Fears for England riverbank habitats amid relaxed post-Brexit rules | Wildlife

Huge stretches of precious habitats by the river for campagnols and other wild animals in England are lost because they are not covered by post-Brexit rules of agriculture, warn the activists.

A new analysis by the fife trusts The square km of the River Habitat in England may have been lost since the United Kingdom left the EU in 2020.

Under the current agricultural policy (CAP), which subsidized agriculture when the United Kingdom was in the block, the farmers had to keep a 2-meter stamp between their fields and the rivers. But with the exit of the United Kingdom from the ceiling, farmers can try to increase their income by plowing the edge of their field – an area which, at present, is not profitable for them.

In addition to being an essential habitat for fauna, the banks of navigable lanes are home to plants that filter water pollution.

The Guardian recently revealed that the United Kingdom is using Brexit to weaken crucial environmental protections and delay in the EU, despite the commitment of the Labor Manifesto not to dilute standards.

The Wildlife Trusts now calls on the government to set goals for banking regimes to help clean the United Kingdom rivers. In a submission to ministers, they said: “The post-Brexit end of cross-requirements for farmers to maintain a 2M buffer alongside the sailors mean that this problem has probably aggravated in recent years.

“The rivers exposed, lacking in overhanging plants, not to mention the trees, heat the summer sun, sometimes reaching deadly temperatures for fish and aquatic insects. The runoff of roads contaminated by urban chemicals also flows directly into rivers.

Banks and wetlands have been deteriorating for some time. In the Swale river in Yorkshire, The Wildlife Trusts noted that more than half of the historic habitat of wetlands, which includes the river and the weetly wet earth that surrounds it, had been lost in the mid-swale region since the beginning of the 19th century, and a large part of what remained was very fragmented. This caused plants, including the peat bog, the white beak, the Rannoch-Rush and the Oblong leaves to become locally extinguished.

Devon Wildlife Trust restores a huge section of Riverbank in the Halsdon nature reserve, where hundreds of tonnes of soil were lost due to erosion. This is due to the upstream factors, including the intensification of agriculture as well as the construction of houses.

The sorting of the change in post-Brexit law could form an essential element of a rescue plan, according to activists.

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs said that the government was planning to finance farmers to restore the banks, adding: “The ministers envisage how the reformed SFI program can be better spent to clean our waterways, including buffer bands.”

Ali Morse, responsible for water policy at Wildlife Trusts, said: “Rivers are polluted by a cocktail of chemicals, old and new nutrients, and excessive nutrients in agriculture and wastewater. Record spring flows and summer drought have concentrated pollution levels further, leaving the sub-tuile fauna and, as a company, we go more damage by taking too much water in our own use. recovery.

“Wilder’s banks would help prevent pollution from embarking on the navigable tracks and also restore the natural habitats necessary to help prosper fauna along the rivers. People could enjoy a picnic by the river under the trees and see the flash of a Markais or the splash of a water manifestation. ”