#621: Wildlife Crime

Wildlife crime is an important issue.

Wildlife crime is any activity that goes against legislation protecting the UK's wild animals and plants. It can cause pain and suffering to animals, push species closer to extinction and can be linked to other serious crimes like firearms offences and organised crime.

Examples include:

• Hare coursing
• Using dogs to hunt wild mammals
• Poisoning of animals, such as birds of prey
• Disturbing or killing wild birds; or taking their eggs
• Poaching of game, venison and fish
• Disturbing, injuring or killing bats, and damaging or obstructing their roosts
• Smuggling protected species and their parts (such as tortoises, rhino horn, ivory and caviar)
• Illegally trading in endangered species
• Taking protected plants from the countryside.

Country Watch Dorset is one of the organisations that is aiming to protect local wildlife from persecution and negative impacts.

#552: The John Clare Countryside Project

This was on the local news magazine programme tonight.

John Clare was a poet who was influenced by nature and the outside world.

The artist in residence Kathryn Parsons was interviewed.

The project is expanding.

An excellent booklet which provides details of the project

Download the booklet here (PDF download)

You can also download a set of Education resources.

The 2015 film By Our Selves (Andrew Kötting), featuring Toby Jones, traced Clare’s walk. Other fans of Clare’s work include Patrick Stewart and Damon Albarn.

#396: Living England 2022-3 Habitat Map

The new Living England 2022-23 habitat map is now live! Download freely from https://t.co/rR1gT2IaPl (coming soon on Magic). It’s more reliable & user-friendly than ever - providing essential habitat data for natural capital monitoring across England. pic.twitter.com/5PmDIHjeli

— NE Chief Scientist (@NEChiefSci) November 12, 2024

Visit the link, and see the details in the technical report.

 

#254: BASC: the British Association for Shooting and Conservation

When considering a specification on Natural History, an organisation which has the word "shooting" in its name may not seem like the obvious match. A friend worked for BASC many years ago, and explained how this might not seem such a problematic connection.

BASC: the British Association for Shooting and Conservation has a website which outlines their work.

BASC's Curtis Mossop explores the need for a GCSE in Natural History. BASC has been a supporter of the new qualification.

Part of this would be to have a space in the curriculum for considering the need for shooting.

As BASC says:

When you consider that shooting is involved in the management of two-thirds of the rural land area in the UK, we believe that land management activities need to be considered, and ultimately included, in the development of this new qualification.

BASC’s response to this consultation focused on fair representation of shooting and its associated land management practices. We encourage students to think holistically but also challenge their own moral compass: “Is killing one species to save another okay?”.

We know this to be sound and scientifically proven. We have seen examples of this in nature like the curlew coming back from the brink of extinction. But would a teenager who has never visited the countryside understand this concept?

It will be interesting to see whether the final document offers opportunity for a nuanced look at alternative methods of countryside management.

#240: Passport to Natural History

Have you ever looked inside your passport (assuming you have a British one...)?

Thankfully for the next few years at least mine is burgundy and mentions the European Union. 

The passport contains a number of pages with designs which include features of the United Kingdom. My old passport was a special design.

This was introduced in 2010. (PDF download)

The design theme was called ‘Scenic United Kingdom’ and includes images of well-known landscape scenes, including the White Cliffs of Dover, the Gower Peninsula, Ben Nevis and the Giant’s Causeway. 

There are also weather symbols on the pages, familiar from the weather forecast on the BBC.

In 2015, this was changed to a design which included British engineers and inventors who had given the world something important. They are listed in the document here. This is the one I have at the moment.

The more recent passport design is outlined here.

This Dezeen page also outlines some of the security features of the new passport, which appear under UV light.

It shows some of the designs of other country's passports, many of which also include landscapes. I love the Norwegian passport design.