Banter 35: Biosphere Reserves, 04Sep24, Chris McFarlina

Chris explains about Biosphere Reserves globally, nationally, and then in detail for the Forest of Dean - one of seven reserves in the UK

https://youtu.be/1Zw2bvFVaYoyoutu.be

Video Timeline (min:sec):

00:00 - 11:08 Introductory Banter

11:08 - 48:05 Presentation

48:06 - 68:53 (end) Q&A

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Presentation:

No presentation this session - please refer to the video

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Meeting Summary:

The meeting covered various topics, including the potential designation of the Forest of Dean as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and the challenges faced by local industries. Discussions also focused on sustainable development, agroecology, and the benefits of creating wildlife corridors and reintroducing species. Participants explored the economic and environmental impacts of these initiatives, as well as the importance of community engagement and stakeholder cooperation.

Chris to continue promoting and developing the Forest of Dean Biosphere Reserve proposal

Chris to work with local planning authorities to incorporate biosphere principles into development plans

Chris to engage with MPs and other stakeholders to build support for the biosphere project

Chris to explore possibilities for reintroducing species like bison and lynx to the Forest of Dean

Chris to continue collaborating with the Forestry Commission on wildlife reintroduction projects

Chris to investigate ways to address issues with intensive poultry farming in the area

Chris to work on expanding the network of farm clusters practicing regenerative agriculture

Chris to explore opportunities for sustainable tourism development in the Forest of Dean

Chris to continue efforts to protect and restore unique habitats like the Slad Brook SSSI

Wood Industry Challenges and Parish Online

Chris discussed his interest in wood and the challenges faced by local industries competing with larger operations importing timber. Graham mentioned starting sessions with Parish Online and introduced Tristram, who joined the same day. Chris suggested showing underwater slides from his presentation. tristram shared insights on structural timber uses. Mike expressed interest in exploring a similar project for the Brecon Beaches National Park after learning about Chris's work.

Addressing Climate and Biodiversity Challenges in Grazing

The meeting discusses the challenges of managing land for grazing and the need for a paradigm shift to address climate and biodiversity crises. Participants highlight the difficulties of buying rights from farmers and the success of Keith Powell, a farmer and vet, in getting communities to plant trees and wild plants. The discussion recognizes that current efforts are insufficient and a more strategic approach is needed to fund and replicate successful initiatives. Chris discusses the benefits of developing farm clusters for regenerative agriculture and peer-to-peer learning among farmers. Mike shares an initiative involving a cluster of farmers transitioning to sustainable practices.

Forest of Dean UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Discussion

Chris, a parish, district, and county councillor in Gloucestershire, discussed the potential for the Forest of Dean to be designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. He explained that the Biosphere Reserve program aims to reconcile the protection of nature and its sustainable use, particularly with indigenous people. Chris mentioned that they have recently employed an officer to research and develop a public consultation for the Forest of Dean's potential designation. He also shared his experiences from the Galapagos Islands, one of the first Biosphere Reserves, and the challenges and opportunities that come with such a designation.

Developing Biosphere Reserve and Species Reintroduction

Chris discussed developing a biosphere reserve in the Forest of Dean, mentioning the reintroduction of beavers to mitigate flooding and the return of species like the goshawk, pine marten, and lesser butterfly orchid. He noted the decline of red squirrels due to grey squirrels and the possibility of reintroducing red squirrels to benefit forestry. Chris also highlighted the declining populations of salmon, glass eels, and other species due to habitat destruction, pollution, and blockages, emphasizing the importance of conservation efforts like reintroduction programs and habitat restoration. He referred to a 1972 report warning about unsustainable growth of population, economies, and resource exploitation.

Man and the Biosphere Program Overview

Chris discusses the Man and the Biosphere program, a global network of biosphere reserves that promote sustainable living. He explains the program's zoning methodology: a core zone for wildlife protection, a buffer zone for education and recreation, and a transition zone for urban development. Chris highlights the Forest of Dean as an example, where international cooperation and resources help manage issues like wild boars. He emphasizes the need for stakeholder coordination and cooperation in managing these reserves.

Agroecology, Sustainable Development, and Natural Resource Management

Chris discussed the benefits of agroecology and sustainable development, emphasizing the importance of reconnecting people with nature. He highlighted the potential of wood pastures for grazing, carbon sequestration, and habitat protection. Chris also mentioned the benefits of market gardening and local gardening, as well as the potential for sustainable timber production through coppicing. He discussed the importance of natural flood management and the potential for restoring salt marshes to cope with rising sea levels. Chris also touched on the challenges to unique habitats in the Forest of Dean and the potential for rewilding. He concluded by emphasizing the need for better coordination in managing these natural resources.

Biosphere Reserve Benefits and Sustainable Development

Chris discussed the potential benefits of a biosphere reserve in the Forest of Dean, including the reintroduction of European bison and other species to improve the ecosystem and diversify the landscape. He also highlighted the economic benefits of such a reserve, citing a study by the Office for National Statistics that found a return of nearly four pounds for every pound invested. Chris emphasized the importance of sustainable development and leaving a legacy for future generations. tristram asked about the process of obtaining biosphere status and the legal protection it provides, to which Chris explained that it's an international recognition of active protection by local communities and doesn't have legal powers but can influence the planning system.

Addressing Industrial Impact on Environment and Wildlife

The meeting revolved around concerns about the impact of industrial developments on the environment and wildlife. John expressed worry about the encroachment of noble foods on the rare temperate rainforest and the potential for zoonotic diseases. Chris agreed with John's concerns and mentioned his efforts to control the expansion of noble foods through planning conditions. Graham suggested the potential for a stronger voice through collaboration and networking. Chris emphasized the urgency of the situation, highlighting the mass extinction of species and the need for urgent action. The conversation ended with a discussion on the potential for a biosphere project to address these concerns.

Defining Regional Boundaries and Forest Management

Tim discussed the challenges of defining a region's boundaries, emphasizing the importance of stakeholder cooperation and community engagement in response to development pressures. Chris clarified that the Forest of Dean is under the public forest estate managed by the Forestry Commission, which makes around 1.5 to 2 million pounds a year. Chris also mentioned the potential of selling the forest to outside organizations for immediate cash returns, and the Forest of Dean Biosphere Project he initiated. He highlighted the potential benefits of such projects, including economic sustainability and the creation of wildlife corridors. Chris also discussed his efforts to reintroduce beavers and pine martens into the environment, and his interest in reintroducing bison. Graham thanked Chris for his presentation and encouraged others to review it for future discussions.

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Chat text:

00:39:08 John Payne: Our Wilding project in the Forest of Dean on a 4.7ha poor quality grazing pasture field is going ahead, it’s adjacent to Puzzlewood

00:42:41 John Payne: The most important Biosphere in the FOD are our woods and Puzzlewood which have been designated as Rare Temperate Rainforest. Unbelievably Noble Foods is adjacent to these woods and Bat SSSI, they are today directing their 44 tonne Lorries through Clearwell Today I referred Noble Foods to Leigh Day

00:57:18 Mike E - Hay Community Resilience: Limits to Growth came out the same year - a few months before Small is Beautiful.

01:19:55 John Payne: The test for a FOD biosphere is to have proactive planning control. Otherwise environmental groups will have to participate in direct action. I had to stop a 44tonne HGV going through the village and over unstable caverns on Monday. Organisations like Highways and NE are not helpful as they see hassle and legal challenges from predatory industries like the Intensive Poultry units. Having 27,000 HGV units/yr into the FOD is unsustainable

01:29:35 Peter Anderson: We saw the Wilding Movie documenting the re-wilding journey of the Knepp Estate last night .. https://www.wildingmovie.com/ .. wondering how much this project has been an inspiration to Chris and the FoD Biosphere project?

01:32:08 David Morgan-Jones: Thank you very much for a fascinating presentation, but I need to move to another meeting.

01:32:54 Garry Ford: Thanks, very interesting presentation.

01:33:10 Peter Anderson: the Knepp Wilding movie didn't touch on the business models used to sustain their 5sq/mile estate. I would be good to better understand these.

01:35:34 John Payne: The EWCO grants for natural colonisation operate differently from the Kneep Estate. They exclude wildlife with a deer fence when in the Wilding process grazing animals are used. The most important part of Wilding is the creation of Wildlife Corridors like Treescape who want to link the Severn to the River Wyre ( not Wye!) which is up by Kidderminster

01:39:05 Peter Anderson: It took the Knepp Estate almost 10 years to gain a licence for beavers!

01:39:58 Mike E - Hay Community Resilience: Thanks Chris - really interesting and I’ll see if I can find a suitable potential champion amongst those I’m networking with here on this side of the border in Wales… maybe you might give me a short set of bullet points of how to define a potential Biosphere area here in Wales?

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AI summary of speech:

WEBVTT

00:31:22.000 --> 00:31:33.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: I started off doing what I call these banter sessions with a completely separate product. There's a little mapping. Oh, Tristram is the guy who runs the company. Good morning, Tristram.

00:31:34.000 --> 00:31:36.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Your your ears were burning.

00:31:37.000 --> 00:31:38.000 tristram cary: Who's.

00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:46.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yours. I was just telling Chris that um, I started the Banta Sessions with parish online. And here you are.

00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:47.000 tristram cary: Yeah. Good. Hi, Chris.

00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:47.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Uh right.

00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:49.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Ah!

00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:49.000 Chris McFarling: Yeah. Hiya.

00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:51.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Uh.

00:31:51.000 --> 00:31:57.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Tristram is yet another person who joined the navy the same day. Chris, so.

00:31:57.000 --> 00:31:58.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Um.

00:31:57.000 --> 00:31:59.000 Chris McFarling: Goodness, goodness, but we.

00:31:58.000 --> 00:32:01.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Chris. Chris is in the forest. 15.

00:31:59.000 --> 00:32:02.000 Chris McFarling: I I could change the presentation totally.

00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:07.000 Chris McFarling: And show some underwater slides, underwater pictures.

00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:08.000 tristram cary: That'd be as nice as I was a submariner. Huh!

00:32:09.000 --> 00:32:12.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Chris is um in the forest of Dean.

00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:13.000 Chris McFarling: Yeah.

00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:14.000 tristram cary: Hey, yes. Yeah. Yeah.

00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:21.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: where the leader of the Green party there is Adrian Birch, who I don't know if you came across him at Dartmouth.

00:32:21.000 --> 00:32:24.000 tristram cary: No, I didn't think I did. Yes, I did. He's a member.

00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:26.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: But no, he was a he was supplementary list, so we didn't talk to him anyway.

00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:26.000 tristram cary: Yeah.

00:32:29.000 --> 00:32:30.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Ah!

00:32:31.000 --> 00:32:34.000 tristram cary: But it looks like you've got portals in your house, Chris.

00:32:34.000 --> 00:32:35.000 tristram cary: Very um very naval.

00:32:34.000 --> 00:32:37.000 Chris McFarling: No, this is just a backdropper.

00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:41.000 Chris McFarling: Um. I I like. I like the the sort of hobby.

00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:38.000 tristram cary: Hi.

00:32:41.000 --> 00:32:42.000 Chris McFarling: Hobbit feel of.

00:32:41.000 --> 00:32:42.000 tristram cary: Yeah.

00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:46.000 Chris McFarling: Of the circles, and it just it's good on the eye, isn't it? It's.

00:32:46.000 --> 00:32:47.000 tristram cary: Yeah.

00:32:46.000 --> 00:32:48.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: It's. It's. It's very easy.

00:32:47.000 --> 00:32:48.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:51.000 Chris McFarling: Once you get used to it.

00:32:51.000 --> 00:32:52.000 Chris McFarling: And then you look at.

00:32:52.000 --> 00:32:56.000 Chris McFarling: Traditional and traditional buildings, with their hard edges.

00:32:56.000 --> 00:32:59.000 Chris McFarling: And and you know squares and.

00:32:59.000 --> 00:33:01.000 Chris McFarling: Problems, you you.

00:33:01.000 --> 00:33:03.000 Chris McFarling: You, you can actually feel that.

00:33:04.000 --> 00:33:07.000 Chris McFarling: We're not. We're not really catering for the.

00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:10.000 Chris McFarling: But the subconscious of the of the human soul.

00:33:11.000 --> 00:33:12.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

00:33:12.000 --> 00:33:17.000 Chris McFarling: You know these, this it's it's all hard edge. Everything you look at is square.

00:33:17.000 --> 00:33:21.000 Chris McFarling: And yet in nature it's not. It's all curved and.

00:33:19.000 --> 00:33:21.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Nothing is fair. Yeah.

00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:22.000 tristram cary: Well, sure!

00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:22.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: 2.

00:33:23.000 --> 00:33:31.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Tristan. I also wanted to mention you to Chris, because he's very interested in wood and structural uses of wood.

00:33:23.000 --> 00:33:24.000 tristram cary: It's a.

00:33:31.000 --> 00:33:32.000 tristram cary: There he is!

00:33:31.000 --> 00:33:33.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Thought the 2 of you should get together.

00:33:34.000 --> 00:33:35.000 Chris McFarling: Hmm.

00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.000 tristram cary: Well, I'm I'm no expert, but I've I did quite a lot of research, and I found some nice um.

00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:46.000 tristram cary: Documents about about you know how to why structural timber is so important, and the benefits and all that stuff.

00:33:47.000 --> 00:33:50.000 Chris McFarling: Well, I've got a slide in the presentation, which is about.

00:33:47.000 --> 00:33:48.000 tristram cary: I hope.

00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:52.000 Chris McFarling: Um blue lamp.

00:33:52.000 --> 00:33:53.000 tristram cary: Oh, yeah.

00:33:53.000 --> 00:33:54.000 Chris McFarling: And I'll.

00:33:54.000 --> 00:34:00.000 Chris McFarling: I'll explain it in the in the presentation. Obviously, it's 1 example of what we could. We would call.

00:33:57.000 --> 00:33:58.000 tristram cary: Yeah.

00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:03.000 Chris McFarling: True, sustainable development, which is what.

00:34:01.000 --> 00:34:02.000 tristram cary: No.

00:34:03.000 --> 00:34:05.000 Chris McFarling: Biosphere reserves tend to champion.

00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:10.000 tristram cary: But you know the Structural Timber Association. That's what that's my main source. They're very good.

00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:06.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

00:34:09.000 --> 00:34:12.000 Chris McFarling: No, no, I don't. I I spoke to.

00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:13.000 Chris McFarling: A company.

00:34:14.000 --> 00:34:17.000 Chris McFarling: In. I can't remember where they are now in the in the Black Country. Maybe.

00:34:17.000 --> 00:34:20.000 Chris McFarling: That were were doing this, and I said, Look.

00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:22.000 Chris McFarling: Can it be scaled down to.

00:34:22.000 --> 00:34:26.000 Chris McFarling: You know the Forest of Dean? And they said, Oh, no, no, no.

00:34:26.000 --> 00:34:28.000 Chris McFarling: And it suddenly occurred to me that they.

00:34:28.000 --> 00:34:31.000 Chris McFarling: They were, they felt that we might be competing with them.

00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:34.000 Chris McFarling: But at at a local scale.

00:34:34.000 --> 00:34:36.000 Chris McFarling: And um.

00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:41.000 Chris McFarling: Yeah. And and there are all sorts of things. I mean, they were importing large.

00:34:41.000 --> 00:34:42.000 Chris McFarling: On!

00:34:42.000 --> 00:34:44.000 Chris McFarling: Sweden, I think, in Norway.

00:34:43.000 --> 00:34:44.000 tristram cary: Yeah.

00:34:44.000 --> 00:34:46.000 Chris McFarling: And and because of the.

00:34:46.000 --> 00:34:49.000 Chris McFarling: The the vagaries of our economies.

00:34:49.000 --> 00:34:52.000 Chris McFarling: Um. It's cheaper to import large.

00:34:52.000 --> 00:34:54.000 Chris McFarling: Than it is to chop it down.

00:34:54.000 --> 00:34:57.000 Chris McFarling: Literally where you're you're about to process it.

00:34:57.000 --> 00:34:59.000 Chris McFarling: So we've got plenty of larch in the forest of Dean.

00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:02.000 Chris McFarling: But it's more expensive, apparently.

00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:08.000 tristram cary: No, but I think that's true. I think the industrial. I think it is a real problem that that because we got rid of all our sawmills, and got rid of the infrastructure.

00:35:04.000 --> 00:35:05.000 Chris McFarling: Yeah.

00:35:07.000 --> 00:35:09.000 Chris McFarling: Well, yeah, yeah, it's it's just the.

00:35:08.000 --> 00:35:13.000 tristram cary: And it's, you know, if you do it on an industrial scale that is going to be cheaper. That's just a fact of economic lifetime, for it.

00:35:12.000 --> 00:35:16.000 Chris McFarling: Yeah, I know, I know. And yet, or local local industries.

00:35:16.000 --> 00:35:19.000 Chris McFarling: Suffer, and they they go out, don't they? They go.

00:35:17.000 --> 00:35:18.000 tristram cary: Yeah.

00:35:19.000 --> 00:35:19.000 tristram cary: Yeah.

00:35:19.000 --> 00:35:22.000 Chris McFarling: They go into administration because they can't. They can't compete.

00:35:22.000 --> 00:35:22.000 tristram cary: Yeah.

00:35:22.000 --> 00:35:29.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: I wonder if that's going to change? I wonder if they're going to make a comeback? Everything being so scaled down to local community size.

00:35:29.000 --> 00:35:33.000 Chris McFarling: But as soon as they put a carbon tax on on fossil fuels.

00:35:33.000 --> 00:35:34.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yeah.

00:35:33.000 --> 00:35:35.000 Chris McFarling: Hey? Presto! You know.

00:35:33.000 --> 00:35:34.000 tristram cary: Yeah.

00:35:34.000 --> 00:35:36.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Absolutely.

00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:36.000 Chris McFarling: That's it. We revert back.

00:35:36.000 --> 00:35:37.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yup!

00:35:37.000 --> 00:35:51.000 tristram cary: But I think the other issue is I I don't. I think that's quite a big push not to think about um using, you know complete lengths of timber, and having large, you can use anything you can use dead wood, you can use, you know, to make to make these sit panels, for instance, you know you can use pretty well anything.

00:35:37.000 --> 00:35:39.000 Chris McFarling: And it'll be good for everyone.

00:35:53.000 --> 00:35:54.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Right.

00:35:54.000 --> 00:35:58.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Bit like the supermarkets actually permitting you to buy wonky vegetables.

00:35:56.000 --> 00:35:57.000 tristram cary: You need.

00:36:03.000 --> 00:36:08.000 tristram cary: All up and turn it into a. You know, there's sips, panels, the structurally insulated panels.

00:36:08.000 --> 00:36:11.000 tristram cary: Have can use any word, basically, and.

00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:11.000 Chris McFarling: Yeah.

00:36:11.000 --> 00:36:13.000 tristram cary: So you can. You can take little chips of stuff.

00:36:13.000 --> 00:36:14.000 Chris McFarling: Okay.

00:36:14.000 --> 00:36:17.000 Chris McFarling: You'll you'll note the slide when it comes up.

00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:19.000 tristram cary: Okay, yeah, I will. I will. So I'm just gonna.

00:36:19.000 --> 00:36:20.000 tristram cary: Mute, the.

00:36:21.000 --> 00:36:24.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So let me just say good afternoon to John and to Stuart.

00:36:24.000 --> 00:36:26.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Nice to see you both.

00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:26.000 Cllr Stuart Withington Great Dunmow, Essex: I know I have.

00:36:27.000 --> 00:36:30.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And here comes Mike.

00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:31.000 John Payne: Hi.

00:36:33.000 --> 00:36:35.000 Mike Eccles: Morning, everybody.

00:36:38.000 --> 00:36:39.000 Chris McFarling: Good afternoon.

00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:41.000 Mike Eccles: Right.

00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:46.000 Mike Eccles: There we go!

00:36:48.000 --> 00:36:51.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Good day, Mike. Do you know um, Chris, in the forest of Dean.

00:36:51.000 --> 00:36:53.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Not that far from you.

00:36:52.000 --> 00:36:52.000 Mike Eccles: I don't know.

00:36:53.000 --> 00:36:55.000 Mike Eccles: Ah! i i i.

00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:57.000 Mike Eccles: Don't think we do.

00:36:57.000 --> 00:37:02.000 Mike Eccles: And I certainly didn't know you were doing what you were doing, Chris, which is why I've come along to find out what it's like, because.

00:37:02.000 --> 00:37:06.000 Mike Eccles: I'm sure it's something I could nudge the Brecon Beaches National Park into.

00:37:06.000 --> 00:37:07.000 Mike Eccles: Uh.

00:37:07.000 --> 00:37:08.000 Chris McFarling: Yep.

00:37:08.000 --> 00:37:09.000 Chris McFarling: Yep.

00:37:08.000 --> 00:37:09.000 Mike Eccles: So.

00:37:09.000 --> 00:37:15.000 Chris McFarling: But it would. It would need a a rethink, a paradigm shift on how you manage the land.

00:37:09.000 --> 00:37:10.000 Mike Eccles: So that's what.

00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:18.000 Chris McFarling: Sort of grazing it to within an inch of its life.

00:37:18.000 --> 00:37:19.000 Mike Eccles: Well, I.

00:37:18.000 --> 00:37:22.000 Chris McFarling: It's allowing taking the sheep off and allowing it to be wild.

00:37:22.000 --> 00:37:27.000 Mike Eccles: That's well, that that's what they're actually trying to do. Um.

00:37:27.000 --> 00:37:28.000 Mike Eccles: But of course.

00:37:28.000 --> 00:37:34.000 Mike Eccles: There's a limit to what they can do, because the farmers have rights to raise sheep all over the place, and so on, and so forth, and.

00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:40.000 Mike Eccles: You know we looked into the the cost of buying those rights off every single farmer in.

00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:42.000 Mike Eccles: In the park.

00:37:42.000 --> 00:37:44.000 Mike Eccles: And how much that would come to, and.

00:37:44.000 --> 00:37:46.000 Mike Eccles: Ah! How long it would take to.

00:37:46.000 --> 00:37:51.000 Mike Eccles: Be able to get the return on that over a period of maybe a hundred years or so.

00:37:51.000 --> 00:37:55.000 Mike Eccles: I mean, they've been thinking about all sorts of radical ideas.

00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:56.000 Mike Eccles: Um, so that you know.

00:37:56.000 --> 00:37:59.000 Chris McFarling: Well, I I just do a quarter of the park, and.

00:37:59.000 --> 00:38:01.000 Chris McFarling: Fence it off, and see how that works.

00:38:01.000 --> 00:38:06.000 Mike Eccles: It's not as easy as that either.

00:38:04.000 --> 00:38:06.000 Chris McFarling: I know I know, but but.

00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:08.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yeah, it just sounds so simple, doesn't it? Just.

00:38:08.000 --> 00:38:09.000 Chris McFarling: Yeah.

00:38:08.000 --> 00:38:10.000 Mike Eccles: Yeah, I know. I know.

00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:11.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Never as easy, as.

00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.000 Mike Eccles: I remember it's communities that have been there for forever.

00:38:14.000 --> 00:38:16.000 Mike Eccles: Have to work with them.

00:38:16.000 --> 00:38:17.000 Mike Eccles: And.

00:38:16.000 --> 00:38:17.000 Chris McFarling: Yeah.

00:38:17.000 --> 00:38:20.000 Mike Eccles: You have to get them on board, and and.

00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:21.000 Mike Eccles: Peace! Oh.

00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:22.000 Chris McFarling: But at the same time we have a.

00:38:22.000 --> 00:38:25.000 Chris McFarling: A climate and biodiversity crisis on our hands.

00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.000 Mike Eccles: Well, we do, but but somebody like Keith Powell.

00:38:26.000 --> 00:38:30.000 Chris McFarling: And if we, if we don't resolve those in a in a decade.

00:38:31.000 --> 00:38:33.000 Chris McFarling: And we lose it all, don't we?

00:38:31.000 --> 00:38:32.000 Mike Eccles: Then we're all screwed, anyway.

00:38:33.000 --> 00:38:35.000 Mike Eccles: Yeah, yeah. But what wasn't.

00:38:34.000 --> 00:38:35.000 Chris McFarling: Yeah, yeah. So it.

00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:37.000 Mike Eccles: That that is true, but you've got somebody.

00:38:36.000 --> 00:38:39.000 Chris McFarling: You know, the last thing I want is for a sheep farmer to say to me.

00:38:39.000 --> 00:38:41.000 Chris McFarling: I'm sorry you were right.

00:38:41.000 --> 00:38:45.000 Chris McFarling: When we're all underwater, or you know everything's burnt off.

00:38:42.000 --> 00:38:43.000 Mike Eccles: Yeah.

00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:46.000 Mike Eccles: Yeah.

00:38:46.000 --> 00:38:49.000 Mike Eccles: I think the other thing is that the.

00:38:49.000 --> 00:38:55.000 Mike Eccles: There's somebody called Keith Powell, who's got stump up for trees, and I'm sure you know of him and his work.

00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:57.000 Mike Eccles: And I've been to see him a few times, and.

00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:56.000 Chris McFarling: Hmm.

00:38:58.000 --> 00:39:01.000 Mike Eccles: He's a 7th generation farmer.

00:39:01.000 --> 00:39:02.000 Mike Eccles: And.

00:39:02.000 --> 00:39:04.000 Mike Eccles: A vet and.

00:39:04.000 --> 00:39:07.000 Mike Eccles: So he, as into those communities they trust him.

00:39:07.000 --> 00:39:10.000 Mike Eccles: And he's been able to get a lot of them to.

00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:12.000 Mike Eccles: Uh um.

00:39:12.000 --> 00:39:15.000 Mike Eccles: Wild, and plant trees, and so on, and so forth.

00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:16.000 Mike Eccles: But.

00:39:16.000 --> 00:39:17.000 Mike Eccles: Unless.

00:39:16.000 --> 00:39:17.000 Chris McFarling: Hmm.

00:39:17.000 --> 00:39:22.000 Mike Eccles: I mean. The the best way to deal with it in that situation is to.

00:39:22.000 --> 00:39:29.000 Mike Eccles: Uh upscale what he's doing by finding people in the various communities to go out and replicate what he's doing.

00:39:29.000 --> 00:39:31.000 Mike Eccles: But but uh.

00:39:31.000 --> 00:39:33.000 Mike Eccles: That just isn't.

00:39:33.000 --> 00:39:34.000 Mike Eccles: The.

00:39:34.000 --> 00:39:38.000 Mike Eccles: You know the strategic thinking to think right. That's probably long term worth.

00:39:38.000 --> 00:39:40.000 Mike Eccles: Worth, the effort.

00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:42.000 Mike Eccles: And so he's struggling to.

00:39:42.000 --> 00:39:46.000 Mike Eccles: To fund all the stuff that he's doing.

00:39:46.000 --> 00:39:46.000 Mike Eccles: And.

00:39:46.000 --> 00:39:48.000 Mike Eccles: It's nowhere near enough.

00:39:47.000 --> 00:39:48.000 Chris McFarling: And.

00:39:49.000 --> 00:39:53.000 Chris McFarling: It it? Yeah, the investment is worth it. Obviously, it's long term investment.

00:39:53.000 --> 00:39:55.000 Chris McFarling: But I know that we are.

00:39:55.000 --> 00:40:00.000 Chris McFarling: Um in Gloucestershire we're dealing with. We're trying to look at um food and farming.

00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:02.000 Chris McFarling: And decarbonising that and.

00:40:02.000 --> 00:40:05.000 Chris McFarling: To making resilience.

00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:07.000 Chris McFarling: Making supply lines, more resilient.

00:40:07.000 --> 00:40:09.000 Chris McFarling: And one of the things we've done is we.

00:40:09.000 --> 00:40:11.000 Chris McFarling: Develop these farm clusters.

00:40:12.000 --> 00:40:13.000 Chris McFarling: Survey.

00:40:13.000 --> 00:40:15.000 Chris McFarling: It's peer to peer.

00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:16.000 Chris McFarling: Yeah.

00:40:16.000 --> 00:40:20.000 Chris McFarling: So if a farmer who's purchasing regenerative agriculture.

00:40:16.000 --> 00:40:17.000 Mike Eccles: Yeah.

00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:22.000 Chris McFarling: Talks to his or her neighbour.

00:40:22.000 --> 00:40:23.000 Chris McFarling: Then it's.

00:40:22.000 --> 00:40:23.000 Mike Eccles: Yeah.

00:40:23.000 --> 00:40:25.000 Chris McFarling: Much more powerful.

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:28.000 Chris McFarling: And before you know it you get a cluster of bombs.

00:40:26.000 --> 00:40:27.000 Mike Eccles: Yeah.

00:40:28.000 --> 00:40:29.000 Mike Eccles: Yeah, well, what?

00:40:28.000 --> 00:40:30.000 Chris McFarling: And the ones that are.

00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:31.000 Chris McFarling: Not doing it.

00:40:31.000 --> 00:40:34.000 Chris McFarling: Sort of get embarrassed about the fact that all their neighbors are.

00:40:34.000 --> 00:40:37.000 Chris McFarling: They're doing this. And so they come on board.

00:40:37.000 --> 00:40:38.000 Mike Eccles: Well, I.

00:40:37.000 --> 00:40:38.000 Chris McFarling: It's an interesting.

00:40:39.000 --> 00:40:40.000 Chris McFarling: Methodology.

00:40:39.000 --> 00:40:40.000 Mike Eccles: That's being done in house.

00:40:41.000 --> 00:40:45.000 Mike Eccles: We have a cluster of 9 farmers who who are.

00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:47.000 Mike Eccles: Transforming their farms.

00:40:47.000 --> 00:40:51.000 Mike Eccles: Into agroethologically rather than the way they've been farmed in the past.

00:40:51.000 --> 00:40:52.000 Mike Eccles: And.

00:40:53.000 --> 00:40:54.000 Mike Eccles: Um.

00:40:54.000 --> 00:40:57.000 Mike Eccles: Um. You know they meet every month or 2.

00:40:57.000 --> 00:41:01.000 Mike Eccles: And catch up in what they're doing, and um.

00:41:04.000 --> 00:41:06.000 Mike Eccles: Or may not otherwise be able to get.

00:41:06.000 --> 00:41:07.000 Mike Eccles: In relation to.

00:41:07.000 --> 00:41:10.000 Mike Eccles: What else they could do, and how they could do it.

00:41:11.000 --> 00:41:13.000 Mike Eccles: And all of that stuff, so that.

00:41:13.000 --> 00:41:16.000 Mike Eccles: But that's literally funded by.

00:41:16.000 --> 00:41:18.000 Mike Eccles: A very generous donor would be.

00:41:18.000 --> 00:41:21.000 Mike Eccles: Has hired somebody to work.

00:41:21.000 --> 00:41:24.000 Mike Eccles: Um. I think it's 2 days a week, or something to.

00:41:24.000 --> 00:41:27.000 Mike Eccles: To keep the thing.

00:41:27.000 --> 00:41:28.000 Mike Eccles: Up and running and going.

00:41:27.000 --> 00:41:28.000 Chris McFarling: Hmm.

00:41:28.000 --> 00:41:35.000 Mike Eccles: And and that's the money that's needed to provide that to happen. It's the sort of thing that needs to be replicated.

00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:37.000 Mike Eccles: But the farmers aren't going to do it on themselves. I mean, they've got.

00:41:38.000 --> 00:41:40.000 Mike Eccles: I've got um.

00:41:39.000 --> 00:41:42.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: You're right. Yes, they got their jobs.

00:41:42.000 --> 00:41:43.000 Mike Eccles: Yeah.

00:41:42.000 --> 00:41:45.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Um? Well, it looks like.

00:41:43.000 --> 00:41:44.000 Chris McFarling: We could go on.

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:45.000 Mike Eccles: Sorry.

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:52.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: I've had. I've had several apologies for people who've been called away, or they've got visitors, so I think we should uh press on.

00:41:52.000 --> 00:42:05.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Let me go through my usual blur of just advising you all that we are recording this, and it will be published so that you're aware of that. And B. If people could kindly put on their names on their.

00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:10.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Um screens where they are or what they're doing, what they represent. That would be helpful.

00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:12.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And ah!

00:42:12.000 --> 00:42:16.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: I will then pass straight over to. I think we just allow David to get in right.

00:42:21.000 --> 00:42:23.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: What is it with these people in Hampshire? Tristram.

00:42:27.000 --> 00:42:30.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: It's alright. So Chris. Um.

00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:40.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Welcome, and thank you very much for taking the time to chat to us today. If you'd like to tell us what you're going to talk about, and then who you are, and why you're going to talk to us and then press ahead. It's all yours. Please.

00:42:41.000 --> 00:42:43.000 Chris McFarling: Thank you. Thank you. Graham. Um.

00:42:43.000 --> 00:42:45.000 Chris McFarling: Okay. I'm currently a.

00:42:46.000 --> 00:42:47.000 Chris McFarling: A parish.

00:42:47.000 --> 00:42:50.000 Chris McFarling: District and county councillor in the Forest of Dean, in Gloucestershire.

00:42:51.000 --> 00:42:54.000 Chris McFarling: I'm also at the District Council level. I'm.

00:42:54.000 --> 00:42:56.000 Chris McFarling: A Cabinet member responsible for.

00:42:56.000 --> 00:42:57.000 Chris McFarling: Climate.

00:42:57.000 --> 00:43:00.000 Chris McFarling: Energy and biosphere.

00:43:01.000 --> 00:43:03.000 Chris McFarling: Now, biosphere is a.

00:43:03.000 --> 00:43:06.000 Chris McFarling: Is a unesco program.

00:43:07.000 --> 00:43:10.000 Chris McFarling: Begun in the early eighties or late seventies. I think.

00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:12.000 Chris McFarling: And it's worldwide.

00:43:12.000 --> 00:43:16.000 Chris McFarling: And what it tries to do is to reconcile the protection of nature.

00:43:16.000 --> 00:43:18.000 Chris McFarling: Function of biodiversity.

00:43:18.000 --> 00:43:20.000 Chris McFarling: With its sustainable use.

00:43:21.000 --> 00:43:22.000 Chris McFarling: And it mainly.

00:43:22.000 --> 00:43:24.000 Chris McFarling: Works well.

00:43:24.000 --> 00:43:26.000 Chris McFarling: With indigenous people.

00:43:26.000 --> 00:43:27.000 Chris McFarling: You want.

00:43:27.000 --> 00:43:29.000 Chris McFarling: Part of the land, and the the.

00:43:29.000 --> 00:43:32.000 Chris McFarling: The environment that they they work and live in.

00:43:32.000 --> 00:43:34.000 Chris McFarling: And it tries to.

00:43:34.000 --> 00:43:36.000 Chris McFarling: Consolidate that, and learn from that.

00:43:37.000 --> 00:43:39.000 Chris McFarling: To make that more sustainable.

00:43:39.000 --> 00:43:40.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.000 Chris McFarling: But I that's part. You know I can. I can go into that as part of the.

00:43:44.000 --> 00:43:49.000 Chris McFarling: The um presentation. But currently, what we're doing is we're trying to.

00:43:49.000 --> 00:43:53.000 Chris McFarling: We're looking at whether we can get the Forest of Dean.

00:43:53.000 --> 00:43:55.000 Chris McFarling: Designated as a Biosphere reserve.

00:43:56.000 --> 00:43:57.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

00:43:57.000 --> 00:44:00.000 Chris McFarling: And we're we've just employed.

00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:01.000 Chris McFarling: Uh.

00:44:01.000 --> 00:44:03.000 Chris McFarling: Someone, an officer.

00:44:03.000 --> 00:44:05.000 Chris McFarling: To look into researching that.

00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:06.000 Chris McFarling: Provoting it.

00:44:06.000 --> 00:44:08.000 Chris McFarling: Making those connections with stone.

00:44:09.000 --> 00:44:10.000 Chris McFarling: Thank you.

00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:11.000 Chris McFarling: Holders.

00:44:11.000 --> 00:44:13.000 Chris McFarling: And then developing a.

00:44:13.000 --> 00:44:15.000 Chris McFarling: A public consultation.

00:44:16.000 --> 00:44:19.000 Chris McFarling: And then finally to impress on councillors.

00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:22.000 Chris McFarling: That this would be a good thing.

00:44:23.000 --> 00:44:25.000 Chris McFarling: And see if we can get it past.

00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:27.000 Chris McFarling: And then, of course, we have to apply.

00:44:27.000 --> 00:44:30.000 Chris McFarling: To defra, and the Uk.

00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:31.000 Chris McFarling: Like man in the biosphere. They said.

00:44:31.000 --> 00:44:32.000 Chris McFarling: Committee.

00:44:32.000 --> 00:44:35.000 Chris McFarling: For permission. Well, for the designation.

00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:37.000 Chris McFarling: And once we got the designation, then.

00:44:38.000 --> 00:44:39.000 Chris McFarling: Work really begins.

00:44:39.000 --> 00:44:42.000 Chris McFarling: There are 7 biosphere reserves in the country.

00:44:43.000 --> 00:44:44.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

00:44:44.000 --> 00:44:46.000 Chris McFarling: And they.

00:44:46.000 --> 00:44:48.000 Chris McFarling: At various levels.

00:44:48.000 --> 00:44:49.000 Chris McFarling: And they are working well.

00:44:49.000 --> 00:44:51.000 Chris McFarling: Some of them are, you know.

00:44:51.000 --> 00:44:53.000 Chris McFarling: Yes.

00:44:53.000 --> 00:44:54.000 Chris McFarling: Challenging, but.

00:44:54.000 --> 00:44:56.000 Chris McFarling: Um. The principles are there.

00:44:57.000 --> 00:44:58.000 Chris McFarling: So.

00:44:58.000 --> 00:45:01.000 Chris McFarling: Without further ado. I'll share my screen and.

00:45:01.000 --> 00:45:05.000 Chris McFarling: Go through some pretty slides which will hopefully inspire you to.

00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:08.000 Chris McFarling: Um to look at. Biosphere reserves in it.

00:45:08.000 --> 00:45:10.000 Chris McFarling: In a different light.

00:45:11.000 --> 00:45:13.000 Chris McFarling: Okay. Let's see.

00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:17.000 Chris McFarling: I'll begin with this.

00:45:17.000 --> 00:45:19.000 Chris McFarling: This is a presentation I give to.

00:45:19.000 --> 00:45:21.000 Chris McFarling: Stakeholders, but also to.

00:45:21.000 --> 00:45:24.000 Chris McFarling: To groups, interested groups, parish councils, as well.

00:45:24.000 --> 00:45:28.000 Chris McFarling: So we begin with with the earth, which is the ultimate biosphere.

00:45:28.000 --> 00:45:31.000 Chris McFarling: It's probably the only biasphere we know.

00:45:32.000 --> 00:45:34.000 Chris McFarling: And we're we're part of it as well.

00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:37.000 Chris McFarling: This was taken in the Apollo.

00:45:37.000 --> 00:45:39.000 Chris McFarling: 8 Mission.

00:45:39.000 --> 00:45:43.000 Chris McFarling: It's the 1st time that humans were able to look back on themselves.

00:45:43.000 --> 00:45:44.000 Chris McFarling: Or back on the earth.

00:45:44.000 --> 00:45:48.000 Chris McFarling: And when I mentioned, when I show this slide I tend to get 3.

00:45:48.000 --> 00:45:50.000 Chris McFarling: Words which come out.

00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:51.000 Chris McFarling: One is beautiful.

00:45:52.000 --> 00:45:53.000 Chris McFarling: To his home.

00:45:53.000 --> 00:45:55.000 Chris McFarling: And 3 is fragile.

00:45:56.000 --> 00:45:59.000 Chris McFarling: And of course, you know, we now know that we are.

00:45:59.000 --> 00:46:00.000 Chris McFarling: We are changing the world.

00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:02.000 Chris McFarling: And not for the better.

00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:06.000 Chris McFarling: Few years.

00:46:06.000 --> 00:46:07.000 Chris McFarling: I.

00:46:08.000 --> 00:46:12.000 Chris McFarling: Um, and it's strange to say this, but I was a.

00:46:12.000 --> 00:46:17.000 Chris McFarling: I was by the Galapagos Islands, concert and naturalist, guide.

00:46:17.000 --> 00:46:19.000 Chris McFarling: So, the Tour Guide showing.

00:46:19.000 --> 00:46:22.000 Chris McFarling: Tourists from all over the world. The wonders of the Galapagos Islands.

00:46:22.000 --> 00:46:26.000 Chris McFarling: Um, because the Galapagos Islands is a biosphere reserve.

00:46:26.000 --> 00:46:27.000 Chris McFarling: One of the first.st

00:46:27.000 --> 00:46:29.000 Chris McFarling: It's the jewel in the Crown, let's say.

00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:33.000 Chris McFarling: And when I was there, back in the early eighties.

00:46:33.000 --> 00:46:37.000 Chris McFarling: Of course it it was. It was underdeveloped thankfully.

00:46:37.000 --> 00:46:42.000 Chris McFarling: And on the top of the volcano. This is the Alcido volcano, and.

00:46:42.000 --> 00:46:43.000 Chris McFarling: Isabella Island.

00:46:43.000 --> 00:46:44.000 Chris McFarling: And.

00:46:44.000 --> 00:46:46.000 Chris McFarling: The main, the main.

00:46:46.000 --> 00:46:48.000 Chris McFarling: Animal is is the tortoise.

00:46:49.000 --> 00:46:51.000 Chris McFarling: And you've got the tortoises here.

00:46:51.000 --> 00:46:55.000 Chris McFarling: And they tend to because it gets really hot during the day.

00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:58.000 Chris McFarling: They tend to find these pools beneath these.

00:46:58.000 --> 00:46:59.000 Chris McFarling: Oh, she is.

00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.000 Chris McFarling: Where the the mists, the early morning mists.

00:47:04.000 --> 00:47:09.000 Chris McFarling: Tend to coagulate on them and then drip down. These drip pools are really great, for the.

00:47:09.000 --> 00:47:12.000 Chris McFarling: Tortoises to cool down, and also to clean up a bit.

00:47:12.000 --> 00:47:14.000 Chris McFarling: Um. But um, it's quite amazing.

00:47:14.000 --> 00:47:17.000 Chris McFarling: When you, you know when you're walking along the ridge of this Caldera.

00:47:18.000 --> 00:47:20.000 Chris McFarling: And this is the animal that you're looking at.

00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:22.000 Chris McFarling: And they do come quite largely.

00:47:22.000 --> 00:47:26.000 Chris McFarling: Um. You know you the size of an armchair would be.

00:47:26.000 --> 00:47:28.000 Chris McFarling: Would be top of the range.

00:47:28.000 --> 00:47:29.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:35.000 Chris McFarling: So the Galapagos Biosphere Reserve was formed, I think, in the early eighties.

00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:36.000 Chris McFarling: I I just missed the.

00:47:37.000 --> 00:47:38.000 Chris McFarling: The um.

00:47:38.000 --> 00:47:40.000 Chris McFarling: You know the commemoration or the celebration.

00:47:41.000 --> 00:47:44.000 Chris McFarling: At the beginning of the program I was in the islands. I must have been.

00:47:44.000 --> 00:47:46.000 Chris McFarling: Somewhere else, not on the main island.

00:47:46.000 --> 00:47:50.000 Chris McFarling: Um. They are volcanic. They are on a.

00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:51.000 Chris McFarling: Take 20.

00:47:52.000 --> 00:47:53.000 Chris McFarling: Hotspot.

00:47:53.000 --> 00:47:57.000 Chris McFarling: Um. So you get a string of islands just like.

00:47:57.000 --> 00:47:59.000 Chris McFarling: An archipelago like Hawaii.

00:47:59.000 --> 00:48:03.000 Chris McFarling: And you know, on the hotspot they are. They are quite young.

00:48:04.000 --> 00:48:05.000 Chris McFarling: And active.

00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:07.000 Chris McFarling: And as they move away from the hotspot they.

00:48:08.000 --> 00:48:11.000 Chris McFarling: They become older and less less active and more dormant.

00:48:12.000 --> 00:48:13.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:18.000 Chris McFarling: So if you look at that, and then you look at the positive Dean.

00:48:18.000 --> 00:48:22.000 Chris McFarling: It. It just came as a surprise to me, but I thought.

00:48:22.000 --> 00:48:26.000 Chris McFarling: There is enough wildlife here, and it's it's a stronghold for wildlife.

00:48:26.000 --> 00:48:27.000 Chris McFarling: Because of the.

00:48:27.000 --> 00:48:29.000 Chris McFarling: Forest cover that we've got.

00:48:29.000 --> 00:48:32.000 Chris McFarling: Um that we could. We could actually.

00:48:32.000 --> 00:48:36.000 Chris McFarling: Develop a biosphere reserve for the Forest of Dean.

00:48:36.000 --> 00:48:41.000 Chris McFarling: Which would benefit both the communities that live here, but also the wildlife.

00:48:41.000 --> 00:48:42.000 Chris McFarling: And also the economy.

00:48:44.000 --> 00:48:45.000 Chris McFarling: Um and.

00:48:46.000 --> 00:48:47.000 Chris McFarling: When I.

00:48:47.000 --> 00:48:49.000 Chris McFarling: Do show. I show this picture.

00:48:49.000 --> 00:48:52.000 Chris McFarling: And I know I'm a zoologist, but many people aren't.

00:48:53.000 --> 00:48:56.000 Chris McFarling: And I showed this to a group of 18 year olds.

00:48:56.000 --> 00:48:58.000 Chris McFarling: At one of the local colleges.

00:48:58.000 --> 00:49:00.000 Chris McFarling: And you know they couldn't name any of.

00:49:02.000 --> 00:49:05.000 Chris McFarling: They couldn't name any of them. The only thing they could say was.

00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:07.000 Chris McFarling: They thought this was a fish.

00:49:08.000 --> 00:49:12.000 Chris McFarling: And so that was, you know, the the disconnect between.

00:49:12.000 --> 00:49:14.000 Chris McFarling: Young people in wildlife is is quite.

00:49:14.000 --> 00:49:16.000 Chris McFarling: Is quite dismaying.

00:49:17.000 --> 00:49:20.000 Chris McFarling: So what we've got here is um in the forester, Dean. We've reintroduced.

00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:22.000 Chris McFarling: Beavers which were here.

00:49:22.000 --> 00:49:24.000 Chris McFarling: 300 years ago.

00:49:24.000 --> 00:49:26.000 Chris McFarling: And they're doing their job to.

00:49:26.000 --> 00:49:28.000 Chris McFarling: Um mitigate flooding.

00:49:28.000 --> 00:49:29.000 Chris McFarling: So they damn.

00:49:29.000 --> 00:49:32.000 Chris McFarling: They have these leaky dams.

00:49:32.000 --> 00:49:35.000 Chris McFarling: Which they build, which just reduces the flow.

00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:38.000 Chris McFarling: They're vegetarian. They don't build these dams for.

00:49:38.000 --> 00:49:40.000 Chris McFarling: For nothing, they they they.

00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:42.000 Chris McFarling: Tend to eat willow and stuff.

00:49:42.000 --> 00:49:45.000 Chris McFarling: And we've just got a few more.

00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:47.000 Chris McFarling: Beavers too.

00:49:47.000 --> 00:49:48.000 Chris McFarling: In another exclosure.

00:49:48.000 --> 00:49:52.000 Chris McFarling: Which we're hoping will will do the same, which is to.

00:49:52.000 --> 00:49:53.000 Chris McFarling: Slow, the flow.

00:49:53.000 --> 00:49:56.000 Chris McFarling: The flood, you know, when we get extreme rainfall.

00:49:57.000 --> 00:49:58.000 Chris McFarling: And allow the.

00:49:59.000 --> 00:50:01.000 Chris McFarling: The system downstream.

00:50:01.000 --> 00:50:05.000 Chris McFarling: The capacity to deal with the water without flooding properties.

00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:09.000 Chris McFarling: We've also got goss. Hawks come back. We've got about 65.

00:50:09.000 --> 00:50:11.000 Chris McFarling: Heirs of crosshawks.

00:50:11.000 --> 00:50:13.000 Chris McFarling: Which is tremendous.

00:50:13.000 --> 00:50:16.000 Chris McFarling: I'm mainly in in the largest trees.

00:50:17.000 --> 00:50:20.000 Chris McFarling: And the Forestry Commissioner forever trying to work around them.

00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:22.000 Chris McFarling: Because once they're nesting in there you can't.

00:50:22.000 --> 00:50:24.000 Chris McFarling: Obviously chop the tree down.

00:50:24.000 --> 00:50:25.000 Chris McFarling: A protected species.

00:50:26.000 --> 00:50:28.000 Chris McFarling: Um, but they are. They are a fantastic.

00:50:28.000 --> 00:50:29.000 Chris McFarling: Go, to play.

00:50:29.000 --> 00:50:31.000 Chris McFarling: And if ever you see one you'll you'll.

00:50:31.000 --> 00:50:33.000 Chris McFarling: You'll never! You'll never forget it.

00:50:34.000 --> 00:50:37.000 Chris McFarling: And then, of course, we reintroduced the pine Martin.

00:50:37.000 --> 00:50:39.000 Chris McFarling: But again these species were here.

00:50:39.000 --> 00:50:42.000 Chris McFarling: Earlier, but they had but gone extinct.

00:50:42.000 --> 00:50:45.000 Chris McFarling: Locally or nationally because of.

00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:47.000 Chris McFarling: Hunting and and other pressures, mainly.

00:50:47.000 --> 00:50:48.000 Chris McFarling: Hunting.

00:50:48.000 --> 00:50:49.000 Chris McFarling: So the pine Martin.

00:50:49.000 --> 00:50:55.000 Chris McFarling: It's um we've got. We we introduced about 18 of them.

00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:59.000 Chris McFarling: And they we've already captured the fact that they're.

00:50:59.000 --> 00:51:01.000 Chris McFarling: Reproducing their breeding.

00:51:06.000 --> 00:51:07.000 Chris McFarling: Regional.

00:51:08.000 --> 00:51:10.000 Chris McFarling: Um Reintroduction location.

00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:13.000 Chris McFarling: Out more into widely into the district.

00:51:13.000 --> 00:51:15.000 Chris McFarling: They are still mainly a woodland.

00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:17.000 Chris McFarling: Woodland Animal.

00:51:17.000 --> 00:51:19.000 Chris McFarling: But they um. They're quite omnivorous.

00:51:19.000 --> 00:51:22.000 Chris McFarling: And the one benefit we've got is that they.

00:51:22.000 --> 00:51:23.000 Chris McFarling: Because they.

00:51:24.000 --> 00:51:24.000 Chris McFarling: Hey!

00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:29.000 Chris McFarling: They predate, or they stress out.

00:51:29.000 --> 00:51:31.000 Chris McFarling: Grey spills.

00:51:31.000 --> 00:51:35.000 Chris McFarling: Because grey squirrels had never been with pine martens in there.

00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:36.000 Chris McFarling: Evolutionary history.

00:51:36.000 --> 00:51:39.000 Chris McFarling: And so the grey squirrels really can't.

00:51:39.000 --> 00:51:40.000 Chris McFarling: Can't cope with that.

00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:44.000 Chris McFarling: And so they die out, leaving a vacant niche for the red squirrel. The red squirrel.

00:51:44.000 --> 00:51:47.000 Chris McFarling: Was native, is native.

00:51:47.000 --> 00:51:48.000 Chris McFarling: And.

00:51:48.000 --> 00:51:49.000 Chris McFarling: But.

00:51:49.000 --> 00:51:51.000 Chris McFarling: Evolved with the pine Martin, so.

00:51:51.000 --> 00:51:54.000 Chris McFarling: It's its strategies on evading.

00:51:54.000 --> 00:51:57.000 Chris McFarling: Pine Martin attacks are far more.

00:51:57.000 --> 00:51:58.000 Chris McFarling: Acute.

00:51:58.000 --> 00:52:03.000 Chris McFarling: And so there is a, you know. There is a possibility that we can replace the grey squirrel with a red squirrel.

00:52:03.000 --> 00:52:04.000 Chris McFarling: And the economy.

00:52:04.000 --> 00:52:07.000 Chris McFarling: Certainly the forestry would would benefit, because.

00:52:07.000 --> 00:52:08.000 Chris McFarling: Way schools do.

00:52:09.000 --> 00:52:12.000 Chris McFarling: Tend to ring bark many of the trees, but.

00:52:12.000 --> 00:52:15.000 Chris McFarling: Anyway, that's that's the pine march, and then we got hawfitches.

00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:18.000 Chris McFarling: Which are, you know, they've got a massive beak, and they.

00:52:18.000 --> 00:52:19.000 Chris McFarling: Thank you.

00:52:19.000 --> 00:52:22.000 Chris McFarling: Take the nuts, the the kernels of.

00:52:22.000 --> 00:52:24.000 Chris McFarling: Hawthorns and things.

00:52:24.000 --> 00:52:27.000 Chris McFarling: And they've got, you know, enough beat to to.

00:52:27.000 --> 00:52:29.000 Chris McFarling: Break them open, and and.

00:52:29.000 --> 00:52:31.000 Chris McFarling: And digest the contents.

00:52:32.000 --> 00:52:36.000 Chris McFarling: Uh, we still got haw fridges, but they are, you know, not not in big numbers.

00:52:36.000 --> 00:52:38.000 Chris McFarling: Then we've got lesser.

00:52:38.000 --> 00:52:41.000 Chris McFarling: Butterfly orchids. Again, they are.

00:52:41.000 --> 00:52:43.000 Chris McFarling: Woodland Indicators.

00:52:43.000 --> 00:52:45.000 Chris McFarling: Ancient Women Indicators.

00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:48.000 Chris McFarling: And we do have ancient woodlands still in the forest of Dean.

00:52:48.000 --> 00:52:49.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

00:52:49.000 --> 00:52:51.000 Chris McFarling: Remaining, and we do have these.

00:52:51.000 --> 00:52:52.000 Chris McFarling: He's coming up.

00:52:52.000 --> 00:52:55.000 Chris McFarling: At certain times, but they're not. They're not as.

00:52:55.000 --> 00:52:56.000 Chris McFarling: Common as they used to be.

00:52:56.000 --> 00:53:00.000 Chris McFarling: And then this is the small pearl bordered Fritillary.

00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:01.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

00:53:01.000 --> 00:53:04.000 Chris McFarling: We used to 20 years ago. We had 80.

00:53:04.000 --> 00:53:06.000 Chris McFarling: Was it 2082.

00:53:06.000 --> 00:53:09.000 Chris McFarling: Populations, as it were, subpopulations.

00:53:09.000 --> 00:53:10.000 Chris McFarling: And we now have one.

00:53:11.000 --> 00:53:13.000 Chris McFarling: And they they, you know they they.

00:53:13.000 --> 00:53:16.000 Chris McFarling: Reduced because of habitat destruction, mainly.

00:53:16.000 --> 00:53:20.000 Chris McFarling: Um. So we're just clinging on, and we're hoping to.

00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:23.000 Chris McFarling: Get a program to expand their range and.

00:53:23.000 --> 00:53:24.000 Chris McFarling: Reintroduce them to other.

00:53:24.000 --> 00:53:28.000 Chris McFarling: Other sports where they used to be.

00:53:29.000 --> 00:53:33.000 Chris McFarling: And then down in the bottom left hand corner. We've got salmon.

00:53:33.000 --> 00:53:35.000 Chris McFarling: The salmon, the populations in our rivers.

00:53:35.000 --> 00:53:37.000 Chris McFarling: And if I was 15, certainly the Y and the 7.

00:53:37.000 --> 00:53:39.000 Chris McFarling: Have dropped dramatically.

00:53:39.000 --> 00:53:41.000 Chris McFarling: In the last few years.

00:53:41.000 --> 00:53:44.000 Chris McFarling: To about 5% of the population.

00:53:44.000 --> 00:53:45.000 Chris McFarling: And still going down.

00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:48.000 Chris McFarling: And that's mainly due to blockages up.

00:53:48.000 --> 00:53:50.000 Chris McFarling: Streams that they can't get.

00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:51.000 Chris McFarling: Get up to.

00:53:51.000 --> 00:53:53.000 Chris McFarling: To their spawning grounds.

00:53:53.000 --> 00:53:57.000 Chris McFarling: But also pollution. Water, pollution, water quality is horrendous.

00:53:57.000 --> 00:53:58.000 Chris McFarling: What with um?

00:53:58.000 --> 00:54:00.000 Chris McFarling: Runoff from agricultural.

00:54:00.000 --> 00:54:02.000 Chris McFarling: Land um.

00:54:02.000 --> 00:54:04.000 Chris McFarling: Especially the Internet.

00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:06.000 Chris McFarling: The.

00:54:06.000 --> 00:54:08.000 Chris McFarling: Impact culture units.

00:54:08.000 --> 00:54:11.000 Chris McFarling: Up further up in the river Severn catchment.

00:54:11.000 --> 00:54:12.000 Chris McFarling: But also um.

00:54:13.000 --> 00:54:23.000 Chris McFarling: Just the chemicals that are washed off the land, and then, of course, recently, more recently, um, the more sewage which is discharged and that affects their their migration, as well.

00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:25.000 Chris McFarling: And.

00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:29.000 Chris McFarling: Then at the bottom, we've got the glass seals. These are.

00:54:29.000 --> 00:54:32.000 Chris McFarling: Their populations have also plummeted.

00:54:32.000 --> 00:54:35.000 Chris McFarling: They're about 5%. They're critically endangered.

00:54:35.000 --> 00:54:37.000 Chris McFarling: Extreme risk of extinction.

00:54:37.000 --> 00:54:39.000 Chris McFarling: But we've still got one of the.

00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:41.000 Chris McFarling: Best strongholds.

00:54:41.000 --> 00:54:43.000 Chris McFarling: For them in the room.

00:54:43.000 --> 00:54:44.000 Chris McFarling: River. Severn. Estuary.

00:54:45.000 --> 00:54:49.000 Chris McFarling: And there's still a limited amount of fishing.

00:54:49.000 --> 00:54:51.000 Chris McFarling: Allowed for harbour output.

00:54:51.000 --> 00:54:55.000 Chris McFarling: Consumption, but of course the um, because of their rarity.

00:54:55.000 --> 00:54:57.000 Chris McFarling: The Asian market has.

00:54:57.000 --> 00:55:01.000 Chris McFarling: Put a price on them of about 15,000 pounds per kilo.

00:55:01.000 --> 00:55:04.000 Chris McFarling: So obviously, you know, we've got to look after the poach. You.

00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:09.000 Chris McFarling: Um of those, and then we've got um the forester moth.

00:55:09.000 --> 00:55:12.000 Chris McFarling: Which is one of its last strongholds in the county.

00:55:12.000 --> 00:55:17.000 Chris McFarling: Is in the Siniford northern quarter, which is an area which has been earmarked for development.

00:55:17.000 --> 00:55:18.000 Chris McFarling: Um, but it's it's.

00:55:19.000 --> 00:55:19.000 Chris McFarling: It's.

00:55:19.000 --> 00:55:22.000 Chris McFarling: You know, it's it's 1 of those.

00:55:23.000 --> 00:55:25.000 Chris McFarling: Small.

00:55:26.000 --> 00:55:27.000 Chris McFarling: And abuse.

00:55:27.000 --> 00:55:29.000 Chris McFarling: If they did become extinct, but if.

00:55:29.000 --> 00:55:30.000 Chris McFarling: The more that they do.

00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:33.000 Chris McFarling: The more the repercussions on the food chain.

00:55:33.000 --> 00:55:33.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

00:55:33.000 --> 00:55:34.000 Chris McFarling: Deep.

00:55:34.000 --> 00:55:37.000 Chris McFarling: Operate the um. The whole system.

00:55:37.000 --> 00:55:39.000 Chris McFarling: Okay, so that's that one.

00:55:39.000 --> 00:55:43.000 Chris McFarling: And then, if I go back to 1,972, I don't know how many of you will recall.

00:55:43.000 --> 00:55:46.000 Chris McFarling: There was a report called The Limits to Growth.

00:55:47.000 --> 00:55:51.000 Chris McFarling: And it just looked at how the fact that the population was growing.

00:55:51.000 --> 00:55:52.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

00:55:52.000 --> 00:55:54.000 Chris McFarling: The economies were growing.

00:55:54.000 --> 00:55:57.000 Chris McFarling: And the use of land and resources was growing.

00:55:57.000 --> 00:56:01.000 Chris McFarling: And the exploitation of oil, and and whatever.

00:56:01.000 --> 00:56:02.000 Chris McFarling: And that.

00:56:02.000 --> 00:56:04.000 Chris McFarling: It couldn't continue.

00:56:04.000 --> 00:56:06.000 Chris McFarling: In a world of finite resources.

00:56:08.000 --> 00:56:10.000 Chris McFarling: And so they came up with the.

00:56:11.000 --> 00:56:13.000 Chris McFarling: The need to develop sustainably.

00:56:14.000 --> 00:56:15.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

00:56:15.000 --> 00:56:19.000 Chris McFarling: And so that initiated quite a.

00:56:19.000 --> 00:56:21.000 Chris McFarling: A large program, particularly from Unesco.

00:56:24.000 --> 00:56:25.000 Chris McFarling: To see if we could.

00:56:25.000 --> 00:56:28.000 Chris McFarling: Live, sustainably.

00:56:28.000 --> 00:56:29.000 Chris McFarling: Without.

00:56:29.000 --> 00:56:31.000 Chris McFarling: Natural environment.

00:56:31.000 --> 00:56:35.000 Chris McFarling: And the man in the biosphere is launched. Now.

00:56:35.000 --> 00:56:37.000 Chris McFarling: Okay.

00:56:38.000 --> 00:56:41.000 Chris McFarling: Is a world network of biosphere reserves.

00:56:42.000 --> 00:56:48.000 Chris McFarling: And they cover internationally designated protected areas, so usually many, often, that some of these areas are unique.

00:56:48.000 --> 00:56:49.000 Chris McFarling: On the planet.

00:56:49.000 --> 00:56:52.000 Chris McFarling: They've got, you know, unique conditions and unique species.

00:56:52.000 --> 00:56:53.000 Chris McFarling: And habitats.

00:56:53.000 --> 00:56:57.000 Chris McFarling: Um, and and so they are. They are protected for.

00:56:57.000 --> 00:56:59.000 Chris McFarling: For the world, as it were, not not just for the.

00:56:59.000 --> 00:57:02.000 Chris McFarling: The areas that they that they are found.

00:57:02.000 --> 00:57:03.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

00:57:05.000 --> 00:57:09.000 Chris McFarling: And what what I think one of the one of the the best things that they can do.

00:57:09.000 --> 00:57:15.000 Chris McFarling: Is they. They provide a platform stakeholder, cooperation.

00:57:15.000 --> 00:57:19.000 Chris McFarling: So they get all the groups and the organizations and businesses.

00:57:19.000 --> 00:57:23.000 Chris McFarling: And the representatives together around a table.

00:57:23.000 --> 00:57:25.000 Chris McFarling: To work out which programs.

00:57:25.000 --> 00:57:28.000 Chris McFarling: Are most needed, and which, what what projects will.

00:57:28.000 --> 00:57:31.000 Chris McFarling: Will actually, you know, help, protect, and enhance wildlife.

00:57:31.000 --> 00:57:35.000 Chris McFarling: Whilst also maintaining, you know, cultural integrity.

00:57:35.000 --> 00:57:37.000 Chris McFarling: And benefiting community.

00:57:37.000 --> 00:57:40.000 Chris McFarling: And social, you know, social. Um.

00:57:41.000 --> 00:57:42.000 Chris McFarling: Cohesion and Resilience.

00:57:43.000 --> 00:57:47.000 Chris McFarling: Um, because we've got so many projects, so many organizations that.

00:57:47.000 --> 00:57:49.000 Chris McFarling: Develop their own strategies.

00:57:49.000 --> 00:57:51.000 Chris McFarling: In their own silos, as it were.

00:57:51.000 --> 00:57:52.000 Chris McFarling: But um.

00:57:52.000 --> 00:57:54.000 Chris McFarling: Often they duplicate work.

00:57:54.000 --> 00:57:57.000 Chris McFarling: And it's only in. And what the biosphere.

00:57:57.000 --> 00:57:58.000 Chris McFarling: But.

00:57:58.000 --> 00:57:59.000 Chris McFarling: Program.

00:57:59.000 --> 00:58:02.000 Chris McFarling: Provides is an overarching sort of.

00:58:02.000 --> 00:58:05.000 Chris McFarling: Coordinating locus.

00:58:05.000 --> 00:58:09.000 Chris McFarling: And so you can get all those people around the table.

00:58:09.000 --> 00:58:10.000 Chris McFarling: As they do here.

00:58:10.000 --> 00:58:13.000 Chris McFarling: Working together, on, on.

00:58:13.000 --> 00:58:14.000 Chris McFarling: Projects.

00:58:14.000 --> 00:58:17.000 Chris McFarling: Using international resources, um.

00:58:17.000 --> 00:58:20.000 Chris McFarling: So, for instance, in the forest of Dean.

00:58:20.000 --> 00:58:22.000 Chris McFarling: We've already started that by.

00:58:22.000 --> 00:58:24.000 Chris McFarling: Bringing in foreign experts.

00:58:25.000 --> 00:58:28.000 Chris McFarling: From Spain and and Italy.

00:58:28.000 --> 00:58:30.000 Chris McFarling: To look at how we manage the wild boar.

00:58:30.000 --> 00:58:33.000 Chris McFarling: Which we've got in in. Ah, in the forest, of course.

00:58:33.000 --> 00:58:35.000 Chris McFarling: And using that.

00:58:35.000 --> 00:58:37.000 Chris McFarling: International resource.

00:58:37.000 --> 00:58:39.000 Chris McFarling: Has meant that we've been able to.

00:58:39.000 --> 00:58:40.000 Chris McFarling: Dismiss certain.

00:58:40.000 --> 00:58:42.000 Chris McFarling: Things like like um.

00:58:42.000 --> 00:58:43.000 Chris McFarling: Contraception.

00:58:44.000 --> 00:58:47.000 Chris McFarling: But also improve our monitoring.

00:58:47.000 --> 00:58:49.000 Chris McFarling: And improve the way we um.

00:58:49.000 --> 00:58:53.000 Chris McFarling: We, you know, deal with them and and keep them in check.

00:58:53.000 --> 00:58:56.000 Chris McFarling: Um without a natural predator, which they.

00:58:56.000 --> 00:58:58.000 Chris McFarling: They haven't got at the moment.

00:58:58.000 --> 00:59:01.000 Chris McFarling: So it's it's it's that that um.

00:59:01.000 --> 00:59:03.000 Chris McFarling: Coordination.

00:59:03.000 --> 00:59:05.000 Chris McFarling: Coach, which is really good.

00:59:06.000 --> 00:59:10.000 Chris McFarling: Biosphere reserves tend to tend to have. This is very simplistic.

00:59:10.000 --> 00:59:12.000 Chris McFarling: But they tend to have a zoning.

00:59:12.000 --> 00:59:13.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

00:59:13.000 --> 00:59:15.000 Chris McFarling: Methodology.

00:59:15.000 --> 00:59:17.000 Chris McFarling: So the the protected zone.

00:59:17.000 --> 00:59:19.000 Chris McFarling: Is the core zone. The core area.

00:59:19.000 --> 00:59:21.000 Chris McFarling: Which has got those animals.

00:59:21.000 --> 00:59:23.000 Chris McFarling: Which currently we would put into.

00:59:23.000 --> 00:59:27.000 Chris McFarling: Ssis, or special areas of conservation or.

00:59:27.000 --> 00:59:28.000 Chris McFarling: Especially protected areas.

00:59:29.000 --> 00:59:33.000 Chris McFarling: Or even key wireless sites or rams on sites.

00:59:33.000 --> 00:59:37.000 Chris McFarling: And they. They are areas which are protected primarily for the.

00:59:37.000 --> 00:59:40.000 Chris McFarling: The wildlife and the habitats that that exist there.

00:59:40.000 --> 00:59:41.000 Chris McFarling: And so they.

00:59:41.000 --> 00:59:43.000 Chris McFarling: Have little interference, and little.

00:59:44.000 --> 00:59:47.000 Chris McFarling: Intervention and digital um, development of.

00:59:47.000 --> 00:59:49.000 Chris McFarling: You know. So let's say you have.

00:59:49.000 --> 00:59:51.000 Chris McFarling: Fewer housing estates, as it were.

00:59:51.000 --> 00:59:56.000 Chris McFarling: Um. They. They are then surrounded by what's called a buffer zone or buffer area.

00:59:56.000 --> 00:59:58.000 Chris McFarling: Which tries to.

00:59:59.000 --> 00:59:59.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

00:59:59.000 --> 01:00:01.000 Chris McFarling: Respect the core area.

01:00:01.000 --> 01:00:05.000 Chris McFarling: But allows a certain degree of education and.

01:00:05.000 --> 01:00:07.000 Chris McFarling: Um some housing.

01:00:07.000 --> 01:00:10.000 Chris McFarling: And some recreation.

01:00:10.000 --> 01:00:13.000 Chris McFarling: And some involvement. Scientific research.

01:00:13.000 --> 01:00:14.000 Chris McFarling: To try to.

01:00:14.000 --> 01:00:17.000 Chris McFarling: To look, to, to maintain the core area.

01:00:17.000 --> 01:00:20.000 Chris McFarling: Allow it to expand, if possible.

01:00:20.000 --> 01:00:21.000 Chris McFarling: But also to.

01:00:21.000 --> 01:00:25.000 Chris McFarling: To interact with the transition zone.

01:00:25.000 --> 01:00:26.000 Chris McFarling: Which is right here.

01:00:26.000 --> 01:00:27.000 Chris McFarling: Surrounding it.

01:00:27.000 --> 01:00:29.000 Chris McFarling: So, for instance, for the forest of Dean.

01:00:29.000 --> 01:00:31.000 Chris McFarling: The buffer zones we are considering are.

01:00:31.000 --> 01:00:33.000 Chris McFarling: The River Severn.

01:00:33.000 --> 01:00:35.000 Chris McFarling: As a Ramsar site.

01:00:36.000 --> 01:00:38.000 Chris McFarling: Would be at least.

01:00:40.000 --> 01:00:43.000 Chris McFarling: And western buffalo would be um. The wide valley.

01:00:43.000 --> 01:00:47.000 Chris McFarling: What's called now the national landscape. Boz called the area of outstanding natural beauty.

01:00:47.000 --> 01:00:49.000 Chris McFarling: And that functions as a buffer zone, because it's.

01:00:49.000 --> 01:00:51.000 Chris McFarling: It's protected, but it's also.

01:00:51.000 --> 01:00:52.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:00:52.000 --> 01:00:56.000 Chris McFarling: Selective on the the development that can take place.

01:00:56.000 --> 01:00:58.000 Chris McFarling: But it also um.

01:00:58.000 --> 01:01:00.000 Chris McFarling: You know. Uh.

01:01:00.000 --> 01:01:04.000 Chris McFarling: Allows well allows, has has a cultural.

01:01:04.000 --> 01:01:05.000 Chris McFarling: Places, which.

01:01:05.000 --> 01:01:07.000 Chris McFarling: Has developed over over years.

01:01:10.000 --> 01:01:11.000 Chris McFarling: That helps.

01:01:11.000 --> 01:01:17.000 Chris McFarling: Interact between the 2. And then, finally, you've got the transition zone which often.

01:01:17.000 --> 01:01:20.000 Chris McFarling: Is where you've got your cities or your towns located.

01:01:21.000 --> 01:01:22.000 Chris McFarling: And the.

01:01:22.000 --> 01:01:24.000 Chris McFarling: The idea is that the um.

01:01:24.000 --> 01:01:26.000 Chris McFarling: They are greened.

01:01:26.000 --> 01:01:27.000 Chris McFarling: Or or made.

01:01:27.000 --> 01:01:31.000 Chris McFarling: Of biodiversity, more biodiversity, friendly.

01:01:31.000 --> 01:01:32.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:01:32.000 --> 01:01:34.000 Chris McFarling: You can get corridors.

01:01:34.000 --> 01:01:37.000 Chris McFarling: That that go into them and connect them.

01:01:37.000 --> 01:01:39.000 Chris McFarling: So nature would.

01:01:39.000 --> 01:01:41.000 Chris McFarling: Recovery Zones.

01:01:41.000 --> 01:01:42.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:01:42.000 --> 01:01:44.000 Chris McFarling: And and.

01:01:44.000 --> 01:01:48.000 Chris McFarling: They, for instance, Forester, DNA would include.

01:01:49.000 --> 01:01:51.000 Chris McFarling: Um, certainly they'd be.

01:01:51.000 --> 01:01:54.000 Chris McFarling: And and some parts.

01:01:54.000 --> 01:01:56.000 Chris McFarling: And nuance, possibly.

01:01:56.000 --> 01:02:02.000 Chris McFarling: Um, but the those are the that's the transition zone, which is which is um still a functional zone, and still have.

01:02:02.000 --> 01:02:03.000 Chris McFarling: Tries to respect the.

01:02:03.000 --> 01:02:06.000 Chris McFarling: The core, and the buffer zones, as well.

01:02:06.000 --> 01:02:12.000 Chris McFarling: Um, and of course you don't have to have just one. You can have a number of these core zones.

01:02:12.000 --> 01:02:13.000 Chris McFarling: And many, many buffers.

01:02:13.000 --> 01:02:16.000 Chris McFarling: As well depending on on where the habitats.

01:02:16.000 --> 01:02:18.000 Chris McFarling: That you want to protect.

01:02:18.000 --> 01:02:25.000 Chris McFarling: Now. Uh, it's the biospheres tend to come out.

01:02:26.000 --> 01:02:27.000 Chris McFarling: Even with horses.

01:02:27.000 --> 01:02:29.000 Chris McFarling: So we've got one part you've got.

01:02:30.000 --> 01:02:32.000 Chris McFarling: You've got the added benefit that you've got a crop.

01:02:32.000 --> 01:02:33.000 Chris McFarling: Standing? Quo.

01:02:33.000 --> 01:02:35.000 Chris McFarling: Which also.

01:02:35.000 --> 01:02:38.000 Chris McFarling: Enables grazing to take place underneath.

01:02:38.000 --> 01:02:40.000 Chris McFarling: Um! It!

01:02:40.000 --> 01:02:42.000 Chris McFarling: You've got the the carbon sequestration.

01:02:42.000 --> 01:02:44.000 Chris McFarling: You've got the protection of them.

01:02:44.000 --> 01:02:47.000 Chris McFarling: You know, wind and rain, but you've also got a.

01:02:47.000 --> 01:02:49.000 Chris McFarling: An understory which.

01:02:49.000 --> 01:02:51.000 Chris McFarling: Can be converted into into meat.

01:02:52.000 --> 01:02:55.000 Chris McFarling: Um in in this way, or dairy, whatever.

01:02:55.000 --> 01:02:57.000 Chris McFarling: So wood pasture is is.

01:02:57.000 --> 01:03:01.000 Chris McFarling: Is an air is a form of agriculture which agroecology, which.

01:03:01.000 --> 01:03:03.000 Chris McFarling: Used to be prevalent, but.

01:03:03.000 --> 01:03:06.000 Chris McFarling: Now he's he's hopefully coming back.

01:03:07.000 --> 01:03:07.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:03:07.000 --> 01:03:10.000 Chris McFarling: We've also got to build with nature.

01:03:10.000 --> 01:03:15.000 Chris McFarling: And so one of the programs that the Gloucestershire local nature partnership is.

01:03:15.000 --> 01:03:17.000 Chris McFarling: Put out is that.

01:03:17.000 --> 01:03:18.000 Chris McFarling: If you can.

01:03:18.000 --> 01:03:21.000 Chris McFarling: Put your drainage systems and your.

01:03:21.000 --> 01:03:23.000 Chris McFarling: Your natural corridors through.

01:03:23.000 --> 01:03:24.000 Chris McFarling: Developments.

01:03:25.000 --> 01:03:26.000 Chris McFarling: You can.

01:03:26.000 --> 01:03:27.000 Chris McFarling: You can actually hit.

01:03:28.000 --> 01:03:30.000 Chris McFarling: Um, no, no, that that's a long metaphor. But.

01:03:30.000 --> 01:03:33.000 Chris McFarling: You can kill 2 birds with one stone.

01:03:33.000 --> 01:03:41.000 Chris McFarling: You know what I mean? Um, you can actually provide the accommodation. Affordable accommodation, well insulated.

01:03:41.000 --> 01:03:42.000 Chris McFarling: Or the usual.

01:03:42.000 --> 01:03:46.000 Chris McFarling: Um. You know, green codes that that are needed, but you can also.

01:03:46.000 --> 01:03:52.000 Chris McFarling: Um respect biodiversity, and provide that the um, the habitats that the connectivity.

01:03:52.000 --> 01:03:54.000 Chris McFarling: That is so much needed.

01:03:54.000 --> 01:03:55.000 Chris McFarling: And um.

01:03:55.000 --> 01:03:57.000 Chris McFarling: You know, in our built environment.

01:03:57.000 --> 01:03:58.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:03:58.000 --> 01:03:59.000 Chris McFarling: And so you can.

01:03:59.000 --> 01:04:05.000 Chris McFarling: You can do this, which we've got. These buildings, these cabins in the in the forest.

01:04:05.000 --> 01:04:07.000 Chris McFarling: Which just begins to.

01:04:07.000 --> 01:04:09.000 Chris McFarling: Reconnect people with nature.

01:04:09.000 --> 01:04:11.000 Chris McFarling: And provides a certain income.

01:04:12.000 --> 01:04:14.000 Chris McFarling: And then in our towns.

01:04:14.000 --> 01:04:16.000 Chris McFarling: Where we've got more trees.

01:04:16.000 --> 01:04:18.000 Chris McFarling: We can reduce the um.

01:04:19.000 --> 01:04:21.000 Chris McFarling: The flooding on the hard surfaces.

01:04:21.000 --> 01:04:23.000 Chris McFarling: We can also provide a.

01:04:23.000 --> 01:04:24.000 Chris McFarling: That's sort of.

01:04:24.000 --> 01:04:27.000 Chris McFarling: A better quality, air, quality.

01:04:27.000 --> 01:04:30.000 Chris McFarling: Because of the oxygen that these.

01:04:30.000 --> 01:04:33.000 Chris McFarling: The the trees produce, and the vegetation produces.

01:04:33.000 --> 01:04:34.000 Chris McFarling: And it just just.

01:04:34.000 --> 01:04:38.000 Chris McFarling: It softens the the landscape.

01:04:41.000 --> 01:04:42.000 Chris McFarling: And it contributes to.

01:04:43.000 --> 01:04:47.000 Chris McFarling: A certain well-being without those that that you know pass through.

01:04:47.000 --> 01:04:53.000 Chris McFarling: Biosphere's reserves would absolutely promote market gardening and local local gardening.

01:04:53.000 --> 01:04:57.000 Chris McFarling: As it says here, to provide space for people to enjoy working together.

01:04:57.000 --> 01:05:02.000 Chris McFarling: And this is really important when you have people who are.

01:05:02.000 --> 01:05:06.000 Chris McFarling: Are either disabled or or need need an uplift.

01:05:06.000 --> 01:05:08.000 Chris McFarling: Um just to.

01:05:08.000 --> 01:05:10.000 Chris McFarling: Restoring those relationships that you get.

01:05:10.000 --> 01:05:12.000 Chris McFarling: And growing food, as well.

01:05:13.000 --> 01:05:14.000 Chris McFarling: Locally.

01:05:14.000 --> 01:05:16.000 Chris McFarling: It has so many benefits. It's untrue.

01:05:16.000 --> 01:05:19.000 Chris McFarling: And they are more productive than than.

01:05:19.000 --> 01:05:21.000 Chris McFarling: Than you know. Industrial agriculture.

01:05:21.000 --> 01:05:22.000 Chris McFarling: As well.

01:05:22.000 --> 01:05:24.000 Chris McFarling: And if we can localize these so that we can get.

01:05:24.000 --> 01:05:27.000 Chris McFarling: People from all ages and all backgrounds.

01:05:27.000 --> 01:05:29.000 Chris McFarling: Um. We could. We could do.

01:05:29.000 --> 01:05:31.000 Chris McFarling: So well.

01:05:31.000 --> 01:05:33.000 Chris McFarling: Providing a social.

01:05:33.000 --> 01:05:35.000 Chris McFarling: Uplift and.

01:05:35.000 --> 01:05:38.000 Chris McFarling: Making our communities more resilient.

01:05:38.000 --> 01:05:39.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:05:39.000 --> 01:05:44.000 Chris McFarling: We've got to revive local livelihoods. This is a Bagman's Lane farm in Wordine.

01:05:44.000 --> 01:05:46.000 Chris McFarling: It concentrates on organic apples.

01:05:47.000 --> 01:05:50.000 Chris McFarling: It's got a variety of of strains of apples.

01:05:50.000 --> 01:05:53.000 Chris McFarling: But it also runs on permaculture principles.

01:05:53.000 --> 01:05:54.000 Chris McFarling: Which are sustainable.

01:05:54.000 --> 01:05:58.000 Chris McFarling: And that's the um. That's the key. It provides itself as a.

01:05:58.000 --> 01:06:00.000 Chris McFarling: An educational establishment to.

01:06:00.000 --> 01:06:01.000 Chris McFarling: Show.

01:06:01.000 --> 01:06:03.000 Chris McFarling: Other landowners and farmers.

01:06:03.000 --> 01:06:04.000 Chris McFarling: How you can.

01:06:04.000 --> 01:06:07.000 Chris McFarling: Benefit from permaculture, principles.

01:06:08.000 --> 01:06:09.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:06:11.000 --> 01:06:14.000 Chris McFarling: Can also coordinate natural flood management.

01:06:14.000 --> 01:06:16.000 Chris McFarling: Linky dams.

01:06:16.000 --> 01:06:19.000 Chris McFarling: In line, in line, um.

01:06:19.000 --> 01:06:21.000 Chris McFarling: Logging and blocking.

01:06:21.000 --> 01:06:24.000 Chris McFarling: Um to to hold, to, just to hold the flow.

01:06:24.000 --> 01:06:26.000 Chris McFarling: The extreme flow back a little bit.

01:06:26.000 --> 01:06:29.000 Chris McFarling: And to reduce that flow rate.

01:06:29.000 --> 01:06:30.000 Chris McFarling: So that um.

01:06:30.000 --> 01:06:32.000 Chris McFarling: The land has the capacity to.

01:06:32.000 --> 01:06:34.000 Chris McFarling: To absorb the the rain.

01:06:35.000 --> 01:06:37.000 Chris McFarling: And and prevented flooding.

01:06:37.000 --> 01:06:39.000 Chris McFarling: And these these dams we've got.

01:06:40.000 --> 01:06:43.000 Chris McFarling: I think we've we've run a we're running a program with the.

01:06:43.000 --> 01:06:46.000 Chris McFarling: With the Gloucestershire local.

01:06:46.000 --> 01:06:50.000 Chris McFarling: Was it the lead? Local flood authority in Gloucestershire?

01:06:51.000 --> 01:06:53.000 Chris McFarling: And the Forestry Commission.

01:06:53.000 --> 01:06:58.000 Chris McFarling: And I think it's the 7 Rivers Trust, and also the Wildlife Trust.

01:06:58.000 --> 01:07:01.000 Chris McFarling: And these we've got about 500.

01:07:01.000 --> 01:07:02.000 Chris McFarling: Of these.

01:07:02.000 --> 01:07:04.000 Chris McFarling: Interventions, you could call it.

01:07:04.000 --> 01:07:06.000 Chris McFarling: Across the top of the catchment.

01:07:06.000 --> 01:07:09.000 Chris McFarling: So, which which is where the forestry is.

01:07:09.000 --> 01:07:11.000 Chris McFarling: And um. They are.

01:07:11.000 --> 01:07:14.000 Chris McFarling: They are absolutely doing what they're supposed to be doing, which is.

01:07:15.000 --> 01:07:17.000 Chris McFarling: We weren't achieve the landscape.

01:07:17.000 --> 01:07:21.000 Chris McFarling: Providing bio and increasing biodiversity.

01:07:21.000 --> 01:07:23.000 Chris McFarling: And also um.

01:07:23.000 --> 01:07:26.000 Chris McFarling: Carbon sequestration, because.

01:07:26.000 --> 01:07:29.000 Chris McFarling: If the water flow is, is lower, is slowed.

01:07:29.000 --> 01:07:33.000 Chris McFarling: Then you get sedimentation out of the the stream.

01:07:33.000 --> 01:07:35.000 Chris McFarling: And the water quality improves, but also that.

01:07:35.000 --> 01:07:37.000 Chris McFarling: Sedimentation means. It's.

01:07:37.000 --> 01:07:38.000 Chris McFarling: It's kept.

01:07:38.000 --> 01:07:42.000 Chris McFarling: In, you know, in the landscape, rather than going out to sea.

01:07:43.000 --> 01:07:45.000 Chris McFarling: And we don't want to lose our top source. Really.

01:07:46.000 --> 01:07:50.000 Chris McFarling: And then an example of sustainable development.

01:07:50.000 --> 01:07:50.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:07:51.000 --> 01:07:54.000 Chris McFarling: Is that you? You have your, your woodland.

01:07:54.000 --> 01:07:56.000 Chris McFarling: Which you copied coppicing was.

01:07:56.000 --> 01:07:59.000 Chris McFarling: Was traditionally a way of managing woodlands.

01:07:59.000 --> 01:08:02.000 Chris McFarling: Most of our woodens are under managed.

01:08:02.000 --> 01:08:02.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:08:03.000 --> 01:08:05.000 Chris McFarling: But if you copies.

01:08:05.000 --> 01:08:07.000 Chris McFarling: You take all the that's a small timber, as it were.

01:08:07.000 --> 01:08:10.000 Chris McFarling: Hazel and sweet chestnut. Whatever.

01:08:10.000 --> 01:08:13.000 Chris McFarling: Whatever the stand is being copies.

01:08:13.000 --> 01:08:16.000 Chris McFarling: And you can convert it into glue, lamb, or these.

01:08:16.000 --> 01:08:18.000 Chris McFarling: The you know you the small timber.

01:08:18.000 --> 01:08:19.000 Chris McFarling: If you glue them together.

01:08:20.000 --> 01:08:21.000 Chris McFarling: You put them into these beams.

01:08:22.000 --> 01:08:26.000 Chris McFarling: And these, and they they can be used in in construction.

01:08:26.000 --> 01:08:27.000 Chris McFarling: Of whatever you want.

01:08:28.000 --> 01:08:30.000 Chris McFarling: And in our Lidney swimming pool.

01:08:30.000 --> 01:08:33.000 Chris McFarling: Over here. We've got those beams.

01:08:33.000 --> 01:08:34.000 Chris McFarling: Um. I don't know whether the.

01:08:35.000 --> 01:08:37.000 Chris McFarling: The the wood, the 10, the small timber.

01:08:37.000 --> 01:08:41.000 Chris McFarling: To go into those beams was locally sourced. I doubt it.

01:08:41.000 --> 01:08:41.000 Chris McFarling: But.

01:08:41.000 --> 01:08:45.000 Chris McFarling: If they could be, because, you know, as a forest, we could.

01:08:45.000 --> 01:08:47.000 Chris McFarling: We could have these, those coffee scoops.

01:08:47.000 --> 01:08:49.000 Chris McFarling: All over the place.

01:08:49.000 --> 01:08:54.000 Chris McFarling: And and run them in time, so that we've got a sustainable production of.

01:08:54.000 --> 01:08:55.000 Chris McFarling: Or timber.

01:08:55.000 --> 01:08:57.000 Chris McFarling: And because the coppice rotation.

01:08:57.000 --> 01:08:58.000 Chris McFarling: Time.

01:08:58.000 --> 01:09:03.000 Chris McFarling: Um enables the you know, the the removal of the.

01:09:03.000 --> 01:09:05.000 Chris McFarling: Understood.

01:09:05.000 --> 01:09:07.000 Chris McFarling: And allowing more light to get in.

01:09:07.000 --> 01:09:12.000 Chris McFarling: That favors the the ground floor which favors the butterflies. And so you've got here.

01:09:12.000 --> 01:09:13.000 Chris McFarling: A um.

01:09:13.000 --> 01:09:15.000 Chris McFarling: It could be civil war, fritillery.

01:09:15.000 --> 01:09:18.000 Chris McFarling: Which is um, you know, and and we get our butterflies back.

01:09:18.000 --> 01:09:20.000 Chris McFarling: And if we can get our insects back.

01:09:20.000 --> 01:09:23.000 Chris McFarling: And we get all our insectivous birds back.

01:09:23.000 --> 01:09:25.000 Chris McFarling: And then the the whole food chain.

01:09:25.000 --> 01:09:27.000 Chris McFarling: Ah! Flourishes.

01:09:27.000 --> 01:09:31.000 Chris McFarling: And so it's it's sustainable, because, of course, those 2.

01:09:31.000 --> 01:09:34.000 Chris McFarling: Timbers, has smolted very fast.

01:09:34.000 --> 01:09:37.000 Chris McFarling: And they are carbon. So once you put them into a beam.

01:09:37.000 --> 01:09:39.000 Chris McFarling: Which goes into a structure which.

01:09:39.000 --> 01:09:42.000 Chris McFarling: Hopefully. We'll be there for a few decades.

01:09:42.000 --> 01:09:44.000 Chris McFarling: Then you've got that carbon storage.

01:09:44.000 --> 01:09:45.000 Chris McFarling: Ah! Benefit.

01:09:45.000 --> 01:09:47.000 Chris McFarling: Which we we desperately need.

01:09:48.000 --> 01:09:52.000 Chris McFarling: Um, we're also looking at the potential of.

01:09:52.000 --> 01:09:54.000 Chris McFarling: Re, restoring salt marshes.

01:09:54.000 --> 01:09:57.000 Chris McFarling: To soak up carbon, but also.

01:09:57.000 --> 01:10:01.000 Chris McFarling: To provide a biodiversity fit. But even more than that.

01:10:02.000 --> 01:10:04.000 Chris McFarling: To cope with the fact that we've got.

01:10:04.000 --> 01:10:06.000 Chris McFarling: Rising sea levels.

01:10:06.000 --> 01:10:08.000 Chris McFarling: And for certainly for the forest of Dean.

01:10:08.000 --> 01:10:11.000 Chris McFarling: We've got a bank on the river Severn which has.

01:10:11.000 --> 01:10:13.000 Chris McFarling: A high tidal range.

01:10:13.000 --> 01:10:16.000 Chris McFarling: And so you put in an extreme rainfall event.

01:10:16.000 --> 01:10:17.000 Chris McFarling: High tides.

01:10:17.000 --> 01:10:19.000 Chris McFarling: The wind in the wrong direction.

01:10:19.000 --> 01:10:24.000 Chris McFarling: And rising sea level. And you're going to get more and more.

01:10:24.000 --> 01:10:25.000 Chris McFarling: Shore, flooding.

01:10:25.000 --> 01:10:26.000 Chris McFarling: A coastal map.

01:10:26.000 --> 01:10:28.000 Chris McFarling: Management teams are.

01:10:28.000 --> 01:10:29.000 Chris McFarling: Aware.

01:10:30.000 --> 01:10:32.000 Chris McFarling: And if the level rise increases.

01:10:33.000 --> 01:10:34.000 Chris McFarling: Then.

01:10:34.000 --> 01:10:35.000 Chris McFarling: You know, we need these.

01:10:35.000 --> 01:10:36.000 Chris McFarling: These um.

01:10:36.000 --> 01:10:38.000 Chris McFarling: Salt marshes, to.

01:10:38.000 --> 01:10:42.000 Chris McFarling: Buffer that that just like the mangroves do in the tropical areas.

01:10:42.000 --> 01:10:45.000 Chris McFarling: Um just to to buffer the surge.

01:10:45.000 --> 01:10:46.000 Chris McFarling: And to, to.

01:10:47.000 --> 01:10:50.000 Chris McFarling: To store or hold some of the water.

01:10:50.000 --> 01:10:52.000 Chris McFarling: But before it, it does any damage.

01:10:53.000 --> 01:10:54.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:10:54.000 --> 01:10:56.000 Chris McFarling: We've also got.

01:10:56.000 --> 01:10:58.000 Chris McFarling: You know, we want to protect our unique habitats.

01:10:58.000 --> 01:11:01.000 Chris McFarling: At the moment. We've got a number of Ssis.

01:11:01.000 --> 01:11:03.000 Chris McFarling: In the in the forest of Dean.

01:11:03.000 --> 01:11:05.000 Chris McFarling: And they are rarely visited.

01:11:05.000 --> 01:11:08.000 Chris McFarling: And although they're monitored by.

01:11:12.000 --> 01:11:13.000 Chris McFarling: You know so.

01:11:13.000 --> 01:11:16.000 Chris McFarling: Because of the staffing cuts at natural England.

01:11:16.000 --> 01:11:19.000 Chris McFarling: This is the um, the longest.

01:11:19.000 --> 01:11:20.000 Chris McFarling: Cascade of.

01:11:20.000 --> 01:11:22.000 Chris McFarling: 2 for dams.

01:11:22.000 --> 01:11:23.000 Chris McFarling: In the country.

01:11:24.000 --> 01:11:27.000 Chris McFarling: Um. It's the Slad brook. SSI.

01:11:27.000 --> 01:11:29.000 Chris McFarling: In St. Bravel's parish, my parish.

01:11:30.000 --> 01:11:30.000 Chris McFarling: And.

01:11:30.000 --> 01:11:34.000 Chris McFarling: It's and we've had challenges from quarrying.

01:11:34.000 --> 01:11:36.000 Chris McFarling: Which will reduce, which will change the.

01:11:37.000 --> 01:11:39.000 Chris McFarling: The flow, and the height and the.

01:11:39.000 --> 01:11:41.000 Chris McFarling: The solutes.

01:11:41.000 --> 01:11:42.000 Chris McFarling: Which form the dams.

01:11:42.000 --> 01:11:45.000 Chris McFarling: And then we've got an application for a Yeah.

01:11:45.000 --> 01:11:47.000 Chris McFarling: A campsite for.

01:11:47.000 --> 01:11:48.000 Chris McFarling: Cabins.

01:11:48.000 --> 01:11:52.000 Chris McFarling: Which may form an increased recreational pressure.

01:11:52.000 --> 01:11:55.000 Chris McFarling: Where we get, and if we get motorbikes and bikes.

01:11:55.000 --> 01:11:56.000 Chris McFarling: Coming down, you know.

01:11:56.000 --> 01:11:59.000 Chris McFarling: Seeing these as ah, as a quite a.

01:11:59.000 --> 01:12:01.000 Chris McFarling: A challenging course.

01:12:01.000 --> 01:12:04.000 Chris McFarling: Then, of course, once you you break the dams and you.

01:12:04.000 --> 01:12:07.000 Chris McFarling: You destroy them. That's a hundred 1,000 years worth of.

01:12:07.000 --> 01:12:11.000 Chris McFarling: Of um formation which has just gone. In a few seconds.

01:12:11.000 --> 01:12:15.000 Chris McFarling: So there are challenges to our Ss size, and we do need to.

01:12:15.000 --> 01:12:19.000 Chris McFarling: Look after them in a better, more coordinated way.

01:12:19.000 --> 01:12:21.000 Chris McFarling: I think that's where biosphere.

01:12:21.000 --> 01:12:23.000 Chris McFarling: Coordination would come in.

01:12:23.000 --> 01:12:27.000 Chris McFarling: So. And we we do have possibilities of rewilding.

01:12:27.000 --> 01:12:30.000 Chris McFarling: Again that can be coordinated in a biosphere.

01:12:30.000 --> 01:12:31.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:12:31.000 --> 01:12:32.000 Chris McFarling: And.

01:12:32.000 --> 01:12:34.000 Chris McFarling: We? We are finding out that.

01:12:34.000 --> 01:12:36.000 Chris McFarling: Rewilding, leaving it to nature.

01:12:36.000 --> 01:12:41.000 Chris McFarling: Is a cheap way of actually doing everything that we want to do to increase biodiversity.

01:12:41.000 --> 01:12:42.000 Chris McFarling: Sequester carbon.

01:12:42.000 --> 01:12:43.000 Chris McFarling: Mitigate, flooding.

01:12:43.000 --> 01:12:46.000 Chris McFarling: And providing a um.

01:12:46.000 --> 01:12:47.000 Chris McFarling: Ah!

01:12:47.000 --> 01:12:52.000 Chris McFarling: You know, a a site for for interest, for recreation, but also for.

01:12:52.000 --> 01:12:53.000 Chris McFarling: For well-being.

01:12:53.000 --> 01:12:54.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:12:54.000 --> 01:12:57.000 Chris McFarling: Rewarding examples across the country.

01:12:57.000 --> 01:12:58.000 Chris McFarling: By showing that actually nature.

01:12:58.000 --> 01:13:00.000 Chris McFarling: There's no a little little.

01:13:00.000 --> 01:13:04.000 Chris McFarling: As does does this far better than we do artificially.

01:13:04.000 --> 01:13:05.000 Chris McFarling: But also it it.

01:13:05.000 --> 01:13:06.000 Chris McFarling: It just.

01:13:07.000 --> 01:13:12.000 Chris McFarling: It provides us with that breathing space to um counter the crises that we're facing.

01:13:14.000 --> 01:13:15.000 Chris McFarling: And then.

01:13:15.000 --> 01:13:17.000 Chris McFarling: Some of the ancient heritage, we could return.

01:13:17.000 --> 01:13:19.000 Chris McFarling: To the forest of Dean.

01:13:19.000 --> 01:13:23.000 Chris McFarling: We've got all rocks which are the ancient cows, ancient cattle.

01:13:23.000 --> 01:13:26.000 Chris McFarling: We could return, return those.

01:13:26.000 --> 01:13:29.000 Chris McFarling: We've got bison European bison, which.

01:13:29.000 --> 01:13:31.000 Chris McFarling: Have been returned to.

01:13:31.000 --> 01:13:34.000 Chris McFarling: A trial area in Kent. I believe.

01:13:34.000 --> 01:13:35.000 Chris McFarling: But.

01:13:35.000 --> 01:13:38.000 Chris McFarling: There's no reason why we couldn't reintroduce them to the Forest of Dean.

01:13:38.000 --> 01:13:40.000 Chris McFarling: Obviously with, with, with.

01:13:40.000 --> 01:13:42.000 Chris McFarling: The the precautions needed.

01:13:42.000 --> 01:13:44.000 Chris McFarling: But they are also.

01:13:44.000 --> 01:13:46.000 Chris McFarling: Vegetation, system, engineers.

01:13:46.000 --> 01:13:48.000 Chris McFarling: So they they graze and browse.

01:13:48.000 --> 01:13:49.000 Chris McFarling: And help.

01:13:49.000 --> 01:13:51.000 Chris McFarling: Diversify the landscape.

01:13:51.000 --> 01:13:54.000 Chris McFarling: We've lost turtle doves, but we could reintroduce.

01:13:54.000 --> 01:13:55.000 Chris McFarling: Submit. We.

01:13:55.000 --> 01:13:57.000 Chris McFarling: Improve the habitats.

01:13:57.000 --> 01:14:00.000 Chris McFarling: Purple emperors. These are but butterflies that.

01:14:00.000 --> 01:14:01.000 Chris McFarling: Were once here.

01:14:01.000 --> 01:14:05.000 Chris McFarling: Only 20 years ago they were once. Here was the deep.

01:14:05.000 --> 01:14:07.000 Chris McFarling: They're now extinct from the posterity.

01:14:07.000 --> 01:14:10.000 Chris McFarling: And you know there's no reason why we can't.

01:14:10.000 --> 01:14:12.000 Chris McFarling: Reintroduce them.

01:14:13.000 --> 01:14:16.000 Chris McFarling: Tar pans, the ancient Um.

01:14:16.000 --> 01:14:18.000 Chris McFarling: Horses. They are.

01:14:18.000 --> 01:14:20.000 Chris McFarling: They are in some areas in in Europe.

01:14:20.000 --> 01:14:21.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:14:21.000 --> 01:14:23.000 Chris McFarling: And I think in the.

01:14:23.000 --> 01:14:27.000 Chris McFarling: In Sussex or Surrey. They are also. They also have some.

01:14:27.000 --> 01:14:30.000 Chris McFarling: Some schemes to reintroduce them.

01:14:31.000 --> 01:14:33.000 Chris McFarling: We want.

01:14:33.000 --> 01:14:34.000 Chris McFarling: Oh!

01:14:34.000 --> 01:14:36.000 Chris McFarling: Are allowed.

01:14:36.000 --> 01:14:37.000 Chris McFarling: As part of the um.

01:14:37.000 --> 01:14:45.000 Chris McFarling: The the system ecosystem, and then, of course, the um. The fact that we have wild boar and and particularly deer populations that are expanding.

01:14:45.000 --> 01:14:48.000 Chris McFarling: And really take take quite a lot to.

01:14:49.000 --> 01:14:51.000 Chris McFarling: To keep in check.

01:14:51.000 --> 01:14:55.000 Chris McFarling: Um. We do have to look at whether we reintroducing.

01:14:55.000 --> 01:14:59.000 Chris McFarling: The predator. We probably wouldn't reintroduce the wolf at the moment, because.

01:14:59.000 --> 01:15:00.000 Chris McFarling: I don't think.

01:15:00.000 --> 01:15:02.000 Chris McFarling: Culturally, we're ready for that.

01:15:02.000 --> 01:15:05.000 Chris McFarling: But certainly the links would be a.

01:15:05.000 --> 01:15:06.000 Chris McFarling: Ah good.

01:15:06.000 --> 01:15:07.000 Chris McFarling: Possibility.

01:15:07.000 --> 01:15:09.000 Chris McFarling: And they they do keep those.

01:15:09.000 --> 01:15:12.000 Chris McFarling: Populations in check, which means that the ecosystem.

01:15:12.000 --> 01:15:14.000 Chris McFarling: Starts functioning.

01:15:14.000 --> 01:15:15.000 Chris McFarling: In a better way.

01:15:16.000 --> 01:15:17.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:15:19.000 --> 01:15:22.000 Chris McFarling: We didn't have this sustainable tourism.

01:15:23.000 --> 01:15:24.000 Chris McFarling: And we've got.

01:15:27.000 --> 01:15:28.000 Chris McFarling: Oh!

01:15:50.000 --> 01:15:55.000 Chris McFarling: Award-winning and foster Dean.

01:15:55.000 --> 01:15:57.000 Chris McFarling: We, we found loves the.

01:15:57.000 --> 01:15:59.000 Chris McFarling: The fact that we are a forest.

01:15:59.000 --> 01:16:04.000 Chris McFarling: Um. When it was when the the whole forest estate was put up for sale.

01:16:04.000 --> 01:16:06.000 Chris McFarling: Um in 20.

01:16:07.000 --> 01:16:08.000 Chris McFarling: 1020, 11, I think.

01:16:09.000 --> 01:16:11.000 Chris McFarling: By the by the Government at the time.

01:16:14.000 --> 01:16:15.000 Chris McFarling: And.

01:16:15.000 --> 01:16:17.000 Chris McFarling: The size of the protest, managed to.

01:16:17.000 --> 01:16:18.000 Chris McFarling: Stop that sale!

01:16:18.000 --> 01:16:21.000 Chris McFarling: And so we still have our forester, Dean.

01:16:21.000 --> 01:16:21.000 Chris McFarling: Has.

01:16:21.000 --> 01:16:23.000 Chris McFarling: Part of a public forest estate.

01:16:24.000 --> 01:16:25.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:16:26.000 --> 01:16:28.000 Chris McFarling: And then we did a survey.

01:16:28.000 --> 01:16:29.000 Chris McFarling: A couple of years ago.

01:16:30.000 --> 01:16:36.000 Chris McFarling: We found that every person opposed to the idea of Bison was a 16 win favour.

01:16:36.000 --> 01:16:39.000 Chris McFarling: Which is a tremendous endorsement.

01:16:39.000 --> 01:16:43.000 Chris McFarling: And so this was just a toe in the water to see.

01:16:43.000 --> 01:16:44.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:16:44.000 --> 01:16:46.000 Chris McFarling: Where people were.

01:16:46.000 --> 01:16:47.000 Chris McFarling: Because.

01:16:47.000 --> 01:16:49.000 Chris McFarling: And even now there's still a lot of.

01:16:49.000 --> 01:16:52.000 Chris McFarling: Misunderstanding about what a biosphere is.

01:16:52.000 --> 01:16:54.000 Chris McFarling: And what it can do, and what it won't do.

01:16:54.000 --> 01:16:55.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:16:55.000 --> 01:16:58.000 Chris McFarling: So people can confuse it with the.

01:16:58.000 --> 01:17:00.000 Chris McFarling: With the the planning authority.

01:17:00.000 --> 01:17:04.000 Chris McFarling: And think the biosphere reserves can actually just buy up the land and.

01:17:04.000 --> 01:17:07.000 Chris McFarling: Do what they want with it. It's it's not that, but.

01:17:07.000 --> 01:17:08.000 Chris McFarling: We will.

01:17:08.000 --> 01:17:10.000 Chris McFarling: We will clarify the.

01:17:10.000 --> 01:17:12.000 Chris McFarling: What a biosphere is.

01:17:12.000 --> 01:17:15.000 Chris McFarling: In in the next few months, as we hear about.

01:17:15.000 --> 01:17:16.000 Chris McFarling: But the um.

01:17:16.000 --> 01:17:17.000 Chris McFarling: The proposal.

01:17:18.000 --> 01:17:22.000 Chris McFarling: And then it provides a brand name to improve local economies.

01:17:22.000 --> 01:17:25.000 Chris McFarling: Other biosphere reserves when they sell their products.

01:17:25.000 --> 01:17:30.000 Chris McFarling: They find that the biosphere, the fact that it's got biosphere on it.

01:17:30.000 --> 01:17:32.000 Chris McFarling: Appeals to the consumers.

01:17:32.000 --> 01:17:34.000 Chris McFarling: Because they think it's.

01:17:34.000 --> 01:17:36.000 Chris McFarling: Cleaner. It's more pure.

01:17:36.000 --> 01:17:38.000 Chris McFarling: And they know where it comes from.

01:17:38.000 --> 01:17:41.000 Chris McFarling: It's better for you, and of course it.

01:17:41.000 --> 01:17:43.000 Chris McFarling: It really helps the local economy so it can.

01:17:43.000 --> 01:17:46.000 Chris McFarling: It can have a premium added to it.

01:17:46.000 --> 01:17:47.000 Chris McFarling: Which is good for the.

01:17:47.000 --> 01:17:51.000 Chris McFarling: For the those that sell the the food.

01:17:51.000 --> 01:17:52.000 Chris McFarling: And so we we could.

01:17:52.000 --> 01:17:54.000 Chris McFarling: And we do sell wild born meat.

01:17:54.000 --> 01:17:57.000 Chris McFarling: This is not farm blog board. This is blog.

01:17:57.000 --> 01:17:58.000 Chris McFarling: True Whiteboard.

01:17:58.000 --> 01:18:01.000 Chris McFarling: And of course it has a space which.

01:18:03.000 --> 01:18:04.000 Chris McFarling: Which is second to none.

01:18:05.000 --> 01:18:06.000 Chris McFarling: And then.

01:18:06.000 --> 01:18:08.000 Chris McFarling: Biodiversities of corporate priority.

01:18:08.000 --> 01:18:11.000 Chris McFarling: We did get the office for National Statistics.

01:18:11.000 --> 01:18:13.000 Chris McFarling: To do a.

01:18:13.000 --> 01:18:15.000 Chris McFarling: A study on the.

01:18:15.000 --> 01:18:17.000 Chris McFarling: Economic benefits, or otherwise.

01:18:17.000 --> 01:18:19.000 Chris McFarling: Of a biosphere reserve.

01:18:19.000 --> 01:18:22.000 Chris McFarling: And they found that for every pound you invest.

01:18:22.000 --> 01:18:24.000 Chris McFarling: In a biosphere reserve.

01:18:24.000 --> 01:18:27.000 Chris McFarling: You get about nearly 4 pounds back.

01:18:27.000 --> 01:18:28.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:18:28.000 --> 01:18:32.000 Chris McFarling: Over time over 30 years in value as.

01:18:35.000 --> 01:18:38.000 Chris McFarling: So you cannot. It's got its it's.

01:18:38.000 --> 01:18:40.000 Chris McFarling: It's a viability.

01:18:40.000 --> 01:18:42.000 Chris McFarling: And business case.

01:18:42.000 --> 01:18:46.000 Chris McFarling: Already sorted. So it's it's it's a good good for the economy and.

01:18:46.000 --> 01:18:49.000 Chris McFarling: If it's good for the economy you you could get most councillors to.

01:18:49.000 --> 01:18:50.000 Chris McFarling: To go with it.

01:18:50.000 --> 01:18:52.000 Chris McFarling: But it's also, as we know.

01:18:52.000 --> 01:18:55.000 Chris McFarling: Now good for the community and good for the um.

01:18:55.000 --> 01:18:57.000 Chris McFarling: Good for the environment.

01:18:57.000 --> 01:19:00.000 Chris McFarling: And so ultimately what we want to do.

01:19:00.000 --> 01:19:04.000 Chris McFarling: Is to leave a leave a legacy for those as yet unborn.

01:19:04.000 --> 01:19:05.000 Chris McFarling: And as the um.

01:19:05.000 --> 01:19:09.000 Chris McFarling: Sustainable development. Definition. The true definition.

01:19:09.000 --> 01:19:10.000 Chris McFarling: Suggests.

01:19:10.000 --> 01:19:13.000 Chris McFarling: If we can meet our needs without compromising.

01:19:13.000 --> 01:19:17.000 Chris McFarling: Future generations from meeting their own needs in their own time, as well.

01:19:17.000 --> 01:19:19.000 Chris McFarling: And so that's what we want to do.

01:19:19.000 --> 01:19:21.000 Chris McFarling: And I think that's about it.

01:19:21.000 --> 01:19:23.000 Chris McFarling: So I'll stop sharing.

01:19:27.000 --> 01:19:40.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Thank you so much, John. That was really interesting. You actually disappeared. Volume wise on your puzzle wood slide. So if there's anything that you were saying there that you felt should be repeated. By all means, please do.

01:19:30.000 --> 01:19:31.000 Chris McFarling: Grace.

01:19:40.000 --> 01:19:45.000 Chris McFarling: Okay, and the puzzle was fine. It was just to show that um.

01:19:45.000 --> 01:19:47.000 Chris McFarling: Recreation and tourism.

01:19:47.000 --> 01:19:50.000 Chris McFarling: Can benefit the environment, and vice versa.

01:19:50.000 --> 01:19:52.000 Chris McFarling: But also the puzzle. Wood was the.

01:19:52.000 --> 01:19:56.000 Chris McFarling: Scene of the Um. One of the Starwood Star Wars films.

01:19:56.000 --> 01:19:57.000 Chris McFarling: And so the.

01:19:57.000 --> 01:20:00.000 Chris McFarling: Believe it or not, a natural environment can actually make a lot of money.

01:20:01.000 --> 01:20:04.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yeah. Particularly. Yes.

01:20:02.000 --> 01:20:03.000 Chris McFarling: You know.

01:20:04.000 --> 01:20:06.000 Chris McFarling: Particularly if if they're, you know.

01:20:04.000 --> 01:20:06.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: A member of the Star Horse.

01:20:06.000 --> 01:20:09.000 Chris McFarling: Those natural environments are few and far between.

01:20:06.000 --> 01:20:07.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Um.

01:20:09.000 --> 01:20:22.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Okay, let's roll into the the question and answer session. Um, and we invite people to use the zoom symbols for raising hands, please. And, Tristram, you're way off to a great start.

01:20:22.000 --> 01:20:28.000 tristram cary: Yeah, Chris, thank you very much. Very interesting. I'm a bit confused, though, about what what.

01:20:28.000 --> 01:20:32.000 tristram cary: Actually, the process is for getting a biosphere. You're obviously doing a great job with.

01:20:32.000 --> 01:20:45.000 tristram cary: You know, preserving the forest routine and developing it, and doing all those things that you put in your your slides already. So what is the process, and and what sort of legal protection does does being declared? The biosphere give you.

01:20:46.000 --> 01:20:47.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:20:48.000 --> 01:20:50.000 Chris McFarling: It's. It's an international.

01:20:50.000 --> 01:20:52.000 Chris McFarling: Accolade, you could call it.

01:20:53.000 --> 01:20:57.000 Chris McFarling: It's just it. It acknowledges that the area is.

01:20:57.000 --> 01:21:01.000 Chris McFarling: Is being actively protected by the communities that live there.

01:21:01.000 --> 01:21:05.000 Chris McFarling: It works with the local planning authority.

01:21:05.000 --> 01:21:06.000 Chris McFarling: Local councils.

01:21:07.000 --> 01:21:08.000 Chris McFarling: Um to.

01:21:08.000 --> 01:21:10.000 Chris McFarling: Deliver that protection.

01:21:10.000 --> 01:21:13.000 Chris McFarling: And that sustainable development.

01:21:16.000 --> 01:21:17.000 Chris McFarling: Designation.

01:21:18.000 --> 01:21:21.000 Chris McFarling: It hasn't got any legal powers as such.

01:21:21.000 --> 01:21:22.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:21:22.000 --> 01:21:23.000 Chris McFarling: But the best.

01:21:24.000 --> 01:21:28.000 Chris McFarling: Um. The the way you apply is you literally you. You get together your.

01:21:28.000 --> 01:21:32.000 Chris McFarling: Your your evidence of what you you want to protect, and how you're going to do that.

01:21:32.000 --> 01:21:36.000 Chris McFarling: Examples of sustainable development that that would.

01:21:36.000 --> 01:21:37.000 Chris McFarling: You know I I.

01:21:37.000 --> 01:21:38.000 Chris McFarling: Champion.

01:21:38.000 --> 01:21:41.000 Chris McFarling: The biospheres around the country, but also.

01:21:41.000 --> 01:21:44.000 Chris McFarling: Um a management plan on how you.

01:21:44.000 --> 01:21:45.000 Chris McFarling: You hope to.

01:21:45.000 --> 01:21:48.000 Chris McFarling: Restore and and protect and enhance as much.

01:21:48.000 --> 01:21:50.000 Chris McFarling: As much wildlife as you can.

01:21:50.000 --> 01:21:52.000 Chris McFarling: But also.

01:21:52.000 --> 01:21:53.000 Chris McFarling: Reconnecting.

01:21:53.000 --> 01:21:58.000 Chris McFarling: That relationship between people, humans and and wildlife.

01:21:58.000 --> 01:21:59.000 Chris McFarling: Which has been lost.

01:21:58.000 --> 01:22:05.000 tristram cary: But but does it? Does it give you sort of? Does it give you stronger protection against unwanted development, for instance, or is that just.

01:22:04.000 --> 01:22:11.000 Chris McFarling: It you? No, no, no, unwanted development it all development has to go through the planning system.

01:22:11.000 --> 01:22:13.000 Chris McFarling: But what it does do. It gives you that.

01:22:14.000 --> 01:22:18.000 Chris McFarling: It gives the planning system the opportunity to say, Well, look.

01:22:18.000 --> 01:22:20.000 Chris McFarling: We don't want that here because.

01:22:21.000 --> 01:22:25.000 Chris McFarling: We do want to protect the wildlife, and you know there are many reasons why.

01:22:22.000 --> 01:22:23.000 tristram cary: Yeah.

01:22:25.000 --> 01:22:29.000 Chris McFarling: Development in certain areas wouldn't be a good idea. But.

01:22:29.000 --> 01:22:31.000 Chris McFarling: What they tried to do is to work with a planning system.

01:22:29.000 --> 01:22:29.000 tristram cary: Hmm.

01:22:31.000 --> 01:22:33.000 Chris McFarling: To see if they can accommodate.

01:22:33.000 --> 01:22:34.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:22:34.000 --> 01:22:37.000 Chris McFarling: Eco. Villages in the Eco development.

01:22:36.000 --> 01:22:36.000 tristram cary: Hmm.

01:22:37.000 --> 01:22:40.000 Chris McFarling: As it were. So it's it's really.

01:22:40.000 --> 01:22:42.000 Chris McFarling: It's really the um.

01:22:42.000 --> 01:22:44.000 Chris McFarling: It's a different mindset.

01:22:44.000 --> 01:22:45.000 tristram cary: And.

01:22:46.000 --> 01:22:48.000 Chris McFarling: It's. It's just just.

01:22:48.000 --> 01:22:50.000 Chris McFarling: In a gentle way.

01:22:50.000 --> 01:22:52.000 Chris McFarling: It's just putting in.

01:22:52.000 --> 01:22:55.000 Chris McFarling: A voice for wildlife at all levels.

01:22:54.000 --> 01:22:55.000 tristram cary: Yeah.

01:22:55.000 --> 01:22:58.000 Chris McFarling: And just to say, Look, look! Don't you know.

01:22:58.000 --> 01:23:03.000 Chris McFarling: Remember that that we are in a special area as as one of the managers of the North Devon.

01:23:04.000 --> 01:23:06.000 Chris McFarling: Biosphere, as I've said, he said.

01:23:06.000 --> 01:23:08.000 Chris McFarling: It acts as a head. Turner.

01:23:10.000 --> 01:23:13.000 Chris McFarling: If you say you know polysty dene biosphere.

01:23:13.000 --> 01:23:14.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:23:14.000 --> 01:23:17.000 Chris McFarling: People turn their heads, and they think, Oh, that's interesting!

01:23:17.000 --> 01:23:19.000 Chris McFarling: And so you can actually.

01:23:19.000 --> 01:23:20.000 Chris McFarling: Gain.

01:23:20.000 --> 01:23:22.000 Chris McFarling: Internal investment.

01:23:23.000 --> 01:23:24.000 tristram cary: Okay. Thank you.

01:23:23.000 --> 01:23:24.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:23:24.000 --> 01:23:25.000 Chris McFarling: Which, which.

01:23:25.000 --> 01:23:27.000 Chris McFarling: You know. I think the North Devon one has had.

01:23:27.000 --> 01:23:29.000 Chris McFarling: In the last couple of years. It's had some.

01:23:29.000 --> 01:23:33.000 Chris McFarling: Something like 15 million pounds of investment by private enterprise.

01:23:34.000 --> 01:23:38.000 Chris McFarling: But are there specifically because this is a bias man.

01:23:38.000 --> 01:23:39.000 tristram cary: Right.

01:23:39.000 --> 01:23:48.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Brilliant thanks. Chris. John, you've been very um. What's the word proactive in the chat? So please come ahead and do it verbally. Now.

01:23:52.000 --> 01:23:54.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: You're muted still. There you go!

01:23:53.000 --> 01:23:54.000 John Payne: Oh, yeah, I, yeah.

01:23:55.000 --> 01:24:00.000 John Payne: Chris. The real problem is not future development, but existing developments.

01:24:00.000 --> 01:24:07.000 John Payne: You know that that's and how are we going to control those on the predatory industry? Particularly, I'm thinking of noble foods that care. Well.

01:24:07.000 --> 01:24:13.000 John Payne: Which is adjacent to puzzle woods and our own wood, which is rare, temperate rainforest.

01:24:13.000 --> 01:24:15.000 John Payne: This is a company that will just.

01:24:14.000 --> 01:24:14.000 Chris McFarling: Yeah, I know.

01:24:15.000 --> 01:24:17.000 John Payne: Powers ahead. How are we going to control them?

01:24:17.000 --> 01:24:22.000 John Payne: To my mind at the O. At the moment. The only way is by direct action like me.

01:24:22.000 --> 01:24:25.000 John Payne: Standing in the middle of the road with a 44 ton lorry.

01:24:25.000 --> 01:24:26.000 John Payne: You know, sort of.

01:24:26.000 --> 01:24:28.000 John Payne: Bearing down on me.

01:24:29.000 --> 01:24:34.000 Chris McFarling: Um, yeah, I you know what's what's been developed has been developed. You know, it's.

01:24:34.000 --> 01:24:40.000 Chris McFarling: We can't. The college just could suddenly say, Okay, we're going to take all of these houses out because they're in the wrong place.

01:24:40.000 --> 01:24:42.000 Chris McFarling: We're going to do away with um.

01:24:42.000 --> 01:24:42.000 John Payne: Yeah.

01:24:42.000 --> 01:24:45.000 Chris McFarling: You know, noble foods and and intensive poultry units.

01:24:44.000 --> 01:24:48.000 John Payne: But, Chris, can I just say that that conditions.

01:24:45.000 --> 01:24:46.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:24:46.000 --> 01:24:50.000 Chris McFarling: Yeah. And I know. I know. You know. I know. I know where you are.

01:24:49.000 --> 01:24:53.000 John Payne: No conditions are changing, and I don't want to scare the local community.

01:24:53.000 --> 01:24:55.000 John Payne: But the real problem is zoonotic disease.

01:24:55.000 --> 01:24:59.000 John Payne: You know which is these lorries? Go to every single.

01:24:56.000 --> 01:24:56.000 Chris McFarling: And.

01:24:59.000 --> 01:25:00.000 John Payne: Um.

01:25:00.000 --> 01:25:03.000 John Payne: Cultural units which could and will have avian flu again.

01:25:04.000 --> 01:25:07.000 John Payne: And once you introduce that into the bats or the local mammals.

01:25:08.000 --> 01:25:10.000 John Payne: And we know that at the moment that.

01:25:10.000 --> 01:25:13.000 John Payne: That you can catch avian flu.

01:25:13.000 --> 01:25:19.000 John Payne: From from an animal, from particularly from cattle. Now, as well as poultry workers.

01:25:19.000 --> 01:25:21.000 John Payne: It has a 50% fatality.

01:25:21.000 --> 01:25:23.000 John Payne: And it's going to mutate soon.

01:25:23.000 --> 01:25:24.000 John Payne: So that.

01:25:24.000 --> 01:25:34.000 John Payne: That you can then pass on the flu from person to person. And it's these new conditions, these new, which must really we must really move on, and um.

01:25:34.000 --> 01:25:35.000 John Payne: It's it's.

01:25:35.000 --> 01:25:37.000 John Payne: I can tell you what will happen with.

01:25:37.000 --> 01:25:42.000 John Payne: With um noble foods, they will gradually expand as they have done. Now.

01:25:42.000 --> 01:25:44.000 John Payne: Until they encroach on our woodland.

01:25:44.000 --> 01:25:45.000 John Payne: And puzzle wood.

01:25:45.000 --> 01:25:47.000 John Payne: Already the smell and the noise.

01:25:47.000 --> 01:25:50.000 John Payne: Is detracting from the value of tourism and the.

01:25:50.000 --> 01:25:53.000 John Payne: Amenity. Value of these absolutely.

01:25:53.000 --> 01:25:54.000 John Payne: Crucially.

01:25:54.000 --> 01:25:55.000 John Payne: Um.

01:25:55.000 --> 01:25:56.000 John Payne: Important words.

01:25:57.000 --> 01:25:58.000 Chris McFarling: I.

01:25:58.000 --> 01:26:03.000 Chris McFarling: I know. I know I'm I'm with you on that um, as you know. I've been fighting noble foods for.

01:26:03.000 --> 01:26:04.000 John Payne: Hmm.

01:26:03.000 --> 01:26:05.000 Chris McFarling: Many, many years, as well.

01:26:05.000 --> 01:26:08.000 Chris McFarling: Um, we are trying to get a planning condition.

01:26:08.000 --> 01:26:09.000 Chris McFarling: Put on them.

01:26:10.000 --> 01:26:10.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:26:10.000 --> 01:26:13.000 Chris McFarling: You know we haven't got any control over them.

01:26:13.000 --> 01:26:14.000 Chris McFarling: Uh, because.

01:26:17.000 --> 01:26:19.000 John Payne: That that complete.

01:26:17.000 --> 01:26:20.000 Chris McFarling: We could do, and and.

01:26:19.000 --> 01:26:22.000 John Payne: And that's what we must do, and I'm looking for your support on that.

01:26:21.000 --> 01:26:22.000 Chris McFarling: And that the reason.

01:26:22.000 --> 01:26:24.000 Chris McFarling: The recent planning application has that.

01:26:25.000 --> 01:26:29.000 Chris McFarling: In its condition that they're still using a certain number of Hgv. Movements to.

01:26:29.000 --> 01:26:30.000 Chris McFarling: 2.

01:26:30.000 --> 01:26:32.000 Chris McFarling: Prevent it from expanding any further.

01:26:32.000 --> 01:26:35.000 Chris McFarling: But obviously, with all of these, it's it.

01:26:33.000 --> 01:26:33.000 John Payne: Hmm.

01:26:35.000 --> 01:26:38.000 Chris McFarling: It needs enforcing, and it needs monitoring.

01:26:37.000 --> 01:26:38.000 John Payne: Yeah.

01:26:38.000 --> 01:26:40.000 Chris McFarling: And that's where the resource isn't available.

01:26:39.000 --> 01:26:44.000 John Payne: How would you respond if we, if the public gets so worried by this that we actually take direct action.

01:26:40.000 --> 01:26:41.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Um.

01:26:44.000 --> 01:26:50.000 John Payne: Which will show up the the green nature of the Green Party, you know, which really at the moment is.

01:26:49.000 --> 01:26:55.000 Chris McFarling: They would I I would support you. I you know I've taken direct action with Xr.

01:26:55.000 --> 01:26:58.000 Chris McFarling: In the past, so I'm not averse to.

01:26:58.000 --> 01:27:00.000 Chris McFarling: Ah, you know, activist.

01:27:00.000 --> 01:27:01.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:27:00.000 --> 01:27:04.000 John Payne: Great that'd be, that'd be. Thank you for that. Chris. Yeah.

01:27:01.000 --> 01:27:02.000 Chris McFarling: Action.

01:27:02.000 --> 01:27:04.000 Chris McFarling: However, I would say that.

01:27:04.000 --> 01:27:07.000 Chris McFarling: You know I was. I was. I was there on the walk against Iraq.

01:27:08.000 --> 01:27:12.000 Chris McFarling: I was there at the climate change, you know. Some of the climate change protests.

01:27:08.000 --> 01:27:09.000 John Payne: Hmm.

01:27:12.000 --> 01:27:14.000 Chris McFarling: And nothing has changed.

01:27:14.000 --> 01:27:15.000 John Payne: Nope.

01:27:14.000 --> 01:27:16.000 Chris McFarling: Nothing has changed. So.

01:27:16.000 --> 01:27:17.000 John Payne: Fast.

01:27:16.000 --> 01:27:19.000 Chris McFarling: You know, even even just recently we had a walk for Wildlife.

01:27:19.000 --> 01:27:21.000 Chris McFarling: Outside the Houses of Parliament.

01:27:21.000 --> 01:27:25.000 Chris McFarling: And nothing has changed. And this new government.

01:27:25.000 --> 01:27:26.000 Chris McFarling: Hasn't.

01:27:26.000 --> 01:27:29.000 Chris McFarling: Filled me with hasn't inspired me that they will.

01:27:29.000 --> 01:27:30.000 Chris McFarling: Take the baton and run with it.

01:27:29.000 --> 01:27:30.000 John Payne: Hmm.

01:27:31.000 --> 01:27:35.000 Chris McFarling: So. Um, but yeah, you know, biospheres can only do what they can do.

01:27:35.000 --> 01:27:41.000 Chris McFarling: Uh, you may be right. There is a changing mindset, certainly, with zoo zoonotic diseases.

01:27:41.000 --> 01:27:42.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:27:42.000 --> 01:27:45.000 Chris McFarling: It's it's preparedness and research. I don't know how much.

01:27:45.000 --> 01:27:50.000 Chris McFarling: Research is going into it. I thought that after the Covid experience.

01:27:50.000 --> 01:27:53.000 Chris McFarling: We were going to learn lessons and prepare for the next one.

01:27:53.000 --> 01:27:54.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:27:54.000 --> 01:27:55.000 Chris McFarling: You know.

01:27:55.000 --> 01:27:58.000 Chris McFarling: I'm not an Mp. I don't have access to.

01:27:58.000 --> 01:28:00.000 Chris McFarling: The halls of power, but.

01:27:58.000 --> 01:27:59.000 John Payne: Mhm.

01:28:00.000 --> 01:28:05.000 Chris McFarling: I bet you, but my bottom dollar that they're not preparing themselves as much as they should do.

01:28:06.000 --> 01:28:08.000 John Payne: Thank you.

01:28:09.000 --> 01:28:10.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Wow! What.

01:28:10.000 --> 01:28:19.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Let me take advantage of a quiet spell. Just say good afternoon to Tim and David, Peter and Jerry. Thank you very much for showing up.

01:28:19.000 --> 01:28:20.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And.

01:28:20.000 --> 01:28:24.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Can anybody else raise any questions for Chris? Please.

01:28:25.000 --> 01:28:29.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Whilst people are thinking. Chris, let me just say that um.

01:28:29.000 --> 01:28:33.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: It's fascinating to me with these collaboration series to see.

01:28:33.000 --> 01:28:41.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: How we can pull networks of groups together, and you were talking about the clusters of farms working together, and then you discover that there's a.

01:28:41.000 --> 01:28:50.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: A bunch in Mike Eccles's place, and then there's I don't see any reason not to pull them together all over the countryside, and then have a much more powerful voice.

01:28:51.000 --> 01:28:58.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: To assail those Mps who you can um trap and catch and and persuade them to do something.

01:28:56.000 --> 01:28:57.000 Chris McFarling: Yeah.

01:28:58.000 --> 01:28:59.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Anyway, that's nothing.

01:28:58.000 --> 01:28:59.000 Chris McFarling: It? Is it.

01:28:59.000 --> 01:29:01.000 Chris McFarling: Well, would you hit the nail on the head.

01:29:01.000 --> 01:29:03.000 Chris McFarling: That's 3.

01:29:03.000 --> 01:29:06.000 Chris McFarling: The main thing that biospheres can provide is that.

01:29:06.000 --> 01:29:07.000 Chris McFarling: At home.

01:29:08.000 --> 01:29:11.000 Chris McFarling: Coordination, and that networking.

01:29:11.000 --> 01:29:16.000 Chris McFarling: You. You don't get together to write to your Mp. You actually get the Mp. There, around the table with you.

01:29:16.000 --> 01:29:20.000 Chris McFarling: So that they understand better what the, what, the, what the issues are.

01:29:17.000 --> 01:29:17.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yeah.

01:29:20.000 --> 01:29:26.000 Chris McFarling: But it's it's networking. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, somebody said when I gave this report this presentation to the.

01:29:27.000 --> 01:29:31.000 Chris McFarling: Gloucestershire local nature partnership, they said. Couldn't we make Gloucestershire into a biosphere.

01:29:32.000 --> 01:29:38.000 Chris McFarling: And I said, Well, we can make the whole country. Actually, we can make the world into a biosphere. Oh, we've already got one.

01:29:38.000 --> 01:29:40.000 Chris McFarling: I think I think to be serious.

01:29:40.000 --> 01:29:43.000 Chris McFarling: The it it for me. It's the urgency.

01:29:43.000 --> 01:29:46.000 Chris McFarling: I've worked with wildlife all of my life.

01:29:46.000 --> 01:29:49.000 Chris McFarling: I've worked with the rarest birds in the world at some point.

01:29:49.000 --> 01:29:50.000 Chris McFarling: And.

01:29:51.000 --> 01:29:53.000 Chris McFarling: What the the trajectory.

01:29:53.000 --> 01:29:55.000 Chris McFarling: Is frighteningly scary.

01:29:55.000 --> 01:29:57.000 Chris McFarling: And it's downwards. We are losing.

01:29:57.000 --> 01:29:58.000 Chris McFarling: Species, like.

01:29:58.000 --> 01:30:00.000 Chris McFarling: You know this is a mass extinction.

01:30:00.000 --> 01:30:03.000 Chris McFarling: 6 mass extinction, and we are losing species literally.

01:30:00.000 --> 01:30:01.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yeah.

01:30:04.000 --> 01:30:05.000 Chris McFarling: Under our eyes.

01:30:06.000 --> 01:30:07.000 Chris McFarling: You know we've lost nightingales.

01:30:07.000 --> 01:30:09.000 Chris McFarling: Hide, flycatchers.

01:30:09.000 --> 01:30:10.000 Chris McFarling: Wood Warblers.

01:30:10.000 --> 01:30:12.000 Chris McFarling: From the forester. Dean.

01:30:12.000 --> 01:30:13.000 Chris McFarling: From the Far East.

01:30:13.000 --> 01:30:14.000 Chris McFarling: The main call is.

01:30:16.000 --> 01:30:19.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Let's move on to the the questions, Chris.

01:30:16.000 --> 01:30:19.000 Chris McFarling: They're still in the district, just about flinging on.

01:30:19.000 --> 01:30:20.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Um. We've got.

01:30:20.000 --> 01:30:27.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Tim and Stuart, and then there's a question in the chat from Peter, so can we do it in that order, please, Tim, you're up next.

01:30:27.000 --> 01:30:35.000 Tim Rickard: Well that um! I feel I should give way to Stuart, really, because otherwise we're in danger, becoming a little too parochial because.

01:30:34.000 --> 01:30:37.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Well, you are very local like me.

01:30:35.000 --> 01:30:35.000 Tim Rickard: I.

01:30:36.000 --> 01:30:39.000 Tim Rickard: Chris is Forest of Dean, so, too, is John, and.

01:30:39.000 --> 01:30:43.000 Tim Rickard: I I'm even more parochical. I come from the north of the district.

01:30:43.000 --> 01:30:47.000 Tim Rickard: And what is really interesting is how you define.

01:30:47.000 --> 01:30:51.000 Tim Rickard: The way a biosphere, a biosphere, operates.

01:30:51.000 --> 01:30:56.000 Tim Rickard: In response to the topography, to the landscape, and to the culture of the region.

01:30:56.000 --> 01:30:57.000 Tim Rickard: And.

01:30:57.000 --> 01:30:59.000 Tim Rickard: I've talked to Chris quite often.

01:30:59.000 --> 01:31:06.000 Tim Rickard: About how we define our region so that everyone is included. We often talk about the 7 and the Y.

01:31:06.000 --> 01:31:09.000 Tim Rickard: But we have this huge catchment area in the north.

01:31:09.000 --> 01:31:11.000 Tim Rickard: Um, which is the river leaden.

01:31:11.000 --> 01:31:14.000 Tim Rickard: And of course the river Leaden gives into Mike's territory.

01:31:14.000 --> 01:31:15.000 Tim Rickard: Because uh.

01:31:18.000 --> 01:31:19.000 Tim Rickard: Matchment, zone.

01:31:19.000 --> 01:31:22.000 Tim Rickard: Um, which feeding into the y, and the 7.

01:31:22.000 --> 01:31:25.000 Tim Rickard: And the difficulty is where you stop.

01:31:25.000 --> 01:31:27.000 Tim Rickard: So when Chris says, Yes, the whole country is but.

01:31:27.000 --> 01:31:32.000 Tim Rickard: How we define it, not just in terms of our wildlife, but.

01:31:32.000 --> 01:31:33.000 Tim Rickard: In terms of.

01:31:33.000 --> 01:31:36.000 Tim Rickard: The culture of the region, as well.

01:31:36.000 --> 01:31:36.000 Tim Rickard: I'm.

01:31:37.000 --> 01:31:37.000 Tim Rickard: And.

01:31:37.000 --> 01:31:45.000 Tim Rickard: How that fits. And I I think it's a really really interesting conundrum. I think it really helps to define.

01:31:45.000 --> 01:31:47.000 Tim Rickard: A landscape, and the people within it.

01:31:48.000 --> 01:31:54.000 Tim Rickard: And it's it's so important at the moment, I think, as as Chris said.

01:31:54.000 --> 01:31:55.000 Tim Rickard: It's a platform.

01:31:55.000 --> 01:32:04.000 Tim Rickard: Stakeholder cooperation. And I think more than anything that's what we need as well. It's it's to engage the community in that response.

01:32:04.000 --> 01:32:09.000 Tim Rickard: And one of the things I'd just like to raise. Forgive me if I'm taking up time here.

01:32:09.000 --> 01:32:13.000 Tim Rickard: Is the response of those areas outside the call zone.

01:32:14.000 --> 01:32:24.000 Tim Rickard: Those areas that are in the transition and buffer zones. The anxiety about the way development will shift into their part of the territory, as it were, rather than.

01:32:24.000 --> 01:32:26.000 Tim Rickard: When it's being held.

01:32:26.000 --> 01:32:28.000 Tim Rickard: As it were, clean.

01:32:28.000 --> 01:32:33.000 Tim Rickard: Um in the other areas. They feel, though. Oh, we're going to feel the pressure of.

01:32:33.000 --> 01:32:36.000 Tim Rickard: Housing and industrial development.

01:32:36.000 --> 01:32:38.000 Tim Rickard: Where the other areas weren't.

01:32:38.000 --> 01:32:39.000 Tim Rickard: Um.

01:32:39.000 --> 01:32:51.000 Tim Rickard: So those are the sorts of sorts of impressions that I'm getting of what we're trying to do locally. I wholly support it. But it's not universally supported because of those kind of anxieties.

01:32:51.000 --> 01:32:52.000 Tim Rickard: Thank you very much.

01:32:53.000 --> 01:32:55.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And Stuart.

01:32:54.000 --> 01:32:56.000 Chris McFarling: If I may just respond to that one.

01:32:55.000 --> 01:32:56.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Oh!

01:32:57.000 --> 01:32:57.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:32:57.000 --> 01:33:01.000 Chris McFarling: Tim, you're absolutely right. That's the impression that.

01:33:01.000 --> 01:33:05.000 Chris McFarling: You know, by saving wildlife in those areas, those core areas and buffer zones.

01:33:05.000 --> 01:33:08.000 Chris McFarling: You, you push development out into the transition zone.

01:33:08.000 --> 01:33:09.000 Chris McFarling: Actually.

01:33:10.000 --> 01:33:14.000 Chris McFarling: It's, it's it's the. It's the local plan that that determines where.

01:33:14.000 --> 01:33:16.000 Chris McFarling: Where the development goes.

01:33:16.000 --> 01:33:21.000 Chris McFarling: And those areas are already protected so you wouldn't be developing on them anyway.

01:33:21.000 --> 01:33:24.000 Chris McFarling: So there isn't an extra push to.

01:33:24.000 --> 01:33:26.000 Chris McFarling: Put that development into the transition zone.

01:33:26.000 --> 01:33:30.000 Chris McFarling: It's it's. It's with the local plan that people need to.

01:33:30.000 --> 01:33:33.000 Chris McFarling: Take, you know, take their umbrages to.

01:33:35.000 --> 01:33:36.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Stuart.

01:33:37.000 --> 01:33:40.000 Cllr Stuart Withington Great Dunmow, Essex: Hi, thanks. Very interesting. Uh.

01:33:40.000 --> 01:33:43.000 Cllr Stuart Withington Great Dunmow, Essex: Talk just a couple of practical things.

01:33:43.000 --> 01:33:46.000 Cllr Stuart Withington Great Dunmow, Essex: Um. You said the forest was up for sale.

01:33:46.000 --> 01:33:48.000 Cllr Stuart Withington Great Dunmow, Essex: Who actually owns the forest.

01:33:49.000 --> 01:33:53.000 Chris McFarling: And it's it's the the government. It's the public forest estate.

01:33:53.000 --> 01:33:57.000 Chris McFarling: So locals would say, well, it's our forest.

01:33:57.000 --> 01:33:58.000 Cllr Stuart Withington Great Dunmow, Essex: Yes.

01:33:58.000 --> 01:33:58.000 Chris McFarling: We just.

01:33:59.000 --> 01:34:03.000 Chris McFarling: Um, but it's it's like like the Commons as well. You know. It's uh.

01:34:03.000 --> 01:34:06.000 Chris McFarling: But in this particular case it's the forestry.

01:34:06.000 --> 01:34:09.000 Chris McFarling: Commission, which is the Government agency which manages.

01:34:09.000 --> 01:34:10.000 Chris McFarling: The Forest Estate.

01:34:11.000 --> 01:34:14.000 Chris McFarling: Um, who owns, who owns the land.

01:34:16.000 --> 01:34:17.000 Chris McFarling: Difficult, one.

01:34:17.000 --> 01:34:19.000 Chris McFarling: Who who owns anything.

01:34:19.000 --> 01:34:23.000 Cllr Stuart Withington Great Dunmow, Essex: Is the Forestry Commission then allowed to sell.

01:34:19.000 --> 01:34:21.000 Chris McFarling: And and and that, that.

01:34:23.000 --> 01:34:27.000 Chris McFarling: Oh, yes, they they do, they they! They they make about.

01:34:27.000 --> 01:34:29.000 Chris McFarling: One and a half to 2 million pounds.

01:34:29.000 --> 01:34:32.000 Chris McFarling: A year on, on, say, September.

01:34:32.000 --> 01:34:34.000 Chris McFarling: I mean they are. They are.

01:34:35.000 --> 01:34:38.000 Chris McFarling: They are mainly um, you know.

01:34:38.000 --> 01:34:40.000 Chris McFarling: Uh using.

01:34:40.000 --> 01:34:42.000 Chris McFarling: Would as ah! As a cash, crawl.

01:34:43.000 --> 01:34:46.000 Chris McFarling: You know the the plantations are there in the Forest of Dean. It's not just.

01:34:46.000 --> 01:34:50.000 Chris McFarling: They're for wildlife. It's not, and it's it's very dissimilar to.

01:34:50.000 --> 01:34:53.000 Chris McFarling: And to the um, the New Forest.

01:34:56.000 --> 01:34:58.000 Chris McFarling: But but what the Government did.

01:34:58.000 --> 01:34:59.000 Chris McFarling: At the time.

01:34:59.000 --> 01:35:00.000 Chris McFarling: Ah!

01:35:00.000 --> 01:35:03.000 Chris McFarling: Is they wanted to cash in on that.

01:35:03.000 --> 01:35:04.000 Chris McFarling: By selling the.

01:35:04.000 --> 01:35:05.000 Chris McFarling: The forest.

01:35:05.000 --> 01:35:07.000 Chris McFarling: To.

01:35:07.000 --> 01:35:11.000 Chris McFarling: Outside agencies, outside organisations.

01:35:11.000 --> 01:35:16.000 Chris McFarling: Uh, even private organizations, so that they could get return an immediate cash return.

01:35:17.000 --> 01:35:18.000 Chris McFarling: And then those other.

01:35:19.000 --> 01:35:20.000 Chris McFarling: Owners would then.

01:35:20.000 --> 01:35:22.000 Chris McFarling: Be able to to.

01:35:22.000 --> 01:35:23.000 Chris McFarling: You know.

01:35:23.000 --> 01:35:29.000 Chris McFarling: 1 1 with with whatever own, whatever you know, resource they had.

01:35:29.000 --> 01:35:32.000 Chris McFarling: Um to make as much money as they could on that.

01:35:32.000 --> 01:35:35.000 Chris McFarling: So it's it's so. Some of it would have gone to.

01:35:35.000 --> 01:35:38.000 Chris McFarling: People. Organizations like the Woodland Trust.

01:35:38.000 --> 01:35:39.000 Chris McFarling: I think they had a.

01:35:39.000 --> 01:35:42.000 Chris McFarling: An element of interest in there, but others would have gone to.

01:35:42.000 --> 01:35:45.000 Chris McFarling: Those commercial developers that want to develop a.

01:35:45.000 --> 01:35:49.000 Chris McFarling: Whatever it happens to be a, you know, a centre park or.

01:35:49.000 --> 01:35:51.000 Chris McFarling: Or whatever, so.

01:35:51.000 --> 01:35:56.000 Chris McFarling: It was. Yeah, it was. I think it was about 2,010, and Mark Harper was the Mp. At the time.

01:35:56.000 --> 01:35:59.000 Chris McFarling: And he he got eggs and and stuff thrown at him.

01:35:59.000 --> 01:36:00.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:36:00.000 --> 01:36:02.000 Chris McFarling: And there was quite, quite a big.

01:36:02.000 --> 01:36:05.000 Chris McFarling: Big reaction from the local community.

01:36:05.000 --> 01:36:07.000 Chris McFarling: Who said, This is our forest.

01:36:07.000 --> 01:36:10.000 Chris McFarling: Um. And don't you know, don't you forget that.

01:36:10.000 --> 01:36:12.000 Chris McFarling: Unfortunately, the government didn't finish.

01:36:12.000 --> 01:36:13.000 Chris McFarling: What they started.

01:36:19.000 --> 01:36:23.000 Chris McFarling: And um! Not the murderers, but the guardians of the boys.

01:36:23.000 --> 01:36:25.000 Chris McFarling: Which would protect it.

01:36:25.000 --> 01:36:27.000 Chris McFarling: In perpetuity.

01:36:27.000 --> 01:36:30.000 Chris McFarling: For the for the local. You know the local people.

01:36:27.000 --> 01:36:28.000 Cllr Stuart Withington Great Dunmow, Essex: Yeah.

01:36:30.000 --> 01:36:32.000 Chris McFarling: But that that didn't get through.

01:36:31.000 --> 01:36:32.000 Cllr Stuart Withington Great Dunmow, Essex: Thanks.

01:36:33.000 --> 01:36:39.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Chris, there's a question from Peter in the chat which asks you um.

01:36:39.000 --> 01:36:44.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: How much the Nepa State Documentary has been an inspiration.

01:36:44.000 --> 01:36:47.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: To the forest of Dean Biosphere Project.

01:36:48.000 --> 01:36:52.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Um, or whether no link at all, maybe.

01:36:49.000 --> 01:36:50.000 Chris McFarling: Okay, the.

01:36:52.000 --> 01:36:55.000 Chris McFarling: No? Well, I I heard about the leper stage where.

01:36:55.000 --> 01:36:57.000 Chris McFarling: 10 years ago.

01:36:57.000 --> 01:36:58.000 Chris McFarling: I haven't even seen the um.

01:36:58.000 --> 01:37:00.000 Chris McFarling: The documentary, but I have.

01:37:00.000 --> 01:37:02.000 Chris McFarling: Read the book by Isabella Tree.

01:37:02.000 --> 01:37:05.000 Chris McFarling: And I have spoken to a couple of people.

01:37:05.000 --> 01:37:07.000 Chris McFarling: About the Nephe estate.

01:37:07.000 --> 01:37:08.000 Chris McFarling: It's.

01:37:09.000 --> 01:37:13.000 Chris McFarling: In. In that case you've got one landowner who's a private landowner.

01:37:13.000 --> 01:37:16.000 Chris McFarling: Who's managed to do that, and quite a large landowner that, as well.

01:37:16.000 --> 01:37:19.000 Chris McFarling: But it's it's the learning and the lessons from that.

01:37:19.000 --> 01:37:24.000 Chris McFarling: And the the fact that they can make it sustainable, economically sustainable.

01:37:24.000 --> 01:37:25.000 Chris McFarling: By selling tours.

01:37:25.000 --> 01:37:28.000 Chris McFarling: By also selling some of the meat.

01:37:28.000 --> 01:37:32.000 Chris McFarling: I think one of the one of the most radical ones has been to.

01:37:32.000 --> 01:37:33.000 Chris McFarling: They've got ponies on there.

01:37:34.000 --> 01:37:37.000 Chris McFarling: And in order to keep the population in shape.

01:37:37.000 --> 01:37:39.000 Chris McFarling: They? They have to cull the ponies.

01:37:39.000 --> 01:37:42.000 Chris McFarling: Um, and they could sell them.

01:37:42.000 --> 01:37:43.000 Chris McFarling: As solemn as meat.

01:37:43.000 --> 01:37:48.000 Chris McFarling: You do in Europe. You know it's it's it's just. It's it's a bit taboo here in this country.

01:37:48.000 --> 01:37:50.000 Chris McFarling: But they could they.

01:37:50.000 --> 01:37:51.000 Chris McFarling: And it's it's that.

01:37:51.000 --> 01:37:55.000 Chris McFarling: It's the fact that they are sustainable in all respects.

01:37:55.000 --> 01:37:57.000 Chris McFarling: That that really helped me.

01:37:57.000 --> 01:37:59.000 Chris McFarling: Um the the reason I I.

01:37:59.000 --> 01:38:01.000 Chris McFarling: Originated the the biosphere.

01:38:01.000 --> 01:38:03.000 Chris McFarling: Forest, project.

01:38:03.000 --> 01:38:04.000 Chris McFarling: Was simply because.

01:38:04.000 --> 01:38:07.000 Chris McFarling: I'd I'd lived and worked in one in the Galapagos.

01:38:07.000 --> 01:38:09.000 Chris McFarling: And I could see no.

01:38:09.000 --> 01:38:11.000 Chris McFarling: Reason why no disbenefit.

01:38:11.000 --> 01:38:13.000 Chris McFarling: I'm trying to.

01:38:13.000 --> 01:38:16.000 Chris McFarling: Register it and get that designation. In fact.

01:38:16.000 --> 01:38:19.000 Chris McFarling: I saw a benefit, you know, benefits all the way round.

01:38:19.000 --> 01:38:21.000 Chris McFarling: Um and the neck estate just.

01:38:22.000 --> 01:38:25.000 Chris McFarling: Amplified the possibility, and I have spoken to.

01:38:25.000 --> 01:38:27.000 Chris McFarling: The um deputy surveyor, Keith.

01:38:27.000 --> 01:38:28.000 Chris McFarling: Kevin, Stannard.

01:38:29.000 --> 01:38:31.000 Chris McFarling: About possibilities and.

01:38:31.000 --> 01:38:34.000 Chris McFarling: I keep on pestering him, but um.

01:38:34.000 --> 01:38:36.000 Chris McFarling: Through our conversations we've managed to get.

01:38:36.000 --> 01:38:38.000 Chris McFarling: Beavers back in.

01:38:38.000 --> 01:38:40.000 Chris McFarling: We've managed to get Pine Martens back in.

01:38:40.000 --> 01:38:43.000 Chris McFarling: And I have my finger in those pies as well.

01:38:44.000 --> 01:38:47.000 Chris McFarling: And so, you know, the next one i i want to get in is.

01:38:47.000 --> 01:38:49.000 Chris McFarling: Is. Oh, I've I've suggested Bison.

01:38:50.000 --> 01:38:50.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:38:51.000 --> 01:38:52.000 Chris McFarling: But um.

01:38:52.000 --> 01:38:53.000 Chris McFarling: Um.

01:38:53.000 --> 01:38:56.000 Chris McFarling: And and I'm I'm always keen.

01:38:56.000 --> 01:38:57.000 Chris McFarling: Keen, on, on.

01:38:57.000 --> 01:38:59.000 Chris McFarling: Looking at whether we can reintroduce the links.

01:38:59.000 --> 01:39:01.000 Chris McFarling: And I would love that to happen in.

01:39:01.000 --> 01:39:03.000 Chris McFarling: Scotland.

01:39:03.000 --> 01:39:07.000 Chris McFarling: As as an example, and then see if we could bring those down.

01:39:07.000 --> 01:39:08.000 Chris McFarling: Into the forest.

01:39:08.000 --> 01:39:10.000 Chris McFarling: But yeah, rewilding it, just.

01:39:10.000 --> 01:39:12.000 Chris McFarling: Seems to me um.

01:39:12.000 --> 01:39:14.000 Chris McFarling: An obvious, an obvious way to.

01:39:14.000 --> 01:39:15.000 Chris McFarling: To reduce our.

01:39:16.000 --> 01:39:18.000 Chris McFarling: Our footprinter.

01:39:18.000 --> 01:39:20.000 Chris McFarling: Um on the on the land, and.

01:39:20.000 --> 01:39:21.000 Chris McFarling: On the environment.

01:39:24.000 --> 01:39:30.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Excellent. Well, thank you very much indeed. Is there anyone else who needs just to raise a question.

01:39:31.000 --> 01:39:32.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Um.

01:39:32.000 --> 01:39:40.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: If not. Thank you, Chris, very much. It was obviously a part of a presentation that generated plenty of interest, and I love the idea of you.

01:39:40.000 --> 01:39:50.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Um, finding that investment in a biosphere generates more value for the land in the future than not investing so great stuff.

01:39:50.000 --> 01:39:51.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Um.

01:39:51.000 --> 01:39:57.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: If I were wise. I could remember what the discussion is next week, but I've forgotten.

01:39:57.000 --> 01:40:10.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: I I invite everyone to take a look at the wiki when I put this presentation up on there, and we'll find out what we're doing next week. But for now. Thank you all so much for coming. Thank you for your comments. Thank you for inputs. And Chris, thank you for the presentation.

01:40:09.000 --> 01:40:10.000 Cllr Stuart Withington Great Dunmow, Essex: Thank you.

01:40:11.000 --> 01:40:12.000 Chris McFarling: More than welcome.

01:40:11.000 --> 01:40:12.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Take care, all.

01:40:11.000 --> 01:40:13.000 tristram cary: Thank you very much. Very interesting.

01:40:12.000 --> 01:40:13.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: But bye-bye.

01:40:13.000 --> 01:40:14.000 Chris McFarling: Take care!