There is much angst (an inappropriate word, surely) among those who speak for wildlife, and the biosphere more generally in the UK, following the referendum, but there is also a growing sense of realism that there's a job to be done, and that this is an opportunity to forge a better settlement between farming, conservation and rural communities.
When the Common Agricultural Policy goes (an opportunity if ever I saw one) there will be a need to re-think agricultural payments of all kinds, and a chance to forge policy (4 policies, more like) that makes agriculture fit for wildlife and for rural working and living.
This is a chance to create something truly good for us all – that would make the countryside much more of a living landscape and an outdoor classroom than it has been for years. I do hope the wildlife charities will get together to seize this, probably unique, moment.
Respond