The Government published its 25 year Environment Plan in January 2018 with a commitment to review and update it every five years.  The first was published last month, The Environment Improvement Plan 2023.  It reiterates many of the targets in the original document although some of them have become somewhat less ambitious.  For example, a pledge to halve the emissions of five air pollutants by 2030 has been replaced by amended targets some of which extend to 2040.  When the Secretary of State was challenged on this, she replied that any target must be achievable.

            As in the original plan, there are ten goals in total, covering clean air and water, reducing pollution, improving the use of resources, mitigation of climate change, enhancing biosecurity and health, heritage and engagement with the natural environment.  Overarching all these is the ‘apex goal’ of thriving plants and wildlife with the pledge to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030 and then increase abundance by at least 10% of 2022 levels by 2042.  To achieve this, targets include the restoration or creation of 500,000 hectares of wildlife rich habitat by 2042, restoration or creation of 140,000 hectares of wildlife rich habitat outside protected sites by 2028 and increase woodland cover from 14.5% to 16.5% of total land area in England by 2050.  There is also the international commitment to protect 30% of land and ocean by 2030.          

As the chimes of Big Ben usher in a New Year, as you savour the glass of fizz in front of a log fire to keep out the winter chill, it is traditional to look back at the months past and forward to the year to come.

            2022 was an unprecedented year for many reasons.  The impact of the Covid pandemic declined at least in terms of personal freedom and the threat of serious illness but left a legacy of rapidly rising inflation.  This was exacerbated massively by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February.  The immediate effect was a huge increase in the price of oil and gas but, perhaps the most dramatic from a farmer’s point of view, was a quadrupling of the price of ammonium nitrate fertiliser.  Even as the price of oil has eased slightly, the cost of fertiliser is still at least double what it was eighteen months ago.

Life must have been grim under Oliver Cromwell’s puritan regime during the Commonwealth of the 1650s.  Even Christmas was abolished.  Mind you, life is fairly gloomy today with one Christmas effectively cancelled caused by Covid lockdowns, paralysis of many public services, especially transport, and a squeeze on household budgets due to high inflation.  But back in 1660, with the restoration of Charles II, Christmas was revived and, over the years, became more of an excuse for a secular festival than a religious celebration.

Christmas is a time of joy, of roaring log fires, of family gatherings.  Over three or four days, we eat and drink too much, we exchange gifts and visit members of our families whom we see rarely at other times of year.  What began as a couple of days off has become a fortnight’s holiday, two weeks when the whole country closes down.

            In the commercial razzmatazz, we tend to lose the real point of Christmas.  Even the tradition of Christmas carols has become so hackneyed, with piped versions playing in all shopping precincts, that few ever consider the words or the meaning they convey.  A decreasing number of us go to church to celebrate the birth of Christ and spread the message of ‘peace on earth, goodwill toward men’.  There is precious little sign of that in the Holy Land where it all began two thousand years ago but, then, neither side is Christian. 

It was during the Covid lockdowns that the benefit to health and wellbeing of fresh air and exercise became more widely recognised.  Leaving home for a walk was one of the few legitimate reasons to breach the curfew.

            We have an extensive network of rights of way in England, over 140,000 miles of footpaths, bridleway and byways.  They are recorded on the Definitive Map which is maintained by local authorities and came into existence due to the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949.  Most were recorded in the 1950s when there were far fewer using them than there are today.  As a result, it might be argued that not enough care was taken to ensure that they gave appropriate access to the countryside.  Certainly, many are not in the best place for the recreational user of the 21^st century, leading straight through a busy commercial farmyard for example.