important part of the Welsh economy, contributing around £6 billion every year to our economy”, says Rory Francis of Coed Cadw. “There’s much to welcome in this document, but we feel it could go further in meeting the huge challenges that our natural environment now faces.
A full copy of the consultation is available here.
end
For media enquiries contact:
Rory Francis (Publicity and Public Affairs Officer for Wales) on 07760 171174
Afallon, Tanygrisiau, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd LL41 3RH
Email roryfrancis@woodland-trust.org.uk
or The Woodland Trust Press Office on 01476 581121, e-mail media@woodland-trust.org.uk
Notes for editors
1. See www.savewentwoodforest.org.uk
Coed Cadw (The Woodland Trust)
The Woodland Trust is the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity. It has 250,000 members and supporters. The Trust has four key aims: i) No further loss of ancient woodland; ii) Restoring and improving the biodiversity of woods; iii) Increasing new native woodland; iv) Increasing people’s awareness and enjoyment of woodland.
Established in 1972, the Woodland Trust now has over 1,000 sites in its care covering approximately 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres). These include over 100 sites in Wales, with a total area of 1,580 hectares (3,900 acres). It offers free public access to nearly all of its sites. Further news can be accessed via www.woodland-trust.org.uk. The Trust adopted a new Welsh language name in 2000: “Coed Cadw”. This is an old Welsh term, used in medieval laws to describe protected or preserved woodland.
