Category Archives: Owen Paterson

Conservation needs Change

This a continuation of the series of blogs stimulated by the re-wilding and conservation debate at the Linnean Society on Wednesday. I looked at how people’s relationship with nature has evolved to the point now where we can more or … Continue reading

Posted in agriculture, animism, Beavers, biodiversity, Common Agricultural Policy, conservation, ecosystem services, environmental policy, European environment policy, farming, Floodplains, Forestry, Forestry Commission, greenspace, housing, management, neoliberalism, NFU, Owen Paterson, public goods, public land, regulatory reform, semi-natural | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

The fallacy at the heart of the Governments biodiversity offsetting proposals

I have been thinking a bit more about last week’s Biodiversity Offsetting debate at the All Party Parliamentary Group on Biodiversity, which I blogged about here. Something was niggling away at the back of my mind and I couldn’t quite … Continue reading

Posted in agriculture, biodiversity, Biodiversity APPG, biodiversity offsetting, EIA, farming, housing, meadows, Owen Paterson, regulatory reform | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Biodiversity Offsets and the Antique Woodland Roadshow

What exactly is an Antique Woodland? The other day I found myself at a recent event put on by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Biodiversity to discuss Biodiversity Offsets. The Consultation is out at the moment and you can … Continue reading

Posted in barry gardiner, Biodiversity APPG, biodiversity offsetting, housing, Owen Paterson | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Biodiversity Offsetting – some further thoughts

Today’s blog appears on the Woodland Trust Blog site. http://wtcampaigns.wordpress.com/2013/10/26/biodiversity-offsetting-some-related-issues/.

Posted in agriculture, biodiversity, biodiversity offsetting, Charities campaigning, ecosystem services, environmental policy, forest elephant, George Monbiot, housing, management, meadows, neoliberalism, Owen Paterson, rewilding, scrub, spiritual value, straight tusked elephant, uplands | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Paterson: Badgers ate my credibility

  By BadgerHero (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons “It woz the badgers wot dunnit ossifer, honest.” It’s embarrassing isn’t it, when a Cabinet Minister appears on national TV and makes such crass statements. Owen Paterson … Continue reading

Posted in agricultural pests, agriculture, anti conservation rhetoric, anti-environmental rhetoric, badgers, David Heath, environmental policy, farming, George Eustice, Owen Paterson, Richard Benyon | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Party Time 2: Owen Paterson’s Speech at the Tory Party Conference

I don’t have time to write an analysis of Owen Paterson’s speech at the Conservative Party Conference, but you can read it here. I’ll try and take a look at it this evening. At a fringe meeting Paterson also appeared … Continue reading

Posted in agriculture, Common Agricultural Policy, Conservative Party Conference, farming, Owen Paterson | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Barberries and Badgers

Amid all the hysteria and anger around the Badger Cull, which has now commenced, I might be accused of jumping on the bandwagon. Well OK, maybe, though I have done work in the past on the badger issue, researching and … Continue reading

Posted in agricultural pests, agriculture, badgers, barberry, biodiversity, environmental policy, farming, invasive species, Owen Paterson | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

What are we paying for?

So it seems that having successfully killed off the valiant attempts to get the Common Agricultural Policy reformed so it provides Public Goods for Public Money, The National Farmers Union is now campaigning to to ensure that the UK government … Continue reading

Posted in agriculture, biodiversity, carbon storage, Common Agricultural Policy, ecosystem services, environmental policy, Owen Paterson, public goods | Tagged , | 14 Comments

All creatures great and smelly

A fundamental question that conservation keeps returning to is share or spare? Should we create spaces where nature is predominant – for example, nature reserves and at the extreme end “self willed” land. Or should we promote a harmonious interplay … Continue reading

Posted in agriculture, bats, biodiversity, biodiversity offsetting, churches, deregulation, ecosystem services, environmental policy, European environment policy, farming, greenspace, Owen Paterson | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

A profound Sense of Anxiety updated

As someone who suffers from anxiety from time to time, I know what the warning signs are. And the last week of political activity has definitely left me with a sense of almost dread about what is happening to our … Continue reading

Posted in agriculture, anti-environmental rhetoric, biodiversity, biodiversity offsetting, Charities campaigning, climate change, environmental policy, farming, GMOs, grazing, greenspace, housing, Owen Paterson, public land, regulatory reform, transport | Tagged , | 1 Comment