Nature's capital - National Trust report on land management, climate change and flooding

A new National Trust report highlights the importance of land management in addressing climate change and flooding.

A new report published by the National Trust today – Nature's Capital – urges the public and private sector to invest new money in helping to deliver major public benefits from land, including reduced risk of flooding and tackling climate change.

Recommendations in the report are based on the Trust’s own practical experience as the largest non-governmental landowner in the UK, managing over 250,000 hectares.
Investment now will save public money later in tackling the problems of climate change, flooding, water pollution and poor health.

The report contains four key recommendations for action:

The water industry should invest in land management to improve the quality of drinking water at source.Nearly two billion pounds has been spent in the last five years on an energy intensive treatment process to make drinking water quality acceptable for consumers. This needs to change and there is a need to tackle the problem at source. A partnership of public, private and voluntary organisations has been working together in the Peak District to tackle the causes of peat degradation which impacts upon water quality. The project will ultimately reduce the need for expensive water treatment.

More of the Government’s £800m flood risk budget should be spent on managing land in a way that makes space for water rather than just spending the money on hard engineering and flood defence.This change of policy would then help to reduce the risk of floods downstream and take into account the impact of climate change and the affects of extreme weather as seen in Gloucestershire and Yorkshire in the summer of 2007. A joint project between the National Trust, Environment Agency and University of Durham at Upper Wharfedale in Yorkshire is seeking to create space for water and tackle the problem of flash flooding via wetland creation and soft engineering.

Extend the use of carbon markets to provide financial incentives for investment in land based carbon, such as peat bogs, to reduce losses of carbon from soil.Over 10 billion tonnes of carbon is estimated to be stored in UK soil – equivalent to around a year and a half of global greenhouse gas emissions - and the peatlands are the single largest store of carbon in the UK. A carbon audit at the National Trust’s Wallington Estate in Northumberland is assessing the amount of carbon stored in its soil and biomass and how much is emitted through day to day operations. An essential part of this project will be to restore and conserve the carbon banks.

There is a need for more NHS and Primary Care Trust funding to be allocated for green exercise prescriptions in the outdoors.This would help get more people out into their local green spaces to tackle obesity and improve their health and well-being. At the National Trust’s Clumber Park in Nottinghamshire the local council and health authorities have been prescribing healthy walking to help tackle the obesity problems in the East Midlands.

Tony Burton, Director of Policy and Strategy at the National Trust, said:
'With a changing climate and rising demands for new built development, the pressure on land is increasing. We need to harness new sources of investment and new partnerships to realise the potential of our land to help tackle flooding, climate change and the supply of clean water and green spaces for the benefit of us all.'