Abbotts Hall Farm

Transcription

Creating new salt marsh identifies our third theme, the idea of response. Response isn't simply the ways in which humans respond to environmental changes, it's also the way in which environments respond to change. So as sea level rises, new salt marsh can be created further inland, either as a natural process or by the deliberate breaching of sea walls. But, either way, this intensifies the conflict between conservation and farming. The main disadvantage of recreating new salt marsh here at Abbotts Hall is that in the long term we're going to be losing agricultural land. The scheme here is planned to recreate around about 50 hectares of intertidal habitat. Once the breaches take place and sea water comes in, we'll no longer be able to grow crops on that land. Now this is particularly relevant because if this scheme is to be taken up by landowners more widely, then I think the problem of compensation and the way in which farmers are going to receive compensation for this kind of scheme needs to be addressed. I'd say that, certainly, birds have got a reasonable level of protection but I don't think it's more than they deserve. There are problems along the coast with supporting the agricultural system and, certainly, if we're expecting farmers to give their land up to the sea, then they need to be sufficiently compensated. There isn't a package in place at the moment that provides sufficient money to get the levels of salt marsh we need. The idea of managed retreat has certainly been contested by those with most to lose, notably the farmers. I think you've got to take an individual approach. In the short term, the key thing is how good is the structure? There is no point in removing a sea wall that doesn't need much repair. The key thing is the amount of money that's needed to repair a wall. In several areas walls have been breached because it simply isn't cost-effective to keep them going. The second key thing is that the sea wall is privately owned and it's really quite difficult to knock on somebody's door and say, "Excuse me. We've come to knock a hole in your sea wall." The landowner's quite capable of saying, "Well, thank you very much. " It's my sea wall. I'm quite happy with where it is." Somehow or other, a more balance approach has got to be found. The people who make these wonderful plans about "let's flood the whole of the coast of southeast England" are people who thought it up in an office and have actually no hands-on ability to manage land in all weathers, in all years for 50 years in a row. So managed retreat is bound to have an economic as well as environmental impacts. A further problem is that it's by no means certain what those impacts will be. As a result, managed retreat has become controversial. Oyster fisherman, Alan Bird, spells out the uncertainties. The problem of managed retreat is that they're experimenting with nature in a large way. They've really got no idea how it's going to go. They've done other projects and some of these other projects haven't gone as expected. This creek has remained unchanged for the whole of my working life. Nature has fashioned it like this over many hundreds of years. The sort of projects that they're talking about doing in managed retreat is knocking down sea walls and letting the sea water in behind the sea wall. It's going to have a big effect on sedimentation in the creek, big effect on tidal flows in the creek and it's bound to change some of the characteristics of the creek. Clearly, responses to environmental change will affect different interests in different and sometimes unpredictable ways. Nicky Spurr. There might be some people who would say that they had problems with some of the elements of change and, yes, if we're looking at managed retreat as a way forward, there are certainly some people who don't agree with that approach. Therefore, if that actually affects their land, there could be people that lose out but, again, it's important, I think, that we're working with people to try and find a way where their views and their concerns can be taken into account. For instance, some of the oystermen have been involved in local managed retreat consultations. So, in fact, you're involving them and their concerns and you'll take those onboard as we move forward.