I was surprised to come across a story about the UK biodiversity action plan in that well known organ of the green lobby, Private Eye. The gist of it is that the government has cocked it up and it has become another triumph of style over substance. While I don't agree that things are the unmitigated disaster the article suggests, I do think that this kind of public initiative has no hope of meaningful success unless it faces in the same direction as commercial interest, and that it can look foolish and bureaucratic. Which is what it is at risk of doing. As far as the specifics go, there is some worrying data in the latest update on the Joint Nature Conservation Committee website, not the least being declines in a number of important native habitats and the vertical take off in the incidence of invasive non-native species. It all adds up to a situation that the Biodiversity Research Action Group can't really...er...B.R.A.G. about.
I was surprised to come across a story about the UK biodiversity action plan in that well known organ of the green lobby, Private Eye. The gist of it is that the government has cocked it up and it has become another triumph of style over substance. While I don't agree that things are the unmitigated disaster the article suggests, I do think that this kind of public initiative has no hope of meaningful success unless it faces in the same direction as commercial interest, and that it can look foolish and bureaucratic. Which is what it is at risk of doing. As far as the specifics go, there is some worrying data in the latest update on the Joint Nature Conservation Committee website, not the least being declines in a number of important native habitats and the vertical take off in the incidence of invasive non-native species. It all adds up to a situation that the Biodiversity Research Action Group can't really...er...B.R.A.G. about.