CCRI is the largest specialist rural research centre in the UK, having expertise in all aspects of research in policy and planning for the countryside and the environment of the UK, Europe and further afield.
The United Nations has designated the first Monday in October as ‘World Habitat Day’. First celebrated in 1986, John Powell considers the day and how it relates to a project that the CCRI has been involved with – that of ‘Foresters Forest’ in the nearby Forest of Dean.
Later this week, the European Network of Soil Awareness will hold its sixth meeting in The Netherlands. CCRI’s Jane Mills has been invited as an expert to the event.
CCRI researcher Julie Ingram was joined by PhD Kamilla Skaalsveen last week at the Wageningen Soil Conference in the Netherlands.
The SURE-Farm team have issued a new policy brief on farm demographics and impacts on farm structure, which has been in part based upon work conducted by a CCRI case study focussed on arable farming in the East of England.
Over the summer period, two papers have been published that have had involvement from a number of CCRI researchers. Dan Keech is co-author on a paper that will be available next year, whilst Damian Maye, Julie Urquhart and Mauro Vigani contributed to a paper associated with the SURE-Farm project.
Since April 2019, a team from CCRI have been working with colleagues from the University of Newcastle on a Defra commissioned project about how commercial fishers and sea anglers engage with marine management and science in England. Project leader, Matt Reed has provided an update on this project which has had extensive public involvement.
Julie Ingram and Hannah Chiswell are currently in Sicily presenting findings from the AgriDemo F2F project at the 24th European seminar on extension (and) education.
Chris Short and John Powell from CCRI visited the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks last week for a study tour and workshop to explore similarities and differences in upland commons governance and practice between the two countries as part of the ‘FUTGRAZE’ project. John has written a short blog about the trip.
Defra is funding this project to improve our understanding of the ability of current Agri-environment schemes (AES) to respond to climate change. Climate change and the associated changes in weather are impacting upon agriculture and forestry. We know that bud burst and bird nesting are now two or three weeks earlier than they were 20 or 30 years ago due to overall warming. But as well as gradual change in mean temperatures, the Met Office is recording more extreme weather events (i.e. heatwaves, cold spells, drought, flooding, storms) which impacts natural and managed environments. AES provide support for farmers and
Julie Ingram and Hannah Chiswell will be helping to present the findings of the Agridemo project at the final project conference this week in Brussels.