Region’s natural beauties bring big benefits

An in-depth analysis of the Yorkshire countryside by regional research body Yorkshire Futures has catalogued the vast array of “hidden” benefits the region enjoys from its natural environment, such as crucial flood protection offered by woodland and salt marshes, and the carbon capture role played by peat bogs.

But the study warns this environment is being “taken for granted” and is now “in decline” because decisions are consistently taken which fail to recognise the multiple benefits society gains from the wider countryside.

A state of the region study by Natural England in 2009 concluded the country’s natural environment was “much less rich than 50 years ago” and the new report by Yorkshire Futures makes clear the reasons why.

“Policy and decisions about the natural environment are often made in a way that fails to recognise the multiple benefits that society gets for free from nature,” it states. “But we do have the knowledge and experience to make nature work for us.”

On Saturday the Yorkshire Post launched its third annual environment awards, aiming to recognise businesses, groups and individuals across the region for their important and often pioneering environmental work. Entrants have until April 1 to submit applications ahead of the awards ceremony on May 19.

The Yorkshire Futures study makes a compelling economic case for investing in environmental improvements around Yorkshire, detailing the financial benefits of many aspects of both the countryside and urban green spaces such as parks and gardens.

It gives the example of a section of lowland beside the Humber which was converted back into natural saltmarsh in 2006, stating: “The land serves as storage capacity during extreme storm surges. It is calculated that there is an annual flood protection benefit of over £400,000.”

The study gives numerous other examples of economic benefits Yorkshire and the wider country derives from its natural environment.

“Because nature’s products are less visible to us, we are often unaware of the benefits that we are getting ‘for free’,” it says. “Bees support food production in the UK to the value of £1bn per year through pollination, but we don’t pay directly for this service.

“Our humble peat bogs store almost 300 million tonnes of carbon, the equivalent of two years total UK carbon emissions. They are also a place for rare species and habitats to thrive and for people to enjoy nature, and a huge water storage and purification system for many of the region’s major cities.”

The study is set to the backdrop of recently-announced savage cuts to the environmental sector by the coalition Government.

Plans to sell off the Forestry Commission and much of Britain’s publicly owned woodland were abandoned last week after a vociferous public outcry, but both Natural England and the Environment Agency have had their budgets slashed by 21 per cent over the next four years.

Campaign to Protect Rural England North Yorkshire chairman David Clarke backed the report’s warnings, saying the countryside should be looked at as a whole rather than on an individual basis.

“Planning permission for quarrying, for example, is generally done on an ad hoc basis. The consideration is always ‘Is this particular site suitable for quarrying?’

“The result is that since the last war there have been 45 quarrying planning applications granted in the Vale of Mowbray and we have a sort of pock-marked landscape. This means that we have many so-called nature reserves which are too small to be effective.”