The Government’s new Environmental Improvement Plan sets out a clear and welcome direction for environmental policy. Its commitments to cleaner air, healthier river catchments, thriving wildlife and legally-binding long-term targets reflects a growing recognition that the condition of the natural environment is central to the country’s economic and social wellbeing. The […]

DAERA has published its first Peatland Strategy, a 15-year plan to conserve and restore some of Northern Ireland’s most threatened landscapes.Launched by Andrew Muir, the Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Minister, the strategy has been endorsed by the Stormont Executive and will run until 2040. It is designed to tackle the […]

The government has introduced a significant extension of its ban on the burning of heather on deep peat, in a move hailed as a landmark step for conservation and climate action. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) confirmed that the restrictions will now cover 676,628 hectares of upland […]

England is running dry. Not in a vague, distant-future sort of way, but now – this year, this summer. The Government has this week warned of a “nationally significant” water shortfall. Experts have warned it could last until mid-autumn, possibly longer. Water companies are reaching for the familiar levers: hosepipe bans, […]

England’s fragile peatlands are to be afforded stronger protections under new government plans, which will extend the existing partial ban on heather burning across vast swathes of the uplands. In a move hailed as a major step forward for conservation, the area of peatland where burning is prohibited will be increased […]