Guy Shrubsole Profile picture
Mar 22, 2023 17 tweets 11 min read Read on X
There’s been huge momentum in recent months to protect & restore Britain’s lost rainforests.

From David Attenborough raising the alarm, to politicians voicing support, to landowners taking action, here’s a thread summarising developments: 1/
2/ Just this past weekend, David Attenborough discussed Britain’s temperate rainforests for the first time, in his #WildIsles series:

"These are temperate rainforests... They have now been reduced to a fraction of their original range across western Britain & Ireland"
3/ Before @LostRainforests starting campaigning in 2021, ‘temperate rainforest’ had never been mentioned in Parliament or by a Westminster politician.

Since then, temperate rainforest has been mentioned at least 12 times (& counting) by MPs & in UK Govt policy documents:
4/ And it’s not just words: we’ve persuaded the UK Govt to start funding temperate rainforest restoration in England via ELMs: gov.uk/government/pub… and via Regional woodland restoration Innovation Funds: gov.uk/guidance/regio…

And we'll keep pushing Ministers to do more.
5/ Nature conservation charities, meanwhile, have been ramping up their work on temperate rainforests.

In February, the @WildlifeTrusts were given £38m by pension fund Aviva to expand temperate rainforests in Britain. Channel 4 reported the news
6/ The @WoodlandTrust held a great public event in Exeter, ‘Rethinking Rainforests’, at which 500 people turned up – essentially to hear about lichens!

They’ve also launched a fundraising appeal with a brilliant short film about our rainforests woodlandtrust.org.uk/support-us/giv…
7/ This past week I attended a fab event organised by @RSPBScotland with @ASRainforest & hosted by @HughRaven at Ardtornish Estate on restoring Scotland’s rainforests.

The RSPB have also recently acquired Glencripesdale, an amazing rainforest on Morvern rspb.org.uk/our-work/rspb-…
8/ The @NationalTrust look after some awesome temperate rainforests in Devon, Wales and the Lake District.

A new officer has recently been appointed to manage the Atlantic oakwoods they own in Borrowdale in the Lakes reed.co.uk/jobs/national-…
9/ Plantlife (@LovePlants) have launched new management guidance on how to care for temperate rainforests – and their citizen science project has rediscovered 15 fragments of lost rainforest in the south west of England: plantlife.org.uk/uk/about-us/ne…
10/ NGOs, landowners and farmers are all starting to collaborate on rainforest restoration in new ways. Last month saw the formation of a new South West Rainforests Alliance, comprising the 18 organisations shown in the slide below, and others since signed up:
11/ On the eastern flank of Dartmoor, temperate rainforests cling to the banks of the Dart, Bovey and Teign rivers. The new East Dartmoor Landscape Recovery pilot project – a partnership of NGOs, landowners & farmers – aims to reconnect these fragments: devonwildlifetrust.org/east-dartmoor-…
12/ Cornish farmer @MerlinHanbury, who’s restoring Atlantic oakwood at Cabilla near Bodmin Moor, has been setting up a new organisation to promote the practical restoration of temperate rainforest across western Europe. For more details, watch this space & follow Merlin!
13/ Invasive Rhododendron ponticum is choking our rainforests, yet could take 250 years to eradicate from England at current rates of removal: theguardian.com/environment/20…

But community foresters like @philsturgeon @ProtectEarthUK are mobilising to help:
Lastly, I’ve been excited by how many people have read my book, The Lost Rainforests of Britain, & been inspired to become amateur botanists & ‘landscape detectives’ searching for signs of lost rainforests.

Support indy bookshops – buy a copy from: uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-lo… (Ends)
(Sorry, that should've been @Love_plants tagged here - darn it, still no edit button on Twitter!)
15/ But wait, there's more!

The amazing @wildcardrewild launched this great petition last month calling on Prince William to bring back rainforests on land owned by his Duchy of Cornwall estate, by expanding places like Wistman's Wood: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/prin…
16/ Yet more momentum on Atlantic rainforests:

University of Plymouth academic @ThomasRMurphy88 has recently started supervising two PhD students researching temperate rainforests in Britain & Ireland.

You can read some of Tom’s previous research here: plymouth.ac.uk/news/study-sho…

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More from @guyshrubsole

Oct 29
Revealed: tax loophole exempts 355 landowners from inheritance tax - including huge grouse moor estates & pheasant shoots

I FOI'd HMRC for details & found this tax break is worth *at least* £68m & likely far more

@RachelReevesMP please fix this! 1/

theguardian.com/money/2024/oct…
2/ These 355 landowners benefit from a loophole called the “tax-exempt heritage assets scheme”, under which they can register land and property as heritage assets and make them exempt from inheritance tax.

You can see HMRC's list of landowners here: hmrc.gov.uk/gds/heritage/l…
3/ To be eligible, landowners have to agree to “look after” the land and “make it available for the general public to view”.

gov.uk/guidance/tax-r…
Read 7 tweets
Sep 12
REVEALED: Just 10% of Britain's National Parks are owned by the nation. 90% of the land in them is privately owned.

This means National Park Authorities are almost powerless to influence the private landowners who too often fail to steward nature 1/

bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…
Image
2/ Some National Parks are dominated by very large estates – half of Dartmoor National Park is owned by just 15 large landowners.

Here's my map of public land ownership in National Parks:

google.com/maps/d/u/0/edi…
3/ This year's the 75th anniversary of the creation of national parks by Attlee's Labour government. But though some of the founders of Britain’s national parks dreamed of them being “owned or controlled by the nation” (Ramsay Report, 1945), things have not turned out that way. Image
Read 5 tweets
Sep 11
I’m shocked, shocked to hear that the ‘net zero aspiration’ for farming trumpeted by the National Farmers Union in 2019 is now ‘in doubt’

The NFU’s plan refused to consider significant land use change or dietary shift & favoured bioenergy crops instead 1/ bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…
2/ The NFU’s now blaming the last Govt for not including enough ‘climate-friendly measures’ in ELMS. Look, we can all hate on the Tories. But it was the NFU that lobbied vociferously to water down ELMS - leaving the most ambitious tier, Landscape Recovery, with 5% of the budget
3/ Where I agree with the NFU is in increasing the budget for ELMS to pay for more nature restoration - rather than cut it as Treasury are rumoured to want.

But we also need far greater accountability for landowners to actually deliver nature recovery & value for money.
Read 8 tweets
Sep 4
REVEALED: Tory Environment Secretary @SteveBarclay rejected expert advice for review of climate impacts on soil fertility

Officials warned him govt's Agricultural Land Classification system is 'decades old' & will be obsolete by 2030

Story in today's Times; FOI'd docs below 1/ Image
2/ The Agricultural Land Classification (ALC) system was drawn up after WW2 and grades land according to its ability to produce food - soil fertility, rainfall, climate

It was last updated in *1988* - before climate change had even registered as a political issue in the UK Image
3/ ALC maps are used in the planning system to try to protect 'best and most versatile land' (grades 1-3a) from development. The maps are also important for showing how we prioritise highly fertile land for food & can spare other land for nature (e.g. upland areas)
Read 10 tweets
Jun 12
So @TheGreenParty manifesto is now out - here's my take on their nature policies.

Most significantly, I think, is their pledge for a new Rights of Nature Act - "giving rights to nature itself".

This would be a transformative shift in how we relate to the rest of nature. 1/ Image
2/ Lawyers like @LawForNature @paulpowlesland have been calling for nature to be granted rights for years, to better defend habitats and species from destruction.

A Rights of Nature Act would transform how we currently relate to nature as mere 'property' or a 'resource'.
@LawForNature @paulpowlesland 3/ The Greens are also pledging a new Clean Air Act (something the Lib Dems have also pledged); to end the emergency authorisation of neonic pesticides (which Labour recently also pledged to do); and to meet 30x30 (a goal that is shared by the Tories, Labour & Lib Dems) Image
Read 14 tweets
Jun 11
The Tory manifesto is now out - here's my take on its nature policies.

First off, the Tories attack Natural England & the Environment Agency: "we will improve their accountability & give them clearer objectives"

Sounds like they want to gut our environmental regulators 1/ Image
2/ Earlier this year I heard a rumour that the Tories were mulling a manifesto pledge to abolish Natural England.

This clearly falls short of that, but it's part of a vicious war that the Tories have waged on NE for years - simply for trying to do its job.
3/ For eg, back in March, a group of Tory MPs proposed a Bill that would gut Natural England's powers to designate nature reserves (SSSIs). They even wrote to the Environment Secretary urging him to back it. Fortunately the election put paid to their plans
Read 18 tweets

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