Defra has launched a consultation calling on everyone from ‘birdwatchers to big business’ to have their say about protecting and enhancing the environment.
The move comes ahead of the planned publication of a White Paper on the Natural Environment in April 2011. The scope of the debate will include biodiversity, seas, rivers and waterways, air, soil, climate change and demographic shifts. The department’s discussion document says there has been an ‘ongoing decline in many aspects of environmental quality’ and talks about putting a ‘stop to the piecemeal degradation of our natural environment’.
Find out what’s up for debate here. The deadline for responses is October 30.
NFU comment
NFU chief environment adviser Dr Diane Mitchell said: “Caroline Spelman is absolutely correct that the environment must be at the heart of the economic recovery, as the NFU strongly believes that with populations growing that we must produce more, but also impact less. This White Paper consultation provides an important opportunity to define how markets and the economy can deliver environmental improvement alongside economic recovery.
“Farmers are already very aware of their responsibilities for managing the environment. This is clearly demonstrated by their involvement in agri-environment schemes - almost 70% of the countryside is in some sort of managed agreement.
“Over 50 per cent of farmers have a nutrient management plan and 70 per cent regularly test the nutrient content of their soil.
“We have long advocated that managing farming’s influence on the environment must be implemented in such a way that food production and the environment go hand-in-hand and we were very encouraged when Defra’s Structural Reform Plan placed food and farming as top priorities alongside protecting and enhancing the environment.
“We now need to build on the success of actions and initiatives already in place to maintain agriculture as a competitive industry and to provide safeguards for the environment. Initiatives such as the Campaign for the Farmed Environment and Tried & Tested nutrient management planning are excellent examples of good partnership working between government and its agencies and other key agricultural stakeholder organisations and fit the government bill of ‘big society’. We look forward to working with Defra and others during the consultation on the White Paper.”
No comments have been made.