The report sets out how the livestock industry is responding to the challenge of reducing its greenhouse gas footprint.
The Grasslands Trust, which has previously highlighted the important role that semi-natural grasslands play as a carbon sink, welcomed EBLEX’s recognition that carbon storage in grassland soils needs to be factored in to any calculations of the carbon footprint of the livestock sector.
Miles King, director of conservation at The Grasslands Trust said “there is increasing evidence of the critical role that grassland soils play in storing carbon. Restoring agricultural grassland to a wildlife-rich state can lead to it storing over three tonnes of extra carbon per hectare per year and this accumulation is on a par with most types of woodland carbon storage.
Birdsong in the UK and European countryside could fall silent unless secret plans to scrap funding for wildlife-friendly farming are averted, warns the RSPB.
The RSPB is concerned that the European Union is considering scrapping payments to farmers to protect vulnerable species on their land. The RSPB estimates that the future of some of the UK’s most-loved farmland birds will face an uncertain future, or even extinction, if these plans are realised.
The threat has surfaced in the run-up to the latest EU budget, which is due to unveiled on June 29.
The Peak District National Park Authority has put in place a temporary ban of off-road vehicles in a bid to protect 'a landscape of the highest international importance'.
The move comes after severe damage to the Chapel Gate track between Chapel-en-le-Frith and Edale: the experimental traffic order regulation will exclude motorised vehicles for eighteen months.
Although the track is designated as a right of way for motorised vehicles the authority’s audit, resources and performance committee decided that the damage is so severe that only a total ban would help restore the three kilometre long track.
Stephen R. Carpenter, Professor of Zoology and Limnology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will receive the 2011 Stockholm Water Prize.
Carpenter's research has shown how lake ecosystems are affected by the surrounding landscape and by human activities. His findings have formed the basis for concrete solutions on how to manage lakes.
Professor Carpenter is recognised as one of the world's most influential environmental scientists in the field of ecology. By combining theoretical models and large-scale lake experiments he has re-framed our understanding of freshwater environments and how lake ecosystems are impacted by humans and the surrounding landscape.
I've never been convinced that the use of peat in horticultural products has ever had a significant impact on the world's environment and if I was even the slightest bit worried before - after reading a press release from the International Peat Society IPS on their global strategy for responsible peatland management - I'm not the slightest bit worried now.
Walking past the fields in the South West of France it is easy to think that the farmers are so overworked or despondent that they have left the old maize stubble, writes Carol Miers.
Dry broken stems make scraggy lines across the fields. Talk about unprepared for spring planting. Is this the inertia of the French countryside?
But in the UK, this is good practice. The Telegraph reported that the return of a long-lost British bird - the corn bunting - was due in part to leaving winter field stubble. It helps the birds find seeds or insects through the cold months.
They are not an unattractive animal to look at but because they are alien - brought over from North America to fuel the demand for their fur - the American Mink has no place in the fresh waters of the United Kingdom.
Because so many have escaped - or been released by misguided anti-fur activists - thousands are now said to be living and breeding throughout the British Isles.
From 1998 until 2008, Nick Mann ran an investment management firm specialising in Japanese smaller companies.
Disillusion by the lack of ethics in the investment business and a desire to do something to help slow the destruction of native habitats and biomass Nick set up Habitat Aid and began trading in May 2009.
Nick's ambition is to make a real difference by trying to, at least partly, help recreate these lost habitats, or compensating in some way for their loss.
These efforts, and those of others, may be critical in saving many of our native species from extinction.
The Scottish government's Climate Challenge Fund is a grant scheme administered within the Sustainable Action Fund with the purpose of empowering communities with the ability to implement actions to reduce their carbon emissions.
From 2008 through to 2011, the Climate Challenge Fund will have channelled a total of £27.4 million into community projects that are aimed at promoting a sustainable future as part of the Greener Scotland programme.
I think John Fielder has found a way of Europe saving millions of Euro. This wildlife tower is made from old pallets stacked on top of each other and the voids filled with sticks, pots, logs, pine cones and bricks - in fact, anything that provides a little sanctuary.
I wrote recently how Europe is going to spend £2million encouraging bees into towns and cities by building bee hotels; just look what can be achieved using recycled materials that would otherwise be burnt or possibly destined to infill.
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