General Principles of Intellectual Property: Concepts of Intellectual Proper...
Sustainable Uplands Westminster Seminar 28 October 2010
1. 01/30/15 1
relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Sustainable Uplands
Learning to manage future change
2. 01/30/15 2
relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
01/30/15 2
relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Sustainable Uplands Project
Working with people in uplands to better anticipate,
monitor and respond to future change
– Protecting livelihoods and ecosystem services – a
framework that considers the full benefits society obtains
from nature
– Facilitating knowledge exchange
between local stakeholders, policy-
makers and social/natural scientists
3. 01/30/15 3
relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
• Funding from RELU & ESRC
• Additional funding for 16 projects using findings e.g.
Yorkshire Water, Natural England, DEFRA, Premier
Waste, United Utilities, Scottish Government,
Commission for Rural Communities, Government Office
for Science, IUCN
Sustainable Uplands Project
• Test sites in Peak District,
Yorkshire Dales and
Galloway, but have
developed an approach
that could be rolled out
across the uplands
4. 01/30/15 4
relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
The Sustainable Uplands team:
University of Leeds:
Prof Joe Holden
Dr Klaus Hubacek
Dr Nesha Beharry-Borg
Ms Jan Birch
Ms Sarah Buckmaster
Dr Dan Chapman
Dr Pippa Chapman
Dr Stephen Cornell
Dr Andy Dougill
Dr Evan Fraser
Dr Jenny Hodgson
Dr Nanlin Jin
Dr Brian Irvine
Prof Mike Kirkby
Dr Bill Kunin
Mr Oliver Moore
Dr Claire Quinn
Dr Brad Parrish
Dr Lindsay Stringer
Dr Mette Termansen
University of Durham:
Prof Tim Burt
Dr Fred Worrall
Dr Rob Dunford
University of Sheffield:
Dr Christina Prell
Wirtschafts University, Austria:
Dr Sigrid Stagl
International Institute for Applied
Systems Analysis, Austria:
Jan Sendzimir
Moors for the Future partnership
(Aletta Bonn)
The Heather Trust (Simon Thorp)
University of Aberdeen:
Dr Mark Reed
Prof Steve Redpath
University of St Andrews:
Dr Ioan Fazey
Dr Anna Evely
Macaulay Institute:
Mark Sutter
Mike Rivington
6. 01/30/15 6
relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Current and future pressure
Common Agriculture Policy reformEU Water Framework Directive
Global population growth and
food security
Ongoing climate, cultural, social
and demographic change
7. 01/30/15 7
relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
The uplands of the future
• Most people’s vision for the future is status quo and radical
visions may be unpopular
• Who’s vision do we aim for – what is best for most people?
8. 01/30/15 8
relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
What has the project involved ?
1. Understanding stakeholders priorities &
views on challenges and opportunities .
The research was driven by the wider
community and not by the scientists
2. Working with people to refine priorities
and think about scenarios for the future
9. 01/30/15 9
relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
What has the project involved ?
3. Collate and collect scientific and social
data (e.g. human behaviour, carbon,
water quality , grouse etc)
4. Combine all of the information in models
and see what this might mean for the
future under different scenarios
5. Work with people to better understand
what might happen and how we can
adapt to change and carve out a good
future for the uplands
10. 01/30/15 10
relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Restored to pristine condition:
Complete vegetation, no bare peat, no
gullies, only grazed
Sink = 119 tonnes C/km2
/yr
Current condition:
Bare soil, grazing, gullies and burning
Sink = 24.3 tonnes C/km2
/yr
Example for carbon
in Peak District
National Park
11. 01/30/15 11
relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Red grouse count 2004
0 - 5
6 - 15
16 - 27
28 - 44
45 - 96
Vegetation
heather
bilberry/crowberry
bracken
grasses
sedges
rushes
bare peat
Mean temperature (C)
High : 8.987095
Low : 5.979176
Grouse
Warmer weather under climate change will reduce grouse populations
13. 01/30/15 13
relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Spatial targeting of resources
• There are synergies and trade-offs
• Spatial approach helps us work together for the greater good
to enable mixed management across the landscape while
maximising benefits to society and local communities
• We could more cost-effectively implement management
strategies through spatial targeting
• The upland community need to be
resourced to manage the
landscape for the wider societal
benefits
19. 01/30/15 19
relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
4. Establish a national partnership of upland researchers,
policy makers and practitioners to share knowledge and
develop a shared agenda for future research
20. 01/30/15 20
relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Contact
www.see.leeds.ac.uk/sustainableuplands
Follow us on:
www.twitter.com/reluuplands
New website
Email: sustainableuplands@see.leeds.ac.uk
Call or text on: 0797 428 6778
Editor's Notes
As a hydrologist I can note that the uplands provide 70 % of UK’s drinking water and are also source areas for flooding – there is a question about whether upland management could affect river flow or flooding and I think we are now building a portfolio of emerging science that says that in some circumstances it can and so we need to think about local and national benefits of upland management.
Other “ecosystem services” provided by the hills, although important, may be more difficult to value. These include:
Habitats for wildlife
Cultural heritage
The appearance of the landscape
The ability of uplands to continue providing the ecosystem services that we all need may be under threat:
New pressures, including climate change, may affect the capacity of the hills to respond and adapt
A growing population will need to feed itself under very different climatic conditions and on a shrinking land base, which might require more intensive use of all available land, including the hills, to produce food
However, Britain’s uplands are changing fast. They are under pressure from a range of historic and future pressures:
Historic pollution (e.g. nitrogen, sulfur and heavy metal deposition, with effects on ecological communities and water)
Current land use (only 14% UK moorland in “favourable condition” according to EN, primarily due to overgrazing and inappropriate burning)
Burning regulation (EN lobbied DEFRA to review its Heather & Grass burning code. This is now underway – three of the most contentious proposals are to 1. shorten the burning season; 2. leave 10% moorland unburned; and 3. ban burning on blanket bog)
CAP (little is known about the effect that decoupling subsidies from production will have on upland farming)
WFD implementation (uplands will a major focus for Programmes of Measures)
Kyoto (most uplands are grazed extensively and therefore management that enhances carbon storage can be used to meet Kyoto emission reduction targets under Article 3.4)
Cultural, demographic and climate change (hunting has recently been banned in the UK and many think grouse shooting will be next, ageing rural population and shrinking rural labour pool, all under the influence of ongoing climate change)
This is the purpose of the project – to help people better anticipate and adapt to change – and to work together to find common solutions where that is possible that secure the best prospects locally and for society as a whole.
To note that there were a large range of scenarios of future change considered
We also have to recognise that if we are to pursue sustainable peatland management, we are going to come face to face with a whole raft of challenges – peatlands are changing rapidly as we speak, in response to whole range of biophysical, socio-economic, market and policy drivers:
We need to understand what these drivers of change mean for peatlands, and
how we can respond most appropriately to sustain priority ecosystem services in such a rapidly changing world?
We have heard many of these challenges already at this conference, so I won’t reherse them again now
But what is the current policy response, and how might we build on this, to do a better job of protecting our peatlands in future?
We think that the efficiency with which agricultural payments deliver ecosystem services could be enhanced by linking the two more effectively in a spatially targeted scheme that incentivises cross-boundary collaboration for the provision of certain services
We have suggested a framework for how such a scheme could work in practice, which we think could be piloted in a peatland National Park.
Private financing of peatland restoration for carbon and other benefits by companies who wish to become carbon neutral, but are unable to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions at source, could supplement the cost of existing agri-environmental schemes (by at least 20%)
However to facilitate this, significant policy changes would be necessary at an international and national level to generate tradeable credits for voluntary or compliance carbon markets
We think that a range of options should be pursued to restore peatlands damaged by inappropriate management (such as drainage), based on the latest available research
This may include:
ensuring land managers have access to and capacity to use the latest restoration techniques;
exchanging knowledge about new techniques and the relative performance of existing techniques;
continuing to finance peatland restoration through existing schemes; and
facilitating private funding of peatland restoration for carbon and other benefits
There have been calls for an integrated, national strategy for peatlands that can co-ordinate policy development and delivery across Government
A national research, policy and practice network or partnership could help exchange knowledge and create a shared agenda for understanding and sustaining peatland ecosystems, human communities and the ecosystem services they provide under current and future land use and climate
Effective communication to the public about the importance of peat habitats could also raise public awareness of these vital habitats, and help to achieve more sustainable management through altered consumption patterns (in particular peat products)