I attend many of the meetings of the Suffolk Fanning and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) Council meetings - usually held at the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food (MAFF) Headquarters in Bury. I represent you, mainly because I happen to live nearby and once worked as an agricultural scientist. The Council has representatives from a wide range of organisations concerned with the countryside in addition to farmers, e.g. the Suffolk Wildlife Trust, the Suffolk Preservation Society, English Nature and many more. So many in fact that I cannot always keep up with the initials of the organisations being used. I get overwhelmed by acronyms!
The meetings can be useful and interesting. Members have a wide range of interests, often conflicting ones, e.g. over public access to farmland, preservation or destruction of deer and so on, and the meetings can provide a valuable exchange of views. Not all meetings of the Council are worth reporting to SNS members, who are unlikely to be interested in farm grants, "set aside" and the like, but the last meeting I attended included a talk by Dr Anne Brenchley of English Nature, who had been on the SNS Council.
Anne talked about the Suffolk Biodiversity Action Plan. 'Biodiversity' is probably jargon, and the 'in word', but Anne explained that it simply means the variability of life and that following a global conference in Rio in 1992 it is now recognised at government level that we have a responsibility to preserve endangered species, not only for moral and aesthetic reasons but for reasons of our health, food and economy. For example, wetlands are natural water filters, rare plants may provide cures for human diseases, and landscapes of natural beauty encourage tourism (not always a good thing perhaps).
Some SNS members are already involved in the work and know much more about it than I do, but 'action plans' have been prepared, costed and agreed between all the organisations concerned for 39 key habitats and about 400 key species. No extra money is being provided by the Government and the aim is to make the best use of the money and expertise available.
FWAG members were immediately interested in the choice of species to receive special attention and it was agreed that education of the public was an important factor. For example, should we conserve (or rather preserve) rabbits and deer or reduce their number? Some members considered that the brown hare was still abundant, which suggests that its distribution is patchy. Someone asked why the Great Raft Spider is not on the list, and it was explained that it already is receiving attention. Undoubtedly the list shows patterns of interest as much as anything else. A day-flying moth is on the list simply because most work on moths is done at night with light traps. Perhaps most moth hunters sleep by day?
With an initiative of this type there is the danger that a huge amount of paper is circulated and little practical work done, but Anne is optimistic and progress is steady. This is long term work and it is vital that we get it right. FWAG Council much appreciated Anne's talk.