OUR TEMPERATE RAIN FORESTS — IT’S LONG BUT IMPORTANT — ASK GUY SHRUBSOLE

Sent from my iPad Begin forwarded message: From: J Edwards Date: 30 November 2023 at 14:45:01 CET To: John Edwards Subject: Fwd: [New post] The Government’s temperate rainforest strategy for England – an analysis  Sent from my iPad Begin forwarded message: From: Lost Rainforests of Britain Date: 29 November 2023 at 19:47:39 CET To: spanishjohnedwards@gmail.com Subject: [New post] The Government’s temperate rainforest strategy for England – an analysis Reply-To: Lost Rainforests of Britain Site logo image Lost Rainforests of Britain The Government’s temperate rainforest strategy for England – an analysis Guy Nov 29 This blog post is by Guy Shrubsole. The UK Government has today published a temperate rainforests strategy for England, bringing much-needed attention, funding and support for this magical and biodiverse habitat. In this blog post, I’ll give my assessment of this development, welcoming what I think is good in it and setting out what still needs to be done. Putting temperate rainforests on the political agenda Firstly, it’s hugely welcome that the Government has published a temperate rainforests strategy at all – and a vindication of the power of campaigning. Reading a document that sings the praises of temperate rainforest – and has the words ‘HM Government’ at the top of the page – is very exciting and rather surreal. I’ve been calling for the Government to put in place a strategy for our rainforests for the past 3 years, both in my book, The Lost Rainforests of Britain, and through the campaign that I’ve worked on with a great team at Seahorse Environmental: a huge thankyou to Isabella Gornall, Alice Russell, Ellen Bassam and Costanza Poggi. Before we started campaigning, temperate rainforests hadn’t even been mentioned in Parliament by MPs. Now we have the Government publishing an entire strategy devoted to this special ecosystem. The fact that they have is testament to the tens of thousands of people who signed our parliamentary petition, contacted their MPs, read my book, tweeted, posted and cheered us on. It is a victory shared by organisations like the Wildlife Trusts, Woodland Trust, RSPB, National Trust, Plantlife, Eden Project, Lost Gardens of Heligan, Thousand Year Trust and many others who have been working to protect and restore temperate rainforests. It’s a win that’s indebted to the tireless work of many botanists, lichenologists and bryologists who have studied this extraordinary habitat for decades. And it is thanks to some very dedicated people within DEFRA, Number 10 and Natural England who have worked on this, in particular James Cullimore, Meg Trethewey and Tony Juniper – thankyou. So, on to the substance of the strategy! What’s good Having a Government-backed rainforests strategy for England will, in itself, raise the profile of this habitat and show farmers, landowners and the public that this is an important ecosystem in need of protection and restoration. £750k for research and development into temperate rainforests. The strategy announces that “through the Nature for Climate Fund we will invest up to £750,000 in research and development in improving the resilience, management, and protection of temperate rainforests.” Whilst the Nature for Climate Fund has existed for several years, this money is newly allocated for temperate rainforests, and for them solely. What research is funded will be determined by (I assume) Natural England and Forest Research, but I hope it will lead to useful new research into threats facing our rainforests like invasive species and climate impacts, and can inform ways to repair and restore them. Of course, there are plenty of things which we already know are bad, and where further research isn’t required to get cracking in fixing them! Work to target some of the key threats facing temperate rainforests, including deer and rhododendron. Deer pressure in many parts of England is unnaturally high (due to absence of natural predators and inadequate culling strategies), leading to overbrowsing of woods, so it’s good to hear the Government will soon be publishing its new deer strategy. Invasive Rhododendron ponticum is choking many of our rainforest sites by shading out all other trees and plants, so the recent increase in payment rates for rhododendron removal is welcome. We await to see if uptake of the grants increases, or whether further incentives or other regulatory policies are needed to eradicate rhododendron from England. 7 new Landscape Recovery (LSR) pilots involving temperate rainforest restoration. It’s very exciting to see that 7 of the 34 new LSR pilots will include some temperate rainforest restoration or creation. I understand that the ones that will are: the Walkham Valley Landscape Recovery Project (Dartmoor); Small is Beautiful – Landscape Recovery on the Isles of Scilly; Reviving Exmoor’s Heartland; Arlington Estate nature recovery and connection to Exmoor; Heart of the Dales; West Pennines More Nature Partnership; Brock and Calder Landscape Recovery Project. (I’m pretty sure the Central Dartmoor project also includes some rainforest restoration, seeing as it includes Wistman’s Wood, so maybe it’s 8!). We pushed for DEFRA to explicitly mention temperate rainforests in their criteria for the second round of LSR pilots, which they did. From the response, it’s clear that there is huge appetite amongst farmers, landowners and conservation NGOs to undertake ambitious restoration of temperate rainforests (and, of course, of many other equally vital habitats and species). There are now a wide range of other funding pots for temperate rainforests, which this strategy helpfully draws together: The Regional Woodland Restoration Innovation Fund – which in the South West and North West of England, invite applications for temperate rainforest restoration. The England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO), which alongside broader grants for woodland creation and tree planting, also provides funding for natural regeneration (although this is limited; see below). The Big Nature Impact Fund, which is investing £30m of public money to leverage more private money into nature restoration, including temperate rainforests. Countryside Stewardship (CS) – the strategy states that CS “will continue to support landowners to restore ancient woodlands which were converted to plantations” (known as PAWS), and also “support more farmers and land managers to manage their precious temperate rainforest habitat” (my emphasis). There are various capital grants available under CS for fencing (to help control grazing by livestock) and deer fencing. None of these funding pots explicitly mentioned temperate rainforests as being eligible prior to our campaigning, so it’s fantastic to see government took on board our suggestions. What’s missing The strategy lacks an overarching target or goal. The Lost Rainforests campaign has been calling for the Government to set a target of doubling the area of England’s rainforests by 2050. We think that’s readily achievable – and could be done simply by allowing our existing rainforest fragments to naturally regenerate and spread, at nature’s pace, by controlling overgrazing on their edges. The strategy does not commit to giving legal protections to more rainforest sites. From mapping we’ve done, we think that around three-quarters of England’s rainforest sites are not protected as SSSIs, and want the Government to correct this. Doing so will not only give important protection to these places, but help the Government meet its 30x30 goal. Simply expanding the number and area of National Nature Reserves does not carry the same legal protections as SSSIs. Whilst the strategy makes welcome reference to the potential for natural regeneration (allowing our rainforests to self-seed and spread, rather than just planting saplings), a flaw remains in the way the Government encourages landowners to allow for this. We continue to urge the Government to amend the ‘75 metre rule’ in the England Woodland Creation Offer, which limits funding for natural regeneration to within 75 metres of a seed source, and extend it to 150 metres – the distance we know from studies that a closed canopy of oak trees can regenerate within 20 years. What needs to happen next There’s more this Government can do to address the missing elements listed above. We will continue to engage with DEFRA, Natural England, Forestry England and Number 10 on these points. We look forward to seeing the progress of all the Landscape Recovery pilot projects that now involve temperate rainforest restoration (2 from the first round, 7-8 from this second round!). Given the clear appetite from farmers, landowners, NGOs and the public for Landscape Recovery – both rounds have been hugely oversubscribed – we fully expect the Government to put their full weight behind making Landscape Recovery a success. That means giving it at least a third of the ELMs budget, as originally promised, before doubts were cast on this under Liz Truss’ administration. You may have noticed that 2024 is an election year. We urge all parties to engage in a ‘race to the top’ on nature and climate policies – and would welcome fresh policy commitments on temperate rainforests from all parties in the run-up to the general election! 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