Raptors of Delight

Sparrowhawk recently spotted at Coombe Hill Nature Reserve by Zsuzsanna Bird

Being an ecologist can result in one taking an opinion that is diametrically opposed to that of simple logic. A classic example is that of the bird of prey populations that have made a spectacular recovery over the past 30 years. Surely more raptors must mean less songbirds? Not according to my understanding!

Studies of predator-prey dynamics have shown that there are often two characteristics of population curves; predator numbers are determined by the abundance of food and they reach a peak later than the prey species. In other words the more that there is to eat the more predators there may be! The total amount of prey in an area will be an important factor in determining the number of predators, but there is a time delay.

The British Trust for Ornithology has presented some important new information that contributes understanding to this model in its BTO News May-June 2010. In a piece entitled Are Predators to Blame? Stuart Newson and Stephen Baillie summarise their research that is published in full in the Journal of Applied Ecology 47.

‘In summary, for the majority of the songbird species examined, there was little evidence that increases in common avian predators and grey squirrels were associated with large-scale depression of prey abundance or population declines. For the majority of declining songbird species with unfavourable conservation status, population declines appear to be due to factors other than predation’.

In Gloucestershire, the numbers of many of our birds of prey have increased dramatically since I have lived in the county. Whilst it is true that species like the house sparrow, yellow hammer, nightingale, turtle dove and many others have achieved the undesirable red or amber status (in trouble), it would seem that the causes are often more complex than their immediate natural enemies. Habitat loss in the UK and overseas for migrant species, combined with disease and climate change may play a far more important role in determining population size.

So don’t worry about your local sparrowhawk, buzzard or kestrel, just marvel at their aerial grace and their subtle role in local ecology.

Welcoming New Supporters

Standing in a wonderful piece of flower rich limestone grassland, I could have been anywhere in Cotswolds rather than only three miles from Stroud. The valleys and coombs around Chalford are a precious hidden landscape which only the curious or those lost because of a confused SatNav are likely to experience. The effort that Margaret and I had put in (SatNav notwithstanding) was well worth it. Gloucestershire Wildlife Trusts’s nature reserves at Strawberry Banks and Three Groves Wood are absolute gems.

Strawberry Banks, which is managed in cooperation with the very committed owners, the Shorts, was the most fascinating on the night as dozens of common blue butterflies were flitting around our feet. This is not any exaggeration; I counted 12 butterflies within a few feet of me, remarkable!

I was actually working, although it was more pleasure than pain. The Trust has started to hold meetings with its newer members to help them to learn more about our work and to enjoy the wonderful nature reserves that their subscriptions support. Last week, through the hard work of Membership Development Manager, Alice and her team, over 50 members were greeted and shown around by a bunch of our hard working staff.

Two walking groups set off down through Far Oakridge towards the reserves. Each group had an expert guide; Jeremy Doe or Pete Bradshaw. I was in Pete’s group and I learned a lot, nature reserve management is more sophisticated than it used to be! After our 90 minute ramble we reassembled at the Butcher’s Arms for excellent refreshment and a short talk. All very pleasant.

The Trust has over 24500 members, making it one of the largest in the country. It is its members that have shaped and supported its strategies and actions over the last five decades. Last night it was clear why the Trust is still so well supported; effective local action for local wildlife by a local organisation. David Cameron could learn a lot from the Wildlife Trusts!

Back to blogging... and badgers

My blog rate has been very low since the election. Politics affects charities quite significantly and I found myself becoming ultra careful over my choice of subject matter. Whilst I write as me, my words could be associated with Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust policy.

Charities are not allowed to campaign politically and I could not risk the Trust being damaged by association with my opinons. 16 charities have found themselves subject to investigation because of accusations of political bias.

Bovine TB became a political issue during the election because the two parties that now form the government chose to take a significantly different line over badger culling than the Labour party.

My view remains that the culling of badgers is not a means of controlling and reducing Bovine TB in cattle. Culling is difficult, expensive and scientifically unproven. Even in culling trial areas where it has been shown to have a transient local impact (and no overall benefit); its effect has been merely to slow the rate of increase in cattle infection. This is not a solution to a chronic problem.

The vaccine for badgers is at the stage of field trials and I am told that there is very encouraging news about its effectiveness. However, even at best, vaccine is only part of disease control which needs a necessary mix of cattle testing, biosecurity measures and transport restrictions. A vaccine for cattle is not likely to be ready for testing until 2015.

I very much hope that government decisions about bovine TB are sensible and balanced. It would be bad for all concerned if hasty action led to greater cost, confusion of policy and muddled outcomes.

Walking 4 Wildlife

Pete Bradshaw, Mike Dilger, and me.

Working for wildlife brings me into contact with many special people; staff, volunteers and the general public. I have had the pleasure of meeting some famous conservation personalities and of doing silly things for the press (standing in a London pond with Michael Palin comes to mind). The Trust’s Walk 4 Wildlife, held in the lovely Sapperton Valley on Sunday, managed to combine most of the above.

Over 400 Trust supporters and 40 dogs gathered in The Daneway Inn garden to register for the 5 mile amble through some of the loveliest countryside in the England. This is not an exaggeration and the reaction of most walkers, many of whom had never seen the five nature reserves on show (Daneway Banks, Siccaridge Wood, Strawberry Banks, Three Groves Wood and Sapperton Canal) was of pure pleasure.

TV personality Mike Dilger, The One Show presenter and an all-round nice guy, added an extra layer of fun to the event. Mike is a very knowledgeable and passionate naturalist who bubbled with fun and enthusiasm for the four very generous hours that he spent with us.

Mike managed to discuss ancient woodland indicators, his new-found love of beetles and the rigours of TV filming schedules without flagging. He is a genuinely interested person and everyone who met him came away with their own version of his warm smile.

Jan Ryder and Pete Bradshaw were the two Trust staff who had spent the most time on planning and organising the event. However, another 15 staff and Trustees contributed to the smooth running of the day. Much fun, information and love of the natural world was shared on this inaugural Walk for Wildlife. I had a great time and saw my first dipper of the year (thanks to Mike’s keen eyesight). Richard Goodfellow of The Daneway Inn was also kept busy. Our hungry walkers made a significant dent in his larder and I believed his claim that he had never cooked so many chips in one day!

…. and no, I did not ask anything about Christine Blakeley!

Train spotting

I have lost my youthful enthusiasm for exotic travel and fabulous wildlife. The more I see of the British Isles, the more captivated I become. Why spend hours stuck on airport floors waiting for volcano-proof planes when there is so much to see here?

For once, I decided that I would not spend my train journey to London poring over papers and this laptop, but to watch the natural world instead. My laziness was rewarded by a terrific view of a large (probably dog) Red Fox sitting at the side of the track on the outskirts of Swindon station. Taking this as a challenge, I decided what else the London up line would provide.

Following the colour theme, my next mammal was the first of two Brown Hares that I saw lolloping through young wheat crops. The Mad March phase seemed to have given way to a leisurely amble. I failed to see any Roe Deer, possibly because bad habits broke through, and I tried and failed to speak to several colleagues by mobile phone instead of watching properly. However, at the edge of Didcot station a lovely Muntjac was enjoying a feast of trackside vegetation.

The Didcot to Reading stretch is becoming a great Red Kite zone and I saw four birds, one only feet above the railway bank, on this stretch. The Red Kite reintroduction programme has been a great success and the Chiltern colony is growing stronger every year.

The Thames beyond Maidenhead revealed two glorious Mute Swans that looked to me as if they were an ornithological item. Without straying into the dubious realms occupied by some political parties, these lovely native birds had a bigger wow factor than the raft of Canada Geese that were drifting along the Thames a few hundred yards downstream.

The irony of my morning wildlife "wows" is of course that I have spent the journey back from London typing sundry blogs about badgers, kite and muntjac! Not much to grumble about really, more a special privilege. But that is the joy of working for wildlife every day, especially in a county as beautiful as Gloucestershire.

In Memory of Nature

Ketford Banks by Peter WakleyNatural England

Over the past weeks I have found myself celebrating the achievements of four people who, in different ways, have made an impact on nature conservation. Each of them has left a different legacy that will benefit us all in subtle ways.

The most public ceremony was the memorial service for Lady Scott held at Berkeley Church. A congregation of conservation figures and modest volunteers remembered Phillipa’s enormous contributions to the Wildlfowl and Wetlands Trust and many other bodies. Lady Scott was a warm, vibrant and engaging ambassador for the natural world. Her late husband, Sir Peter Scott could not have had a better soul mate to continue his pioneering work. Phillipa was the Patron of Gloucestershire WIldife Trust and will be missed.

Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s latest nature reserve became a place of commemoration for two ardent naturalists, Sonia Holland and John Hughes. Sonia had purchased the Ketford daffodil bank to safeguard its future. John Hughes was the first Farming with Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) advisor and he used to visit sites with Sonia. They both loved Ketford and it was doubly fitting that FWAG had passed the site to the Trust for its future safekeeping. Both Sonia and John were ardent members of the Gloucestershire Naturalists' Society. All three organisations were present at the official opening. Ketford will act as a public reminded that people like John and Sonia have made a lasting impression on the farmed landscape of Glocuestershire.

Margaret and I travelled straight from Ketford to the beautiful village of Duntisbourne Abbots to attend a ceremony celebrating the life of Bill Darling. Bill was a modest man who had also dedicated his life to promoting wildlife and farming. He had won the top FWAG award for his farm in Hertfordshire before retiring. In Gloucestershire, Bill was Secretary and Treasurer of the local Royal Forestry Society branch and a dedicated Friend of Westonbirt. Bill was also Chairman of Gloucesterhire Wildlife Trust’s Daneway Banks Nature Reserve Management Committee.

These four people, whom I had the pleasure to know, work with and learn from, represent the essence of wildlife conservation. Each person was pragmatic, knowledgeable, hugely enthusiastic and very modest. Their legacy has been a nature that is richer and more enjoyable as a result of their dedication.

The natural world is all around us, and we can all make a lasting impact in our own way. Legacies for nature are long lasting and give value beyond any financial figure that could be placed on them.

A Long Road

The elusive prize for both farmers and badger lovers is the prevention of bovine TB (bTB) in cattle and badgers. The current policy of improved bTB cattle testing, tighter cattle movement regulation, on farm bio-security (separating badgers and cattle) and some farmer compensation for infected cattle is showing results. However, the development of a vaccine for badgers and cattle would make a real and lasting difference.

That prospect is beginning to become real with the Badger Vaccine Deployment Programme that DEFRA is commencing this year. Two study areas in Gloucestershire will see the first field trials of an injected vaccine for badgers. Subsequently, another four areas will be receiving badger vaccines. A skilled group of badger innoculators will be trained during the trials.

Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust has been involved with the testing phase of the badger vaccine by permitting its usage on badgers within one of its nature reserves. The Trust is now registered as part of the vaccine trials and will actively support the vaccination of badgers on selected nature reserves. Full details of this programme are still becoming available (more information on this subject is available here) but the eventual outcome should be badger social groups that have significant immunity to bTB following five consecutive years of vaccination. The fully developed vaccine will not be cheap, for farmers or wildlife conservation groups, but the results should be worthy of the outlay.

Eventually the badger vaccine may become available as an oral treatment; badgers find peanuts an irresistible treat! The development of an injectable vaccine for cattle will take longer but the first trials might be possible by 2016. This is a very big prize at the end of a long and difficult path; not quite the yellow brick road, but equally mysterious.

Badger by Wildstock

The Golden Hoof

Fluffy lambs are one of the popular images of spring and I saw some very cuddly examples on my visit to the Trust’s Daneway Banks Nature Reserve. The importance of lambs to wildlife is that grassland is not the natural vegetation for most of England and without efficient munching machines flower-rich sites like Daneway rapidly turn from grassland to scrub to woodland.

Sheep are very fine graziers, referred to by my mum-in-law as the ‘golden hoof’. Daneway Banks is a very important site for orchids and butterflies and our new lamb recruits will bring the flock up to 40. By grazing carefully at the right times of year we will be able to sustain the wildlife interest without loosing the wildflowers.

We are particularly lucky to have a partner for our Daneway flock. Grazing livestock is expensive and needs constant attention. Richard Goodfellow, the landlord of the wonderful Daneway Inn, is our perfect ally. He lives next door to the nature reserve, owns and cares for the rare Norfolk Horn sheep and keeps a very fine beer cellar.

Richard has made all the difference to helping us achieve our ovine ambitions. The reserve is already looking much better for the attention that it has received and providing we have a warm and sunny summer, the rare and exquisite Large Blue Butterfly will benefit enormously from the short sweet Cotswold turf that Richard’s sheep are maintaining.

I heartily recommend a visit to the Daneway Inn. Great food, good ales, safe parking and three of the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s nature reserves all within safe walking distance. May and June are the best times for the flowers and butterflies. But at any time of year this has to be one of Gloucestershire’s gems.

Sleepy natives and waking aliens

The allotment that Margaret and I have looked after in Cam for the last 18 years is beginning to look very promising after the long cold winter. Our broad beans are just showing their heads and promise a good crop, voles and pigeons permitting. Margaret’s narcissi are blooming profusely, and a particularly early rhubarb given to us by neighbor Roy Chinn is threatening numerous crumbles.

However, it is the emergence of my ‘big fat female’ which has given me my biggest thrill. Each year one particular carpet proves to be the sun lounger of choice for our slow worm matriarch and for a couple of weeks she can be found hiding beneath this cover every day, warming gently in the spring sun. She has been there now for 10 days and it will not be long before her fabulous brazen babies spread quietly across our plots. Sheer magic!

Not quite so magical are the forty or more harlequin ladybirds that I have just seen basking in the sun here at Robinswood Hill. It was only in 2006 that Margaret saw the first adult ever recorded in Gloucestershire in our garden (her picture is above). Now they are widespread and the colony that I have been watching has passed the winter sheltering beneath an information sign.

Harlequins are attractive, but they are not native and are as partial to dining on our native ladybirds as they are on any other insect of the right size. The spread of this insect is a text book example of an animal invader and is a frightening indicator of what might be in store for our native wildlife beset by climate change and isolated on shrinking habitats.

The systematic recording of this alien is extremely well recorded in www.harlequin-survey.org I recommend this site as an example of how just how good species recording can be when the power of the web is properly utilized.

Read last year's slow worm post here.

Selling the story of a Living Landscape

The Cotswold Water Park is a constructed landscape created from the gravel digging that has steadily gathered economic importance since World War 2. The result is the largest aggregation of gravel pits in England; a significantly larger body of water than the nationally famous Norfolk Broads.

However, like the Broads, these manmade wetlands have become so important for wildlife that there are now of international Interest.The water park is economically vibrant and is in essence, an example of the Living Landscape vision that the wildlife trusts are promoting; a holistic ecosystem approach that melds environment, economy and peoiple.

The choice of the Four Pillars Hotel, located at the centre of the park, was a very appropriate location for The Wildlife Trusts national Marketing conference. Staff and volunteers, including the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s chair Hugh Tollemache, spent two very busy days working together on the important communication challenge of selling Living Landscapes in a clear and understandable way.

The 47 Wildlife Trusts achieve a tremendous amount. No other wildlife conservation charities achieve more at a local level. Our national work is equally impressive. The recent Marine and Coastal Access Act resulted from the well informed and well supported campaigns the trusts ran. It is just that our combined strength of almost 800,000 members and UK level work is not well enough known.

Effective marketing and clear communications are critical to the future success of the trusts. Gloucestershire is very fortunate in having a Wildlife Trust with a very effective marketing team. The conference benefited from their expertise too.

Cotswold Water Park Key Wildlife Statistics

• Aquatic macrophytes: European importance
• Wintering waterbirds: National & internation importance
• Breeding waterbirds: National importance
• 10 SSSI lakes & 6 SSSI Grasslands (including 2 SACs/1NNR)

Signs of Spring

Spring has many messengers, but for me the chiffchaff is the most powerful both aurally and symbolically. This small LBJ (little brown job to quote birder jargon) makes a huge journey for such a tiny creature. Chiffchaffs winter in southern and western Europe and North Africa. In common with other spring migrants, their arrival is timed to coincide with the rapid increase in their insect food that occurs as temperatures rise and days lengthen.

My chiffchaff gave only a few experimental calls this morning and was definitely out of practice when compared to the robins, wrens and dunnock that were in full song. But perhaps I might be a bit off key if I had just made the same journey using just my own energy and determination. Wikipedia provides a good explanation of the ways of this little warbler.

However, no matter how much I might be thrilled by my chiffchaff, it falls into second place as an unusual experience compared to that relayed to me by my wife last week. Sitting behind my desk, churning through emails and papers, I was amazed to hear from Margaret that she had seen a water rail foraging on the ground under our bird feeders!

From Encyclopedia Britannica:

The water rail (Rallus aquaticus) is a slender marsh bird of the family Rallidae (order Gruiformes), native to most of Europe and Asia. Its length is about 28 cm (11 inches), and it has a moderately long beak. The sides of the bird have black and white bands. The name water rail also is used as a general term for the larger group, or tribe, to which R. aquaticus belongs. Rallus aquaticus can be distinguished from the tribe Rallini by its relatively long beak.

Working for a Wildlife Trust, the proud manager of four fantastic square miles of Gloucestershire, does not mean that I either have the time to visit these 60 nature reserves or be successful in spotting the shy or rare residents. My local patch is where I get the most pleasure from wildlife sightings. Margaret’s water rail was only 100 meters from my chiffchaff. The area is an overgrown field with brambles, hedgerow trees, two fantatstic oaks and the clean and sparkling River Cam. This emphasises the real value of green sites in towns and villages. Nature reserves are important but they are part of the rich mosaic of sites that are critical if wildlife is to survive and people are to benefit spiritually from experiencing it.

Oh and I am still envious of Margaret’s bird – I have never seen one!

Women in Work - Lantra Learner of the Year

Baroness Prosser, vice chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission, spoke passionately as keynote speaker at the celebratory dinner held by Lantra to mark the third year of its Women in Work programme. She stressed the historic inequalities that still persist within our society that make career fulfilment more difficult for women employees than men.

It is ironic that women still do not fit well with conventional employment patterns when they have such potential to improve the UK’s performance as a mature economy. My experience as the Chief Executive with the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust is that women are excellent team workers and communicate well in busy work places. Our workforce of 40, full and part time, is predominately female, talented, energetic and committed. Employers miss out on huge potential by not modifying work roles to make them women friendly where this is possible.

The Government funded Women in Work sector pathway has enabled Lantra to support over 880 women to access training and mentoring is support of their jobs. Two of my team in Gloucestershire benefited from the support and were very grateful for the support that they received.

The overall winner of Lantra’s Women In Work award was Tracy Guiller who found that training as a forester lifted her depression and resulted in her finding a new job. Tracey’s experience is a great reminder of the importance of mentoring and the value that can accrue when opportunity is fully supported.

"Learning how to fell these massive trees really did something to me. It was as if my depression was felled too. I think the hard physical work in a peaceful woodland and the achievement of passing a difficult course lifted me mentally, emotionally and spiritually."

Tracey Guiller

Too Great a Price?

The River Room of the House of Lords is an extremely pleasant venue and an excellent location for the launch of The Wildlife Trusts report Energy at Any Price. The event had been organised to coincide with a very high tidal bore - a likely casualty of a full barrage across the river Severn. The event was hosted by Baroness Young of Old Scone, and Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer.

I was most struck when Stephanie Hilborne, CEO of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, mentioned in her speech that half her lifetime ago the subject of the barrage had been discussed in detail by staff at the University of Bristol where she was then an undergraduate. It struck me forcibly because 21 years ago I was one of the audience at Bristol University listening to Sir Hermann Bondi reporting on issues relating to a proposed barrage. Bondi had been asked by the then government to investigate the implication of building and running a structure designed to extract tidal energy from the Severn, the river with the world’s second highest tidal range.

The essence of the Bondi Report, and the issues that still remain unresolved 21 years later are simple. A huge concrete structure with electricity generating tidal turbines is old technology and not necessarily the most appropriate for the job, and the impact of such a gigantic structure on an estuary that is of local, national, European and Global environmental importance is simply not understood.

The Wildlife Trusts report argues very persuasively that if the UK is to spend 10s of billions of pounds, irreversibly changing one of its greatest environmental assets irreversibly, it must do so wisely and on the basis of accurate scientific data. We are all aware that climate change is forcing us to move to energy production that does not involve burning fossilised sunlight (coal, gas, tar sands or oil). However, this change must not be at any price and tidal power generation from the Severn must make the best use of a precious environmental asset. The Severn Estuary deserves our full respect, much more research is needed before an over hasty decision is made on political grounds,

Energy at Any Price can be downloaded by clicking here.

Too Tweet?

Garden birds are a great source of joy to most people. For a modest sum, it is possible to increase the frequency of visits and the range of avian visitors by providing quality food in bird feeders. In terms of value for money, there are few better shows than finches, tits, thrushes and dunnock.

Wild bird food is available widely from garden centres, pet shops and even supermarkets. But the best value is to be found from the specialist suppliers who retail via their catalogues and online sites. Vine House Farm has gone one further than most companies by supporting The Wildlife Trusts with 5% of sales.

I purchased my Mother's Day gift - 56kg of premium finch mix and 'Ultimate Energy' for ground feeders - from them. I was very impressed with the speed of delivery and the pleasant telephone manner of the patient approach of their sales staff (you have to be when I am a customer). Free delivery of the three bags of food that I ordered occurred two days later. I am hoping the birds are as impressed as I was.

Vine House farm may be contacted on 01775 630208 or online at:

www.vinehousefarm.co.uk

Pictured here with my Mother's Day gift!

Fired with Enthusiasm

Wildlife Trusts have two great assets: their nature reserves and their people. Our recent staff day out at Greystones Farm Nature Reserve combined these impressively.

If I had written a list of objectives for the day, I doubt that I would have aimed as high as what actually happened. Not least because the weather on the high Cotswolds can be unpredictable. How lucky we were!

The task that 30 staff attended to was to help with clearing the huge piles of hedgerow thinnings that have been built by visiting volunteer groups. Because the site is a nationally important Site of Special Scientific Interest, we had to work carefully in line with our English Nature licence. This meant that our bonfires had to be contained within limited areas and built onto protective galvanised sheeting.

Despite the enthusiastic work put in by the staff, half of whom are primarily office based, we still left much work for Reserve Manager, Amy and her volunteers to finish by the end of March. What we did achieve however, was:

• Great team work
• Activity and exercise
• Increased understanding of nature reserve management
• Fun
• Enthusiasm for our sandwich lunch

I had a great time, and it reinforced to me why I still love working in Gloucestershire and why The Wildlife Trusts are so good at involving people with wildlife.

The Environment Cannot be Taken for Granted

I have been a lapsed blogger for too many months. The downside of being busy and doing lots of interesting things is not finding the time to share the experiences and (occasional) thoughts.

To get things going again, here is a piece that is featured in the current Lantra Connect magazine, available here.

The environment can not be taken for granted

warns Dr Gordon McGlone OBE, Chairman of Lantra

Having worked as an ecologist/conservationist for over 30 years, I sometimes feel as if I am part of the PR team for the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Messages describing the increasing pressures and strains placed on our environment are not welcome, especially when there might be a perception that farming is part of the problem. But it underlines why this is such a priority sector for us all.

Today, the dark riders of population growth, urbanisation, increasing energy demand and climate change are reflected in daily media stories and represent a huge challenge to the health and well-being of our society and environment. This means there is a much greater awareness that the environment is not to be taken for granted.

In all good tales, there is always a talisman of hope and here the good news is skills. Lantra, as one of the most effective of the Sector Skills Councils, is working increasingly closely with the UK’s environmental and land-based industries to support the development of skills and business practice that will be essential for them to adapt to and benefit from future change.

Global population has now reached seven billion, an increase of three billion in the last 50 years and by 2050 there will be another three billion consumers. Most of us now live in towns and cities, and urban consumers expect a more protein-rich diet than subsistence rural communities. The result is an increasing demand for crop production that is growing even faster than the number of people.

The UK’s farmers are being asked to contribute to the nation’s food and fuel security by aiming to double their productivity in future – a difficult task requiring great skill to boost production without increasing pressure on fragile and fragmented land, freshwater and marine wildlife communities. Lantra is uniquely placed to maintain a UK overview of the many integrated industries that are responsible for managing our crops, biofuels, forestry, game and biodiversity.

Potentially the darkest of today’s horsemen is climate change. Despite our recent winter weather the underlying global climate continues to warm inexorably. Worryingly, the lack of progress at the Copenhagen summit means that the UK may have a temperature rise of 3ºc by 2050. This is perilously close to the point at which Southern Europe begins to see its agriculture and horticulture decline significantly, making food security an even greater need.

These four negative forces mean that Lantra has a critically important role in this changing nation. We must all learn to develop and deploy new skills to enable our environment and land-based industries to adapt, and Lantra is uniquely placed to ensure that the right skills are developed in the right way. The prize for future investment in skills and business practice is to maintain our fertile islands and their inshore marine ecosystems as the world class assets we sometimes take for granted.