FROM GUY SHRUBSOLE — YOU SHOULD READ HIS BOOK — AMAZON RAIN FORESTS HAVE THEM AND SO DO WE

John Edwards http://johnedwards-je.blogspot.com https://jejohnedwards.wordpress.com ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Lost Rainforests of Britain Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2025 at 12:00 Subject: As the PM heads to the Amazon, remember that Britain is a rainforest nation To: Read on blog or Reader Site logo image Lost Rainforests of Britain As the PM heads to the Amazon, remember that Britain is a rainforest nation By Guy on November 5, 2025 On Thursday, the Prime Minister will arrive in the Amazon rainforest for the COP30 climate talks, hosted this year by Brazil. As Keir Starmer composes his speech, he should remember that Britain, too, is a rainforest nation. Top of the agenda for Brazilian President Lula da Silva is agreeing a Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF) to safeguard the Amazon and other tropical rainforests. This is crucial, and the UK should back it to the hilt, investing at least £1bn in the fund: a small down-payment for an utterly vital part of the planet’s life support system. It is overwhelmingly in the UK’s self-interest to keep the Amazon alive. But Britain should feel a particular solidarity with Brazil, because we also possess rainforests ourselves. Tropical rainforests flourish where it’s rainy and hot, but temperate rainforests thrive in places where it’s rainy and cool. And the Atlantic seaboard of the UK is so drenched in rain, it supports a temperate rainforest climate of great size, covering some 20% of Britain. Rainforests are places where it’s wet enough for plants to grow on other plants: epiphytes like mosses, lichens and ferns. British rainforests – which can be found in Cornwall and Devon, much of Wales, the Lake District and the west coast of Scotland – are green cathedrals, the branches of their gnarled oaks and hazels dripping with scaly lichens and richly carpeted with viridian mosses. When I moved to Devon five years ago, I fell in love with these awe-inspiring places, leading me to write my book The Lost Rainforests of Britain. Whilst they’re on a far smaller scale than their tropical cousins, our temperate rainforests nevertheless support thousands of rare species, hold back floods and lock up carbon for centuries. They are also, tragically, now vanishingly rare. Over the centuries, long before cattle-ranching and logging threatened the Amazon, we cut down most of our temperate rainforests here in Britain. Overgrazing by unnaturally high densities of sheep and deer now prevents the remaining few fragments from regenerating. An ecosystem that once covered a fifth of Britain now survives on just 1% of our landmass. But there are plenty of reasons for hope. In Brazil, President Lula has reduced Amazonian deforestation to its lowest level in a decade. And in Britain, a movement has arisen to restore our temperate rainforests. In the three years since the publication of my book, I’ve witnessed a huge upsurge in activity. The Wildlife Trusts are busy restoring rainforests across the British Isles, armed with a £38m investment from pension fund Aviva. David Attenborough featured the habitat in his seminal series Wild Isles. A new charity, the Thousand Year Trust, founded by farmer Merlin Hanbury-Tenison, is pioneering research into temperate rainforests. And Prince William’s estate, the Duchy of Cornwall – which owns a huge slice of Dartmoor – has announced plans to allow the iconic rainforest site of Wistman’s Wood to double in size over the next twenty years. As President Lula knows only too well, saving the rainforests also requires political action. In Britain, the Westminster government has made some steps down this path. In 2023, after much campaigning by myself and others, it unveiled a Temperate Rainforest Strategy for England (rainforests in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland being a devolved responsibility). But though the strategy provided welcome recognition for this globally important habitat, it lacked a clear goal for restoring them. Keir Starmer’s government has sometimes seemed at war with nature – unfairly scapegoating newts and bats for the failures of developers to build affordable housing. This week, the Prime Minister has the chance to sound a different note. He should give the British government’s full backing to saving the world’s tropical rainforests. And, because he will not wish to appear hypocritical – telling developing countries to save their rainforests, after Britain has already cut down most of our own – he should tell the world what we will be doing to make amends. Starmer should announce a goal of doubling the area of our temperate rainforests by mid-century. This is eminently achievable, even without planting a single tree – all we need do is allow our existing rainforest fragments to spread by self-seeding. Doing so, however, will mean persuading farmers to control livestock grazing on their edges. So the government should allocate a chunk of the £816m that Chancellor Rachel Reeves has already agreed to spend on woodland creation, and invest it in supporting the natural regeneration of our rainforests. This is both cheaper than artificial planting and leads to much more species-rich habitats, and yet just 5% of government grants for woodland creation are currently spent on natural regeneration. For the sake of the climate, we need COP30 to agree a deal to save the world’s tropical rainforests. Britain should also take this chance to get our own house in order. Our politicians have a golden opportunity to announce that they are bringing back Britain’s own lost rainforests. Comment Like You can also reply to this email to leave a comment. Lost Rainforests of Britain © 2025. Unsubscribe or manage your email subscriptions. WordPress.com and Jetpack Logos Get the Jetpack app Subscribe, bookmark, and get real‑time notifications - all from one app! Download Jetpack on Google Play Download Jetpack from the App Store WordPress.com Logo and Wordmark title= Automattic, Inc. 60 29th St. #343, San Francisco, CA 94110