WILL WE BLIND OURSELVES TO ECOLOGICAL CHANGE TODAY?

8 March 2006

Whether or not we destroy our ability to see and understand the pressures affecting the future of our wildlife will be decided later today (Wednesday) at a meeting of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) [1].

The NERC governing body will be considering a plan which would make savage cuts to UK scientific teams and field centres which keep a vigilant watch on how our wild animals and plants are coping with pollution, disturbance and climate change.

‘Let no-one be in any doubt: making these cuts would be tantamount to blinding ourselves to ecological change,’ said Tom Oliver, Head of Rural Policy at the Campaign to Protect Rural England [2].

‘The Government Minister responsible for NERC says he wishes to keep up the funding of research at current levels and maintain its quality and relevance[3]. And quite right too.

‘The names of these threatened field centres are a roll-call of scientific excellence, renowned across the world for the quality of their ecological understanding. The only responsible action is to abandon the reckless and ill-informed surgery to the teams and laboratories at Monks Wood, Winfrith, Oxford and Banchory [4],’ Tom Oliver continued.

‘We will be scrutinising the decision-making process of NERC very carefully. The key question is: “Do the NERC governing body understand that this sort of long-term research cannot be taken on by universities and that it will just be lost if they stick to their ill-conceived plan?” We urge them to see sense and act responsibly at this late hour,’ Tom Oliver concluded.

– END –

NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. The governing body of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), which reports to the DTI, has approved a plan for the future of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH). The plan involves a significant reduction in the core funding for the CEH, which, in the opinion of the NERC governing body, requires the closure of half of the CEH research sites and its existing headquarters, and the reduction of its total staff from 600 to 400.

2. CPRE, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, is a charity which promotes the beauty, tranquillity and diversity of rural England. We advocate positive solutions for the long-term future of the countryside. Founded in 1926, we have 60,000 supporters and a branch in every county. President: Sir Max Hastings. Patron: Her Majesty The Queen.

3. The Under Secretary of State for Science and Innovation, Lord Sainsbury stated in a letter to the Times on 6 March: ‘The Government is fully committed to maintaining the quality of environmental science in the UK…NERC’s proposals regarding CEH reflect neither a reduction in the NERC’s overall funding for environmental science, nor a reduction in the quality of the science it funds. On the contrary, they reflect the NERC’s determination to maintain the quality of its science and its relevance to policy-making…’. CPRE considers that neither the Government commitment to environmental science nor NERC’s determination to maintain the quality and relevance of that science is possible should the proposed cuts be made. It is also notable that the Minister does not refer to ecological science, but merely to environmental science in his letter.

4. The English centres threatened with closure are: Monks Wood, Cambridgeshire; Winfrith, Dorset; Oxford; Swindon, Wiltshire (Headquarters) as well as Banchory in Scotland. The retained sites would be: Edinburgh, Lancaster, Bangor and Wallingford, Oxfordshire (the new Headquarters).

---

Press releases, papers and documents published on this page are the intellectual property of an organisation unrelated to Central Lobby. We promote their parliamentary and political campaigning activities as they are subscribers to the Central Lobby service.

As such, Central Lobby does not edit, endorse, or attempt to balance the opinions expressed on this page. The content of press releases and other such types of content are the responsibility of the originating organisation.