Agriculture and conservation tend not to be considered compatible in the public eye, due to media and other sources that tend to want to project an image of how farming is destroying the environment. However, conservation is a much larger part of agriculture and the lifestyle that goes with it, than most people first think. Organisations such as the Wildlife Trust work with farmers to help them increase biodiversity on their farms, using a variety of different methods, whilst maintaining crop yields.
One way in which this is accomplished is restoring farmland soils. Since the post-war drive to intensify farming, many farms have experienced a decrease in their soil quality, including a decrease in humus content, organic matter and soil wildlife. 75% of terrestrial wildlife live in the soil, so a thriving soil food web is vital to the recovery of the majority of farmland wildlife. Planting ‘green manure’ mixes, including red and white clovers, cocksfoot, yellow trefoil and phacaelia to ‘feed’ the soil and encourage microbial activity. These mixes also provide good forage for sheep and cattle meaning no loss in productivity. Earthworms are also introduced as they are directly linked to the survival and abundance of a wide range of wildlife including thrushes, lapwing, curlew, buzzard, moles, badger, robins, rooks, frogs, ants and can even form up to 34% of the diet of foxes. A healthy soil is also fundamental to establishing a resilient cropping system able to cope with adverse weather patterns.
Farmers are also encouraged to keep wide field margins around the edge of their crop fields, some planted with special seed mix, others left to develop their own flora, to encourage a wide range of insects with butterflies. This provides habitats for beetles, spiders and nesting birds. Pollen and nectar rich margins support many invertebrates including multiple bee species, which are vital to British wildlife. The combination of hedge and field margin provides a good base for wildlife and the network of hedges and field margins across farms provide wildlife corridors.
An environmental stewardship scheme with different levels is provided by DEFRA and many farms are in the Higher Level Stewardship scheme (HLS) which pays land-managers to take areas out of production and focus on creating and maintaining wildlife habitats. Administered by Natural England, the scheme’s primary objectives are to conserve wildlife (biodiversity), maintain and enhance landscape quality and character, protect the historic environment and natural resources, promote public access and understanding of the countryside, and protect natural resources.
In conclusion, farmers are working hard with multiple organisations behind the scenes to ensure that our agriculture sector is sustainable enough so that the wildlife we have in this country can be preserved for future generations.
15
The Impact of Brexit on UK Conservation
With the referendum confirming the UK’s wish to leave the EU in June 2016, most people are worried about the consequences of leaving the European Union for Britain’s economy, and financial system. However, what most people don’t realise, is that while Brexit will impact the more fundamental parts of British society, the impact inflicted on the UK’s environment policy will be also deeply damaging, especially in regards to our efforts to conserve and protect the UK’s unique and diverse wildlife.
Leading environmental scientists in the UK have debated over the issue of whether Brexit would benefit, or hinder conservation efforts, with the majority coming to the conclusion that leaving the EU would not only limit them the resources and research of European environmental agencies, and this lack of communication could hinder their efforts in trying to conserve our wildlife. Furthermore, they concluded that what we contribute to the EU, and receive back in research, leaves us with considerable net gain: net gain we could stand to lose, depending on the outcome of Theresa May’s Brexit negotiations.
Many conservation organisations have also voiced their concerns about the impact Brexit will have on their work. The CEO of the apolitical wildlife charity Buglife, who work to protect creepy crawlies of the UK, issued a statement saying, ‘the EU has benefited bugs in many ways and in our expert opinion continuing to work closely with other countries in the EU to fix environmental problems should bring more benefits to the continents wildlife than the UK going it alone.’ Buglife’s research has also shown that due to the UK’s proximity to Europe, much of our fauna and flora is essentially European: after all, many of our butterflies, dragonflies and bees travel to and from the continent, as do some of the diseases and pollutants that threaten them. Therefore, by limiting this flow of research to and from the EU, we would be putting our wildlife at risk, and harming the UK’s environment as a whole.
Manika Patel