Industry | 2010.08.13
'Crown jewels' of Britain's landscape could be sold off
Key nature reserves could be run by big business
Conservationists split over private sector takeover
The Lizard peninsula is one of Britain\'s romantic and evocative places: home to some of the rarest and most protected wildlife, and dotted with sunken treasure ships and sailors\' graves. Its plummeting cliffs, rocky caves and sandy beaches at the southern tip of Britain are owned and managed by the state, for now. But if government plans are pushed through, it could one day theoretically be owned and managed by a big supermarket like Sainsbury\'s or Tesco, an oil company or a local community.
England has 224 designated national nature reserves, of which the government – via its agency Natural England – owns or manages two thirds; Scotland and Wales have far fewer . A further 1,050 local reserves make up a national collection of beauty spots and sites of special scientific interest that is considered priceless. Covering an area the size of the west Midlands, they include windswept coast, ancient woodlands, flower rich meadows and moor, mountain and bog.
Proposals now being considered in Westminster and Cardiff include selling off the publicly-owned sites, opening them up for more visitors and money-making opportunities or handing them over to charitable trusts and communities. Critics say there is little likelihood of the Lake District being re-branded as British Nuclear Fuels-land, or Snowdon as Mt Sainsbury\'s, but it could lead to reserves being branded, and funding becoming dependent on the fortunes of multinational companies.
"We thought these places – which are the crown jewels of the landscape – had been saved for the nation, but now it turns out we\'ve got to save them all over again," said Jeremy Biggs, Director of Pond Conservation . "I\'m especially worried that this will be another nail in the coffin for wonderful places for freshwater plants and animals like the Pevensey Levels in East Sussex – where the network of clean unpolluted ditches and ponds support spectacular wetland wildlife, equal to our very best salmon rivers, and our most magnificent lakes. Without the protection provided by NNR [national nature reserve] status these fragile sites would have been totally destroyed long ago".
Other conservationists are not overly concerned as long as there are guarantees they will be managed well. They point out that most nature conservation is now part-funded by business, and many nature reserves are already owned by private individuals.
Savage cuts to British conservation could even be financially beneficial, says Morgan Parry, chair of the Countryside council for Wales , the principality\'s statutory nature advisers: "Possibly things that we have held as sacred will be challenged. We have to ask whether we actually need nature reserves and whether the business sector can come in to provide new revenue streams. Who manages the nature reserves may not matter. We have to look more holistically".
The sell-off plan highlights the extreme lengths being considered to meet the government\'s demands to slash environmental spending. It is perhaps the most dramatic plan being suggested, but by no means the only one which has created deep concern about the future of the nation\'s countryside and natural world.
At their last board meeting, the directors of Natural England, which has no remit for the devolved regions, warned that, mostly because of the job and funding cuts, including a freeze already imposed on hiring new staff, advertising and marketing, the outlook for 38 out of 45 of their policies was worse than before, including targets to improve the survival of the most at risk species such as otters and dormice, restoration of wetlands, and projects to introduce one million children into the countryside.
In another possible sign of things to come, the latest strategic plan by the Environment Agency (which covers England and Wales but not Scotland or Northern Ireland) has shifted from a vision which opened with "a better quality of life for people, and an enhanced environment for wildlife" and other commitments, followed by commitments to cleaner air, water and soils, sustainability, climate change adaptation and finally reduced flooding risk. In its place are four much more limited and specific pledges to "clean up rivers, defend more properties against flooding, reduce emissions, discharges and waste from industry, and tackle the causes and consequences of climate change".
Noting the exclusion of biodiversity from this list, Mark Avery, conservation director for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, warned on his blog this week : "[The] EA does a lot of good for wildlife, but often off the sides of dedicated staff\'s desks or by clever thinking with non-biodiversity budgets. This good work may disappear now."
Forestry Commission officials in Wales, Scotland and England today confirmed that sales and long leases of national forestry and woodland were being considered as part of a range of options to cut budgets. The commission owns more than 875,000 hectares – mostly in Scotland – but depends on government for grants of more than £70m a year. The Conservative party considered the part-privatisation of the commission in the mid 1990s but was rebuffed by environment groups. Since then it has become more business focused, potentially making a part-privatisation more attractive.
The Welsh government also owns 300,000 acres of forests in Wales, and some of the land is highly valuable because of its potential for wind power. "Everything is being considered, from a complete merger of the organisations to the large scale sell-off of assets and the sharing of resources", said one source.
Today officials insisted that no detailed plans had been made. "We expect to play our part in the Government\'s efforts to reduce the budget deficit, but we won\'t know what specific impacts this will have on us until we know the outcome of the public spending review in the autumn", said a Forestry Commission spokesman. Where environmental spending is devolved, a similar trend is emerging as those governments are also forced to demand severe funding cuts - sometimes with national if not international impacts where rare habitats and species are involved.
The Defra cuts are also expected to affect scientific research into inland water quality, the health of soils and upland areas such as the Peak District, Lake District and the Highlands. These UK-wide surveys are carried out by Scottish Natural Heritage, which already plans to lay-off staff on these projects.
Forestry Commission officials in Scotland expect to sell off some forests but face far less severe cuts than commission operations in England, of around 10% next year, because their funding comes from the Scottish government not Defra.
Forestry Commission Scotland executives also believe that buoyant timber prices will help them absorb the worst funding cuts.
Other Scottish environment agencies will not learn about the scale of their cuts until November, but they are planning for a 20% fall in spending next year and up to 10% a year for the next two years.
In Wales, conservationists expected extra funding three months ago to address the alarming deterioration of the principality\'s wildlife and to help them set up new marine nature reserves. This week they are contemplating multi-million pound cuts and the dismemberment of many services.
No decisions have been made but the Assembly government, which depends on money from Westminster for nature protection, is expected to slash budgets and has hinted it will merge the Welsh Environment agency, the Forestry Commission and the independent Countryside Council for Wales advisory body to save money.
According to sources in the government, "everything" is being considered for possible cuts, or its potential to raise money.
If the 40% overall Defra cuts are reflected in Wales, it could mean nature protection being reduced to just what the government is legally obliged to do.
"We\'ve made little progress in 10 years so if we cut more there is no hope we will improve. It would mean cutting nature protection to the bone. There is little left to cut. It means we will miss targets", said Ann Meikle, director of WWF Wales.
"Nature protection will be severely reduced. Jobs will be lost and environment protection will undoubtedly be weaker", said Gordon James, director of Friends of the Earth Cymru. "We are very concerned that the voice of the CCW, which often challenges other agencies and provides independent advice, will be muted."
Back on the national stage, the Met Office, which comes under the Ministry of Defence, was identified as a possible candidate for privatisation by defence secretary Liam Fox before the election. Tonight a ministry spokesman said: "Everything, including the Met Office, is being looked at under the strategic defence and security review which will report after the summer".
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/20[...]jewels-britains-landscape-sold
