‘NEW REVOLT IN HEARTLANDS’
A giant rewilding plan has left hundreds of farmers fearful for their futures anaghast at apparent interference by environmentalists
Why upland farmers are concerned over ambitious ‘rewilding’ scheme:
AREWILDING scheme “on a scale never before seen in Britain” is causing farming unrest on a scale rarely seen in rural Wales.
Arrayed on one side are back-tobasics environmentalists with big dreams of replenishing nature and restoring long-lost species.
On the other are farmers who suspect rewilding is a form of “eco-colonialism” being forced on rural Wales by an “English elite” that will price out locals and erode landscapes, culture and communities. Claims that eco-tourism will fill a post-Brexit agricultural void have angered many of the 250 farmers in the Summit to Sea (O’r Mynydd i’r Môr) project area.
Within five years, the project aims to have vast swathes of land in north Ceredigion and Montgomeryshire – stretching from Pumlumon to the Dyfi estuary – committed to ecological restoration. It will also reach out into Cardigan Bay to encompass a 28,400ha marine zone.
Core rewilding principles are likely to focus on charity-run farmland and nature reserves, with “buffer zone” farmers asked to consider softer conservation measures.
“To be clear,” said project director Melanie Newton, “there is no desire, intention or mechanism to push anyone off the land or to do anything that they don’t want to do and don’t consider to be in their own interests. It’s about supporting the community to grow and be resilient in these uncertain times.”
Such reassurances have cut little ice with farmers in the project area, bounded roughly by the A487 and A470 to the north, B5418 east and A44 south.
Distrust is being fuelled by a vacuum of information, according to Tegid Jones, who farms at Y Bwthyn, Glan- merin, south of Machynlleth. He said there was much concern about an England-conceived scheme that’s being transplanted to Wales without being tested in its own backyard.
“All my friends say the same – who are these people and what do they want?” he said. “Are they going to come here and introduce changes without our consent? It feels like we are being lectured to by a group of English incomers and academics who are unaware of the potential impact on the Welsh language and culture.
“If a stranger came into their gardens, and started telling them to rip up flowerbeds and make other changes, I’m sure they wouldn’t like it either.”
Summit to Sea (StS) is run by the Rewilding Britain charity, conceived after the publication of George Monbiot’s influential 2013 book, Feral. Appointed chief executive was his partner Rebecca Wrigley.
Rewilding Britain is driven by Mr Monbiot’s “sheepwreck” description of the Welsh uplands and an ideology which advocates the replacement of farming with a “wilded” environment.
Partner organisations include Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust, RSPB Cymru and the Wales Wild Land Foundation. The latter is the most recent player in the region, having taken a 125- year lease from the Woodland Trust to run Bwlch Corog to run its Cambrian Wildwood initiative.
Natural Resources Wales is another StS partner, prompting concerns that commercial forestry at Hafren forest will be subsumed by the wilding agenda.
Clouding the issue has been a dearth of information at a time when Brexit hangs Damoclean-like over the heads of hill farmers who may soon be fighting for their very existences.
“It is a spanner in the works when everyone is trying to find a way forward in a time of great uncertainty,” said Dafydd Morris-Jones, whose family became farm tenants at Myherin in 1885 and bought the land in 1942.
Nearby Hafren forest provides an apposite lesson in the destructive potential of land management changes: when, in 1937, sitka spruce plantations were imposed on the area by the Forestry Commission, 12 farmsteads were lost along with an entire valley’s cultural heritage. The ruins of two are still visible, the rest lost beneath the trees.
Dafydd sees the StS project as postRomantic ideology that lacks scientific foundations. He worries that interest from large conservation organisations and agri-businesses will drive up land prices at a time of falling economic output, pushing farmers off the land and depleting the industry’s critical mass, with implications for local food chains, from livestock markets to abattoirs.
This shift in ownership and management may also pose new challenges for biodiversity and yield unintended consequences in an area that currently has one of the highest adoption rates for agri-environment schemes.
Such concerns were first aired by the FUW, which fears the StS project is the first step towards the outside appropriation of Welsh land in order to “rid the area of farming and create a playground for English and urban visitors”.
Neither is the union convinced of the environmental benefits, citing a 2014 meta review of 276 studies of farmland abandonment by Swedish scientists: this found that most areas did not see an increase in biodiversity.
Welsh hill farmers, with generations of accumulated expertise, expect something similar to happen in Mid Wales.
“But hearing such voices is very difficult when you have a set view of the world, live in another country and speak a different language,” said FUW president Glyn Roberts.
Hill farming in Wales may not be as ancient as in Britain’s lowlands but it still goes back millennia. By labelling ancestral lands as wilderness, the process threatens to airbrush out genera- tions of endeavour. Not for nothing has the spectre of the Highland Clearances been raised by the local community: rather than English aristocracy, enemy is now quangos and well-to- environmentalists.
Bangor organic farmer Owen Pritchard accused this “wealthy elite” compromising a sector that is the bedrock of Welsh culture and language.
He fears huge chunks of a weakened
farming industry could be sold off in the wake of Brexit.
Neither is StS likely to be an isolated project, but rather the thin edge of a wedge that may see other parts of upland Wales rewilded, he believes. For the time being, and in the absence information, many farmers are keeping their powder dry. With the spectre of no-deal Brexit looming large, no opportunity, however scant, is ruled out.
Tourism is the economic carrot. By protecting 14 at-risk species, StS hopes to provide diversification opportunities ranging from guided walks to mountain biking and even triathlons.
The idea of eco-tourism being farming’s economic saviour has been met with derision. Farm-based holiday lets already abound and, in any case, rewilding principles – to denude areas of people – do not sit easily with the prospect of camera-wielding tourist hoards trampling across newly pristine wilderness.
“Tourism already plays an important role in Ceredigion, as a secondary industry to farming,” said Dafydd.
“Each year 100,000 tourists arrive in Devil’s Bridge by steam train. But it is seasonal and hugely weather dependent, and any benefits from the StS project are likely to be peripheral.”
On-the-ground habitat may include restoring peat bogs, adjusting grazing patterns and restoring ancient woodlands. Others include ditch blocking, to re-wet upland areas, and, more controversially, tearing down fences to encourage open grazing: an invitation to spread sheep scab, say critics. There may also be implications for TB control.
Ironically, hardline rewilders believe STS is little more than traditional landscape conservation. Far better, say detractors, to let farmers wilt under Brexit then buy up land as prices fall.
Tegid Jones has no intention of letting this happen. His farm lies close to Hyddgen where, in June 1401, Owain Glyndŵr won his first victory over the English. As he contemplates the aims of the StS project, there are stirrings of a new rebellion.
“I farm responsibly – the RSPB has found high bird biodiversity on my land – and at the start I was interested to find out if there could be benefits for local wildlife,” he said. “I remember red squirrels being commonplace in the area and I would be happy to get involved in small-scale projects that increase their numbers again.
“But when, two years ago, I went to the initial project meeting – I was one of three farmers out of 40 – there was suddenly talk of introducing bears, lynx and wolves. I realised they were just a bunch of clowns talking rubbish. Everyone I’ve spoken to has been vocal in their opposition.”
Clearly, Summit to Sea has work to do to win over farmers. In reality the scheme may differ little from the Welsh Government’s own post-Brexit greening agenda, and for PHOTO: ALISDAIR
MACDONALD some there may be ■ StS was inspired by opportunities in developGeorge Monbiot’s book ing value-added meat sales under the “world class” StS branding.
Melanie said engagement meetings will be held over the next 12 months.
“The priority for me is to help people local to the area to play an integral part in shaping what happens,” she said.
“That’s why the first phase of the project is focused on listening to concerns and ensuring that everyone in the local community who wants to be involved, can be.”