1/ The Wild Bird Indicators, using BTO data, have been updated today by Defra! ⬇️ Sadly, the ‘all bird species’ index, comprising the population trends of 130 species, has been in a slow continuous decline in the UK since the 1970s, down by 18% and by 4% in the last five years. 📉 #Ornithology

New review: #Pesticides have negative effects on non-target organisms "we show negative responses of the growth, reproduction, behaviour and other biomarkers within terrestrial and aquatic systems" "results question the sustainability of current pesticide use" www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Pesticides have negative effects on non-target organisms - Nature Communications

Pesticides affect a diverse range of non-target species and the magnitude of this hazard remains only partially understood. Wan et al. found that insecticides, fungicides and herbicides have negative ...

nature.com

Draining the world's peatlands for farming and mining is releasing so much CO2 that if it was a country, it would be the 4th biggest polluter in the world after China, the US, + India. And the associated losses in biodiversity are vast. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

World’s largely unprotected peatlands are ticking ‘carbon bomb’, warns study

Bogs and swamps are a colossal carbon store but their continued destruction would blow climate change targets

theguardian.com

Liz Truss called solar farms a “blight on the landscape”, but researchers have found they are actually better for birds than farmland Solar farms in East Anglia had greater bird diversity & bird abundance than nearby arable land, a study finds Paper here later www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

You have to love Bluesky, where a post about hedges blows up.

Nathan Nelson@nathannelson.co.uk · 2y ago

#Hedgerows increase soil carbon storage by 40% (and that's in addition to their value for crop protection, livestock health, biodiversity, pollution sequestration and prevention of runoff and soil erosion) www.leeds.ac.uk/main-index/n...

"Humanity’s war on nature is ultimately a war on ourselves. It’s time for the world to adopt a far-reaching biodiversity framework — a true peace pact with nature — and deliver a green, healthy future for all." @antonioguterres No time to wait. #ActOnClimate #biodiversity

@alicegroom.bsky.social : In winning the argument with treasury, there's an opportunity to talk about capital vs revenue. They're more open to capital investment and more nervous about revenue. So that's an in. #GAevent

@alicegroom.bsky.social : the government are missing a trick. There are opportunities to take some of the well paying options within the SFI and start that transition. #GAevent

⏰ #GAevent starting in one hour ⏰ Featuring: @lydiacollas.bsky.social , head of natural environment at Green Alliance; Daniel Zeichner MP; farmers Tim Coates and Naomi Oakley; and @alicegroom.bsky.social , head of farming at @rspb.bsky.social . Can't make it? Stay tuned for live updates 🧵 ✅

Lydia is now joined for a panel by two farmers featured in today's report Tim Coates and Naomi Oakley, from Dunthrop Farm and Challacombe Farm, respectively, and @alicegroom.bsky.social , head of farming at @rspb.bsky.social . #GAevent

Q: What did you want to hear in the ministers speech that you didn't hear? @alicegroom.bsky.social : Need a metric system that can give certainty on what's needed, and some confidence. #GAevent

📢 THREAD: How Environmental Land Management Scheme Can Halt Farmland Bird Declines in England ?🐦🌾

Looking forward to the Oxford Farming Conference starting tomorrow. First session 'Farmers Weekly Question Time' where I will be discussing the importance of government support for nature friendly farming www.fwi.co.uk/sp/questiont...

The increasing use of the Farming Resilience Fund shows how vulnerability farming is to climate change. Government must support a transition to nature and climate friendly farming

Carbon Brief@carbonbrief.org · 2y ago

Revealed: English farmers received record-high flood relief after last winter’s extreme rain | @orladwyer.carbonbrief.org w/ comment from @alicegroom.bsky.social @tommlancaster.bsky.social Rachel Hallos Read here: https://buff.ly/3ZpS6Uo

THREAD🌾Defra latest announcement claims they have injected £343M into UK Farming last week, are working on a 25 year roadmap and are relaunching Higher tier in 2025🌾BUT whats behind the headlines - lets get into it 🧵 www.gov.uk/government/n...

Rural boost: Government injects nearly £350 million into farming in boost to Britain’s food security

Government injects £343 million of funding into the rural economy last week, benefiting more than 31,000 farmers.

gov.uk

Thread: The UK's biggest green groups join force to write to Defra SoS Steve Reed calling for a fairer, nature friendly future for farming 🌍🌾 www.wcl.org.uk/docs/farming... @rspb.bsky.social @wclnews.bsky.social @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social @wwf.org.uk @nationaltrust.bsky.social

1/🚨 New analysis from @ECIU_UK highlights the urgent need to scale up the Countryside Stewardship “higher tier” scheme.🚨 🧵⬇️

Thread : @DefraUK has paused access to some of their farming capital grants - but why? Let's get into it defrafarming.blog.gov.uk/2024/11/27/a...

An update on capital grants

As a result of unprecedented demand, some of the capital grant offers for farmers has temporarily closed to new applications. In this post, we summarise the changes to capital grants.

defrafarming.blog.gov.uk

🌿 Thread: DEFRA confirms ‘mirror’ agreements to avoid gaps in environmental rewards, but why is this even necessary? Let’s unpack the history and urgency of reforming Higher Tier environmental schemes. 👇

We need a farming system in the UK that puts nature at the heart and rewards farmers for protecting the natural environment. Key to that is ensuring that government creates schemes that reward genuine nature friendly farming, and that these are sufficiently well funded.

In our latest blog, senior political adviser @lucypegg.bsky.social asks: can Defra prove that nature-friendly farming is value for money? greenallianceblog.org.uk/2024/11/13/c...

Can Defra prove that nature-friendly farming is value for money?

Ahead of Rachel Reeves’ first budget, speculation was rife about funding for farming. Underspends during the Conservatives’ tenure had left many nervous across both the farming and environment sect…

greenallianceblog.org.uk

My first day on blue sky - let get of to a positive start!