Stop Lecturing Rural Britain - Start Listening to It: Our Letter to The Guardian

Last month, the RSPB urged campaigners to stop promoting “simple fixes,” warning that they polarise rural communities. They’re right. It’s easy to focus narrowly on ecological goals, however our National Parks are legally required to enhance cultural heritage too (‘The place is bleached, a dead zone’: how the UK’s most beloved landscapes became biodiversity deserts, 16 July). It’s even easier to call for simple solutions when you’re not the one held accountable if they fail.

Civil servants have been managing 20,000 acres of the uplands at Moor House, one of the most protected landscapes in the country, for over 70 years. Yet according to Natural England, which also manages it, over 80% of the SSSI units on it are in unfavourable condition.

This is a site within the North Pennines National Landscape, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and a UK Special Protection Area. It is also grazed by sheep, to “maintain open habitats such as heather moorland and blanket bog.”

Natural England employs 3,000 staff and holds over 600 legal powers to direct others how to manage land. Taxpayers have spent £1.8 billion on it over the past decade. If this is the model, then perhaps simply removing sheep from the uplands and handing even more money to public bodies is not such a brilliant idea after all.

Our uplands have suffered from successive, well-intentioned government policies that have often made things worse. Maybe it’s time to recognise that these landscapes have been carefully managed for generations by the people who actually know how they work. That’s why the nation wanted to protect them in the first place.

It’s time to back rural communities - not lecture them.

Andrew Gilruth

Chief Executive

Moorland Association

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