Latest News

Big brother is watching you

One of the drivers for the recent consultation on strengthening the legal framework for protecting hedges, on which we reported here, is the decoupling of the remaining BPS payments which means...

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Countryside Stewardship deadline

On 17 August, a day before the original deadline, we received an email from the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) informing applicants that the Countryside Stewardship (CS) Mid-Tier application deadline had been...

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Agriculture – a cause of global cooling

Thanks to a collaboration between researchers at the University of East Anglia, the Plymouth Marine Laboratory and Cranfield University, we now know that agricultural land provides a source of the gas...

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Bees’ needs week

As our readers will already know, we are keen on the capabilities of bees. Despite the dire puns – which seems to be a regular feature of press releases with an...

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Species survival fund

The National Lottery Heritage Fund has launched what it calls the Species Survival Fund, delivered on behalf of Defra. The stated aim is to tackle habitat loss, safeguard ecosystems and create...

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New hedgerow protections

A consultation on the protection and management of rural hedgerows has been launched by Defra today (28 June 2023). The consultation is seeking views on the best way to maintain and improve...

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